european sorrow

[Kumpe]

Does this relate to Pynchon? Does Eno relate  to the  P-list? I don't know,
I like BE and want to share.
best, Christian.

 Send this to all that you know!!

The U.S. Needs to Open Up to the World

 To this European, America is trapped in a fortress of arrogance and
 ignorance

	 BY BRIAN ENO

 Europeans have always looked at America with a mixture of
 fascination and
 puzzlement, and now, increasingly, disbelief. How is it that a
 country that
 prides itself on its economic success could have so many very poor
 people?
 How is it that a country so insistent on the rule of law should
 seek to
 exempt itself from international agreements? And how is it that the
 world's
beacon of democracy can have elections dominated by wealthy special
interest
 groups? For me, the question has become: "How can a country that
has
produced so much cultural and economic wealth act so dumb?"

 I could fill this page with the names of Americans who have
 influenced,
 entertained and educated me. They represent what I admire about
 America: a
 vigorous originality of thought, and a confidence that things can
 be changed
 for the better. That was the America I lived in and enjoyed from
 1978 until 1983. That America was an act of faith < the faith that "otherness"
was not
threatening but nourishing, the faith that there could be a country big
enough in spirit to welcome and nurture all the diversity the world
 could
 throw at it. But since Sept. 11, that vision has been eclipsed by a
 suspicious, introverted America, a country-sized version of that
 peculiarly
 American form of ghetto: the gated community. A gated community is
 defensive. Designed to keep the "others" out, it dissolves the rich
 web of
society into a random clustering of disconnected individuals. It
 turns
 paranoia and isolation into a lifestyle.
 Surely this isn't the America that anyone dreamed of; it's a last
 resort,nobody's choice. It's especially ironic since so much of the best
 new thinking about society, economics, politics and philosophy in the
last century came from America. Unhampered by the snobbery and
 exclusivity of
 much European thought, American thinkers vaulted forward <
 courageous,
 innovative and determined to talk in a public language. But,
unfortunately,
 over the same period, the mass media vaulted backward, thriving on
 increasingly simple stories and trivializing news into something
 indistinguishable from entertainment. As a result, a wealth of
original and
subtle thought < America's real wealth < is squandered.
 This narrowing of the American mind is exacerbated by the
 withdrawal of the left from active politics. Virtually ignored by the
media, the left
 has further marginalized itself by a retreat into introspective
cultural criticism. It seems content to do yoga and gender studies, leaving
 the fundamentalist Christian right and the multinationals to do the
 politics.
 The separation of church and state seems to be breaking down too.
Political  discourse is now dominated by moralizing, like George W. Bush's
promotion of American "family values" abroad, and dissent is unpatriotic.
 "You're either with us or against us" is the kind of cant you'd expect
from a zealous
 mullah, not an American President.
When Europeans make such criticisms, Americans assume we're
envious. "They want what we've got," the thinking goes, "and if they can't get
it,> they're going to stop us from having it." But does everyone want what
 America has?
 Well, we like some of it but could do without the rest: among the
 highest
rates of violent crime, economic inequality, functional illiteracy,
 incarceration and drug use in the developed world. President Bush
 recently
 declared that the U.S. was "the single surviving model of human
 progress."
Maybe some Americans think this self-evident, but the rest of us
see it as a
clumsy arrogance born of ignorance.
Europeans tend to regard free national health services,
unemployment
 benefits, social housing and so on as pretty good models of human
progress.
 We think it's important < civilized, in fact < to help people who
 fall through society's cracks. This isn't just altruism, but an
 understanding
 that having too many losers in society hurts everyone. It's better
 for
everybody to have a stake in society than to have a resentful
 underclass
 bent on wrecking things. To many Americans, this sounds like
 socialism, big
government, the nanny state. But so what? The result is: Europe has
 less gun
 crime and homicide, less poverty and arguably a higher quality of
 life than
 the U.S., which makes a lot of us wonder why America doesn't want
 some of
 what we've got.

 Too often, the U.S. presents the "American way" as the only way,
 insisting  on its kind of free-market Darwinism as the only acceptable "model
 of human
 progress." But isn't civilization what happens when people stop
 behaving as
 if they're trapped in a ruthless Darwinian struggle and start
 thinking about
 communities and shared futures? America as a gated community won't
 work,
because not even the world's sole superpower can build walls high
 enough to
 shield itself from the intertwined realities of the 21st century.
 There's a
 better form of security: reconnect with the rest of the world,
 don't shut it
 out; stop making enemies and start making friends. Perhaps it's
 asking a lot
 to expect America to act differently from all the other empires in
 history,
 but wasn't that the original idea?
>