Fourth Finds Times in Melancholy Mood: America Falls Short in World's View

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I was confident the New York Times would find a way to pour cold water on the Fourth of July. Still, turning to it this morning, I was curious to see just what kind of wet [with that cold water]blanket the Times would throw on our national holiday. And the Grey Lady didn't disappoint, with a sour, melancholy editorial viewing America through the eyes of other countries -- and naturally finding us wanting.

Looking Outward on the Fourth begins with a lament over "these very difficult times, four years deep into a war that has turned much of the world against this country." Got that? It's America's fault that times are tough, not that the world seethes with madmen who want to destroy the West. The editors then take a shot at unnamed "political leaders" [who could they be?] who "seek to arrogate the idea of freedom as their own political preserve."

The Times then goes into Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin mode:

Ideas have a way of recommending themselves by the behavior of the men and women who hold them, and this is no less true of nations. The question isn’t simply whether we can project our ideal of freedom around the world. The question is whether, by who we are and how we behave, we can make the freedom that animates us compelling to others.

The country looks inward on the Fourth of July — not in introspection, but in an easy, comfortable sense of historical gratification. Yet this is a good day to look outward as well.

It is a day to ask how good a job — from the world’s perspective — we are doing living up to the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, whether we have done enough to make those sonorous old rights seem like more than a limited case in a limited argument. The answer is more equivocal than we like to believe.

Capiche? On the Fourth, you jingoistic hicks out there indulge in easy, comfortable gratification over how great America is. But not the Times. Citizen of the world that it is, the Times sees America through the eyes of other countries. And guess what? Things are "equivocal." We might not be living up to the expectations of France, Venezuela, China. Who knows -- perhaps even Borat's beloved Kazakhstan is disappointed in us.

Oh, the weltschmerz!

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[governsleastgovernsbest]

On 4th of July, NY Times finds America not living up to world’s expectations. Ping to Today show list.

[mainepatsfan]

Did we honestly expect anything else?

[Diogenesis]

[governsleastgovernsbest]

P.S. We’re not living up to the principles of the Declaration of Independence? We don’t behave in a way that makes our freedom “compelling to others”? I guess that’s why no one wants to immigrate to the United States

[goldstategop]

I love my country above all other lands. She is a light to the world and a source of hope and consolation to those seeking freedom every where. God bless America this July 4th and forevermore!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Diogenesis]

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Did we honestly expect anything else?

Nope. As I said in the opening line, I was sure the Times would pull something like this. The only suspense was in just what kind of anti-American line they would take.

[Ax]

Upon firing up my computer every morning, I go right to “what_do_they_think_of_us_in_europe_today.net” and click on “France,” “Germany,” or “Italy” inter alia. If our approval drops below 30% for that day for any of our allies, I simply go to pieces.

[cbkaty]

Personally, I abhor the movement of "legitimate American businesses" and production facilities to foreign shores.....but I make an exception for the NYT.......

The offices, managers, reporters, and presses should move to Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Ethiopia, or wherever their editorial board locates a common ideology.......

......Gee....do I sense a silent scream by the NYT employees? Guess they crave freedom of the press as long as they control the press.

BTW....the Houston Comical should follow the Times to foreign shores of the like-minded.

[albie]

That POS newspaper did what we all expected it to do and it does every day. Write anti-american articles. Doing thier part to brainwash Americans into an eternal guilt for capitalism, freedom and power. Rest assured, the NYT is slowly becoming as irrelevent as Carter.

[Diogenesis]

LEAKING AMERICAN SECRETS IN THE PAST

[LibLieSlayer]

“America Falls Short in World’s View”

Hey World... **** YOU! “and you know wut I’m talkin’ ‘bout”!

LLS

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. You, too? I thought I was the only one. ;-)

[Paradox]

As for European opinion of America, I really don’t care what a stagnant, nihilist, and self destructing culture, thinks about us. To paraphrase Jackie Mason, the USA is the worst country in the world, except for the rest of the countries in the world.

[roses of sharon]

Not from the NAGS who run the editorial page, or the bathhouse boys in their “newsroom”.

Posers all, sad, unhappy personal lives trying to make the rest of us as miserable.

[kabar]

P.S. We’re not living up to the principles of the Declaration of Independence? We don’t behave in a way that makes our freedom “compelling to others”? I guess that’s why no one wants to immigrate to the United States.

Precisely. For some reason, more than a million people annually brave life and limb to get here illegally across our southern border and millions more legal immigrants wait patiently in line overseas for years to get here. Today, one in every eight residents of this country is foreign-born and that number will go to one in seven in several years.

The NYT editorial reminds me of Jimmy Carter's 1979 Malaise Speech. Some excerpts:

"The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our Nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own."

"Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past."

"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."

"The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next 5 years will be worse than the past 5 years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world."

Funny, but not long after Carter left office in ignominious defeat capped by the Iran Hostage Crisis of 444 days, the America he described [perceived] turned around immediately under Ronald Reagan. The glum, defeatist view of America held by many of the political and media elites reflects more on them than it does this country, which still remains the shining city on the hill to the vast majority of people on this planet. They vote with their feet.

[Mr Inviso]

Nonsense like this is why the NY Slimes can go urinate upwards on a free-hanging rope.

[Pharmboy]

...as if I needed ANOTHER reason to detest those anti-American *sswipes on 43rd Street. But you found one.

[R.W.Ratikal]

What the world thinks of America is not important. What is important is that Americans fight to keep their own freedoms and liberties. They are slipping away. Like all captive people we are standing by doing nothing.