Self Satisfied White Men


Despite the above title, I intend to argue what I guess will be an unpopular viewpoint in class: namely, that manifest destiny in a broad sense, though historically flawed in implementation, is a fine and noble theory and one that not only Americans but all politically minded thinkers should cleave to. Saving that for a moment, let me add my railing protests against the shameful episodes in American history. The theory of manifest destiny has suffered the misfortune of being used improperly by variously greedy and arrogant men who have had the temerity to believe themselves worthy of taking territory and sovereignty by force. However, the most basic premise and consequence of manifest destiny, that the American idea (whatever that is) is superior to all others and therefore should be promulgated across the globe, holds true even today.

Take out the American viewpoint and territorial/economic motivations of manifest destiny for this philosphical moment. What one is left with is the conception that if an individual believes his own political and social ideology to be superior, he should promote it to others. This is entirely reasonable given two assumptions: First, the individual must wish good to his fellow man, and second, he must believe that all humans are, on the most basic level, similar and equal before the prejudices of socialization and culture take hold. All this means, really, is that a man, believing himself to have an idea that is working very well for him and that his neighboor is ultimately similar, and holding his neighbor's well being in some regard, will try to convince his neighbor to adopt his better system in favor of the neighbor's own outdated one.

Let me say now that I do believe the American system is the best one yet explored for a large community (there are arguments to be made about low-population socialisms and planned technocracies, but as one on the scale of tens of millions - much less hundreds of millions - of individuals has yet to be successful in any meaningful sense [no, the USSR does not count; I do hold personal liberties to be of great value in even a large community], I safely discount them). Since I see no profound difference at birth between myself as an American and, for example, a Korean (and indeed, I personally am more Han and Japanese than Anglo-Saxon by blood), I think it is natural for me to believe that a system that I have been socialized into and believe to be the best will be equally felicitious to someone born in Pyongyang as to me born in San Fransisco. Does it not follow that I should help this socialist fellow by expounding the virtues of my own system? Set aside for a moment your false humility for a moment and consider; don't you think your own belief system to be the best available to you (always acknowledging the possiblity that wiser minds have conceived of a better idea, and you just haven't thought of it yet)? If your system is the best for you, is it not the best for all in a grand sense (set aside cultural prejudices, let's assume you could educate someone from birth, would you rear your charge according to your own beliefs, or someone elses who you do not agree with)?

The folly of America has been to betray her own ideals in her desire to convince the rest of the world of her grand idea. It is perfectly acceptable (in the sense that there is no logical disconnect) for an authoritarian government to invade, enslave and oppress a subject nation, because authoritarian systems do not hold that individuals should be blessed with self determination or, frequently, even liberties considered basic in liberal democracy. For America to speak of self determination and the rights of man and the citizen while conducting similar imperial exercises, however, is rank hypocracy. Discourse, civil or vulgar, or even economic competition: these are the weapons in the American idea's arsenal. The Preamble to the Constitution promised liberty, security and properity; the measure of America's sucess (and the means of convincing others to accept American ideology) is how attractive those commodities are and how well the nations delivers them to its citizens and others. America's manifest destiny, the same as all other ideologies, is to unite humanity under its guidance; however, if the principles of the American experiment (which I have purposely left undefined here) are betrayed in the uniting, there is nothing accomplished.