ZEITGEIST

The world in 2011 looks as if it were under attack on all fronts. A coalition of random aggressions –political, institutional, economical, climactic -- is creating a tsunami which comes at us, leveling everything in its path. Hunger, disruptive regime changes, financial uncertainties, mutant terrorism create an atmosphere of general unease. The buttresses which were supposed to protect us from harm appear under siege. The patient no longer responds to therapy.

It would be an uphill intellectual battle to try to summarize the numerous problems which beleaguer the fundamentals of our societies. The human tragedy in the Horn of Africa is of a greater existential importance than many incidents close to home, but the latter strive under the limelight of the media. Wendi Murdoch’s KungFu demonstration receives more attention than the non-understanding glare of dying children in Somalia. A perverse global “reality show “, fed by money, corruption and power, seems to have overtaken feelings and creativity. Since the dying don’t sell, they are deprived of “primetime.”

To return to today’s talk of the town, namely the financial mess which is spreading from Europe to the United States, one sentence comes to mind: “shame on you“. The EU spectacle was hardly a feast for “gourmets”. The American inward looking “reality show” was unpleasant from the beginning. The lack of a minimum of intellectual or moral discourse in Washington, starting with Bush Jr., is absolutely despicable. Congress has lost its way, forgetting that what is on the table is a time bomb which has the potential to ignite the totality of the financial architecture worldwide. Congressmen and women talk “district” slang, act “provincial”, forgetting that they deal with the macro role of the dollar or the consequences of globalization, which is still partially guided by what happens in the United States. One cannot, shockingly so, pretend to defend the (defunct) American dream while behaving like a lunatic.

One should not be content being an onlooker. On the contrary, one should be very concerned that the United States might fall victim to a toxic mix of isolationism and populism. Fox News is already the voice of the many who feed on envy, prejudice, religious aberration, homophobia and inferiority complexes. The Tea Party covers frustrations which can be legitimate but too often it leaves one with an ambiguous, racist and bigoted aftertaste. Political battle is normal. In the current case, with the first black President who often has a problem “connecting”, the hidden agenda is lethal. The hatred is stronger than reason and republican principles are taken hostage by ulterior motives. The outcome of the budget debate is almost irrelevant because it is in fact a play-within-a-play. The endgame is unspoken and meanwhile Republicans and Democrats alike forego responsibilities they claim but do not assume. By the way, a similar loathing can be perceived in the Supreme Court, in the States of the Union, and among politicians who cannot cope with Obama’s soliloquy. Hence the screams of the likes of Sarah Palin and Co., who are not equipped to grasp the enigma in the White House.

In all fairness one must also recognize that there is a gap between the candidate Obama and the President. The community leader of yesterday tends to take refuge in an aloofness which stands contrary to the mentality of Middle America. He often tends to over-intellectualize and lacks the touch of Presidents Reagan and Clinton who understood that one has to seduce if one wants to convince.

The American decay since the Lehman’s Brothers debacle is not irreversible. Few countries, if any, have the sophisticated manpower and mobility which allow the United States to rebound and reinvent itself. Short-term expedients that delay but do not avoid a final crisis are out of order (Francis Fukuyama: “The origins of political order”). Jefferson and Hamilton represented totally opposite models of society. This did not lead to the exasperation or personal vindicatory oratory one is subjected to today. America has to reconnect with a global, more Wilsonian, tradition. This President is certainly supremely gifted to engage in this claim for world leadership but meanwhile he should not forget the millions who face foreclosure and unemployment. They will be the first victims if they have to be content with an ersatz arrangement and a dollar which is less a reserve currency than a worthless hostage of interest hikes and inflation.

Conversely the hungry in the world might remain hungry and ultimately, forgotten.