America- the beacon of demoracratic values?

I read this morning about the secret memos from the White house to the CIA supporting the use of torture techniques on prisoners. I find it funny, in an ironic way, as well as disturbing and troubling. We, as a nation, sell ourselves as the land of the free, who respects and promotes the human rights of our citizens and others around the world. Yet, in our own national interests, we will abandon that basic tenet of our national philosophy. It's not as much that I am appalled by the use of the techniques- I am, but the hypocrisy of our leaders and our culture and how we damage our international stature by getting on our soap box and try to tell other people what to do with their own country bothers me more.

We espouse that first and foremost, we stand for democratic principles. We believe that everyone has the right to have a say in who governs and how they govern, yet we continually tell people in other nations, in a paternally condescending way, that they do not have the ability to determine for themselves who and how it is done in their country. Without saying it, we are spreading the idea that we have it right and that we have the only form of government that should exist. We ignore the culture and history of anyone who has a different tradition and viewpoint than our own and try to make them into a version of us (but not better because our ego requires us to be first in all things.)

Not every group of people wants democracy, as witnessed by the existence of other systems of government that exist successfully in the world, if left alone. Not every people values the individual as a sovereign unit as we, and western tradition, do. There are many cultures where a person's value is based on how they contribute to the whole, with the society as a whole being the most important good. This is a foreign mode of thought to us, but just because it is foreign does not make it wrong. If we truly valued the right of a people to determine their own form of government, then we would say, "That's not how we do it, but if it works and you all are relatively happy with it, so be it." Take China for example. Their culture has always had a more collectivist bend than ours, and the large population reinforces that view. That mode of cultural thought is thousands of years old, not a couple of hundred. Before communism, many people could not even get the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. Local warlords ruled with an iron fist, because there was no central government strong enough or broad enough to have the power to rule exclusively in all four corners of the nation. China, for all but the urban areas, was essentially still in the Middle Ages, living under a feudal system. While I may not agree with the Chinese communist government's policies and deplore the negative effects of the Cultural Revolution, I can recognize that today's China is a place where everyone has the basics, everyone has the ability to get at least a rudimentary education, and where there is a consistent focus that attempts to create a unified existence for all areas of the Chinese nation. Would I want to live there? No, I wouldn't, but I did not grow up Chinese, with Chinese values and traditions, and I am not experienced in the pre-communist history to know what it was like before communism. Since I can never understand what it is like to be Chinese, who am I, who is anyone who is not Chinese, to tell their people how their country should be? Give them the respect and the right to determine that for themselves. Arabic nations, their culture, and their traditions are just as foreign to us, but we have invaded their nations to "bring democracy" to their people, without seeing if it was really the best form of government for them.

When we do this, all it does is create justified resentment and tarnishes the value of the principles we hold dear. We cause other nations to look at us and find what is wrong within our culture and use it as justification to not make reforms to bring more freedom to people. I would argue that it is not democracy that people around the world envy, it is our wealth and power. Even our economic system of capitalism, that helped to fund that wealth, is not without serious fault. Anyone who has read or seen the news in the last month can attest to that.

My point is, let's be honest. If we are in another country or are taking actions that are designed solely to promote our national interest without thought to the rights of another, let's not try to spin it like we are not. Let's practice what we preach; respect other nations right to self-determination and become a true example of what we believe. If we want to be the land of the free and the beacon of democracy, then let's act like it. Stop torturing our prisoners, work to create opportunity and maximize the potential of our own people. Provide the guarantee of a safe environment for all and equal access to those things needed to provide basic existence. Encourage the national culture to value the exercise of the rights of others as much as we value the exercise of our individual rights. Encourage individual and national responsibility for ourselves and our environment. Greed in all its forms is NOT democratic.

Let's show the world a nation they can admire. Let America be the land of the free in the eyes of the world, not America, the land of the self-righteous and the greedy.