15 May 2004
The Arrogance of Hegemony
The U.S. has become dangerously infatuated with its ascendance to the pinnacle of world power. Widely acknowledged as the sole superpower, the country’s current administration arrogantly dismisses the thought that America’s values are anything but superior to those of other societies. Moreover, it refuses to recognize that even if its values are superior, according to some universal set of standards, it takes commitment and diligence to enforce them in practice.
In the case of the Abu Ghraib abuses, it’s getting tiresome to hear repeated over and over that the telltale photos do not reflect American values. They probably don’t reflect the values of any other civilized societies either; but most of the citizens and officials of those nations are able to control their behavior and avoid worldwide media attention. When a people like the Iraqis, who have been suppressed for decades, are suddenly released to their own devices, they can act inhumanely – take the example of the killings of American contractors in Fallujah. Regrettably, when a society like the U.S. is unchallenged for world domination, arrogance derived from its power can infect the behavior of its members when they are not adequately supervised.
Of course, those individuals who violate our society’s rule of law need to be punished. Courts martial are the appropriate consequence. However, a special burden weighs on people in positions of executive power in a hegemon like the U.S. They must assure that its rule of law is adhered to by its own citizens, particularly in a foreign land where the professed objective of its being there is to impose that rule of law. Failure to carry out that responsibility is also deserving of punishment.
The U.S. has become dangerously infatuated with its ascendance to the pinnacle of world power. Widely acknowledged as the sole superpower, the country’s current administration arrogantly dismisses the thought that America’s values are anything but superior to those of other societies. Moreover, it refuses to recognize that even if its values are superior, according to some universal set of standards, it takes commitment and diligence to enforce them in practice.
In the case of the Abu Ghraib abuses, it’s getting tiresome to hear repeated over and over that the telltale photos do not reflect American values. They probably don’t reflect the values of any other civilized societies either; but most of the citizens and officials of those nations are able to control their behavior and avoid worldwide media attention. When a people like the Iraqis, who have been suppressed for decades, are suddenly released to their own devices, they can act inhumanely – take the example of the killings of American contractors in Fallujah. Regrettably, when a society like the U.S. is unchallenged for world domination, arrogance derived from its power can infect the behavior of its members when they are not adequately supervised.
Of course, those individuals who violate our society’s rule of law need to be punished. Courts martial are the appropriate consequence. However, a special burden weighs on people in positions of executive power in a hegemon like the U.S. They must assure that its rule of law is adhered to by its own citizens, particularly in a foreign land where the professed objective of its being there is to impose that rule of law. Failure to carry out that responsibility is also deserving of punishment.
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