The world is in a very dangerous period at present. We face the climate crisis, regional wars, and the growing threat of nuclear war. At the same time, we are seeing a swing towards right-wing policies and political parties in many countries.
While there are many factors contributing to this situation, I want to focus here on the influence of the US because of the huge power that it wields and its potential to use that power and its resources for either positive or negative effects.
US people have many fine qualities and many progressive, pro-human traditions that are embedded in their culture. There are qualities of warmth, hospitality, commitment to human rights, creativity, and many others that have come to the fore at various times in US history. The US is also a deeply divided country and US people carry particular oppressor patterns that, especially at this point in time, present a real threat to peace and stability in the world. There is a history of genocide, enslavement, inequality, and intolerance that have done great damage to its own people and to people in other countries.
These oppressor patterns are now a major contributor to the growing instability and danger facing the world. The war in Ukraine, which is a proxy war between the US and Russia, the war in Gaza, which continues partly because of the supply of munitions by the US, the numerous instances of US regime-change interventions, the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others, the antagonism of the US towards China and Iran, and the threat of future wars involving these countries are all related to the efforts of the US to maintain its preeminent position as the number one world power.
It’s useful to see the US as an empire that has emerged over the past eighty years or so. Its foreign policy is dominated by the desire to be the number one world power. It has been in a state of war continuously since at least 2000. It has around 750 military bases in at least 80 countries. Its strategy is to surround the other two world powers, Russia and China, with US allies and to expand the size and reach of NATO. The aim is to prevent these countries becoming a threat to US domination in the world. Effectively, however, the US is an empire in decline and that can make for very dangerous policies on the world stage.
Apart from the enormously negative impacts on the populations of other countries, this has two particular consequences. The first is the increasing possibility of a global, nuclear war. Militarism and war rather than diplomacy are at the heart of US foreign policy when it comes to power in the world.
The second is the diverting of resources, time, and energy from the climate emergency. Imagine what could be accomplished if the huge sums of money and attention going into war were redirected to preventing global warming.
Oppressor patterns of domination show up in various ways, including:
- A sense of entitlement to resources, to power, to control over others
- Superiority and arrogance towards others, reflected in the notion of “US exceptionalism” – that the US is unique and exemplary compared to other nations and entitled to involve itself in the affairs of other countries, and
- Domination, taking over, usurping leadership, overthrowing regimes it doesn’t like, ignoring the sovereignty of other nations, conducting wars of aggression.
Patterns such as these are reinforced by appeals to a very rigid nationalism and a narrative that the US is always a force for good in the world and a defender of freedom and democracy everywhere. Among other things, this leaves people confused, defensive, isolated, and ignorant of the reality facing other peoples in the world.
A particular challenge for US people is to face the role being played by the US in the world and way that US oppressor patterns play a part in all this. A willingness to face this role openly and honestly will enable US people to reclaim all of their finest traditions and replace patterns of domination with a commitment to human well-being, survival, and liberation.