More on Univesalized Experience
You really couldn't ask for a better follow up on my post regarding Fred Thompson than the President's comments yesterday:
Why would we ever think liberty is "universal?" Liberty, after all, is a very unique concept that grew up in the West, nurtured by the Enlightenment, fostered by the democratic wars of the 17th century, fed by the French revolution and American revolutions. It is not a universal value or experience. It is a unique product of a certain set of historical, cultural and intellectual experiences all of which occurred in the West. It may be nice to talk about it like it is a value shared by all, but I think it is safe to say that the term liberty just does not have the same place in the political cultures of say the Middle East or parts of Asia as it does here or in Western Europe. (Perhaps, some day it may.) Once again, we have a very dangerous policy premised on the conceit that really, everyone thinks like us, holds our values or at least aspires to think like us and hold our values.
To put it a little more simply, before you buy the world a Coke, find out if they drink Pepsi.
We're at war with coldblooded killers who despise freedom, reject tolerance, and kill the innocent in pursuit of their political vision ... And one of the real challenges we face is, will we have confidence in the liberty to be transformative? Will we lose faith in the universality of liberty? Will we ignore history and not realize that liberty has got the capacity to yield the peace we want? So this administration, along with many in our military, will continue to spread the hope of liberty, in order to defeat the ideology of darkness, the ideology of the terrorists -- and work to secure a future of peace for generations to come. That's our call."
Why would we ever think liberty is "universal?" Liberty, after all, is a very unique concept that grew up in the West, nurtured by the Enlightenment, fostered by the democratic wars of the 17th century, fed by the French revolution and American revolutions. It is not a universal value or experience. It is a unique product of a certain set of historical, cultural and intellectual experiences all of which occurred in the West. It may be nice to talk about it like it is a value shared by all, but I think it is safe to say that the term liberty just does not have the same place in the political cultures of say the Middle East or parts of Asia as it does here or in Western Europe. (Perhaps, some day it may.) Once again, we have a very dangerous policy premised on the conceit that really, everyone thinks like us, holds our values or at least aspires to think like us and hold our values.
To put it a little more simply, before you buy the world a Coke, find out if they drink Pepsi.
posted by Jack Reed at 2:17 PM
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