Rose-colored Specs ?

When one reads Henry Kissinger’s World Order, one gets the oppression of rose-colored glasses—not that Mr. Kissinger was always wearing them while writing (except respecting America and world order), but that they are imposed upon his readers without apparent scruples or apology. As an insider, he must surely know that his focus on “American” morals, idealism, and exceptionalism neglects most of the story. The tragedy of unacknowledged U.S. history is the multitude of crimes and misdemeanors against founding principles; but HK studiously avoids the dark-side of American tyranny and international sabotage. He quotes former presidents whose idealistic words often belied their covert actions. If only we could juxtapose all those quotes with the global images that preceded or followed them.¹

Chapter 7 is entitled:

“Acting for all Mankind”: The United States and Its Concept of Order

In this chapter, the rose-tint deepens to an embarrassing blush. The hagiography² of past presidents (words without images) is astonishing—as are the many egoist references to American principles, such as:

John Foster Dulles … described American foreign policy as a kind of global volunteer effort guided by principles totally different from any other historic state’s approach (pp. 287-288).

With nearly every president insisting that America had universal principles while other countries merely had national interests, the United States has risked extremes of overextension and disillusioned withdrawal (p. 279).

HK seems so spellbound by his idealized America, it makes one wonder if the same applies to his World Order; and thus makes one shudder at the thought of what greater part he might also be excising about the dark-side of WO. If he can’t bring himself to acknowledge the dark-dark side of “American Order,” can we trust him to reveal the ins-and-outs of WO?

At times, one hears the echo of narcissism and wounded pride wafting between the lines of World Order. Poor US. We have proselytized our virtues, values, and principles for well-over two-hundred years; we have demonstrated our exceptionalism and superior policies; we have given our best and our brightest, all in the name of raising the world to a higher plane of “humane” rights and prosperity, and for what? Too often for naught—because those “old” states across the ponds are so caught in their never-ending spirals of balance-of-power, competition, nationalism, status-mongering, fanaticism, mistrust, etc., etc., such that even the newer (giant) kid on the block can’t break them of that great chain of being tyrannical, egoistic, imperialistic, and ungrateful.

Except, as is troublingly evident, Mr. Kissinger neglects to remind US that the giant kid on the block has been running amuck for more than a century: lying, extorting, covert-ing, coup-ing, drug-running, kidnapping, torturing, terrorizing, killing.³

And for those who have just gone ballistic at these “accusations,” please get a grip on your intellect. The evidence is everywhere⁴—not because muckrakers hate America, but because they love what she once stood for—what she still pretends to stand for. And they hate that she has become one of those déjà vu “hypocritical nations” that Old Testament Isaiah denounced.⁵

Not only is America multi-faced, she is also hypersensitive and spellbound by her own promise and perceived destiny. If the truth could be seen, she has become a Dorian Gray.⁶ So, in World Order, Mr. Kissinger parades us through a White House museum of carefully selected memorabilia draped-round with ten-thousand flags (while the super-“men in black” line the staircase leading to the attic⁶).

As we exit the museum—past the permanent shadows on the fireplace mantel⁷—we are handed a tissue and a tract. The tissue is to weep for the blindness of the nations who have thus far resisted our vision, virtues, and policies. The tract is the concluding chapter of WO, summarizing for the masses how the American promise can still be morphed into global governance—a global order of “democracy” (hint, hint: corporatism⁸).

A world order of states affirming individual dignity and participatory governance, and cooperating internationally in accordance with agreed-upon rules, can be our hope and should be our aspiration. But progress toward it will need to be sustained through a series of intermediary stages (p. 372).

Fine-sounding phrases, but where have we heard those before?—from the lips of past presidents?—or forming the complaint of a wandering prophet 2,700 years ago? How might old Isaiah reframe the complaint if he were speaking as voice for the beleaguered Constitution? Would the voice say:

This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me?

And what might Mr. K.’s “needed” intermediary stages entail to get everyone on-side the WO? Could #1 on the Georgia Guidestones⁹ give us a clue? That could certainly solve the problem of the nasty muckrakers, not to mention those born-again communists, those intransigent religionists and fanatics of every stripe, and all those down-and-outers of every “nation, kindred, tongue, and people.”

Yes, World Order is a book of some insights, but the rose-tint and the radical excision of more than half the historical truths of the body-politic is beyond troubling—especially when one considers the admiration Mr. K. has for the “principles” of statesmanship allegedly set forth by Machiavelli.¹⁰

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1. Consider this small sampling of facts and patterns of American “values” worth studying and remembering: Native American and African-American treatment, past and present; Hawaii 1893; Cuba 1898; Philippines 1899; Nicaragua 1909; Honduras 1912; Japanese & Japanese-American internment 1940s; Iran 1953; Guatemala 1954; South Vietnam 1963; Cambodia 1970; Chile 1973; Indonesia/East Timor 1975; Grenada 1983; Panama 1959-89; Afghanistan 1980s to present; Iraq 1960s to present; hundreds of SOFAs and military bases worldwide; economic sabotage; etc., etc., etc.
NOW juxtaposed with statements from Mr. Kissinger’s World Order:
● Before the ayatollahs’ revolution, the West’s interaction with Iran had been cordial and cooperative on both sides, based on a perceived parallelism of national interests. (p. 158)
● President McKinley: “The American flag has not been planted in foreign soil to acquire more territory, but for humanity’s sake.” (quoted at p. 246)
● President Theodore Roosevelt: “All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries, stable, orderly, and prosperous.” (quoted at p. 250)
● [Section heading} Woodrow Wilson: America as the World’s Conscience (p. 256)
● Imbued by America’s historic sense of moral mission, Wilson proclaimed that America had intervened not to restore the European balance of power but to “make the world safe for democracy.” (p. 256, see also 258)
● Woodrow Wilson: “Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make conquest.” (quoted at p. 259)
● All twelve postwar presidents have passionately affirmed an exceptional role for America in the world. Each has treated it as axiomatic that the Unites States was embarked on an unselfish quest for the resolution of conflicts and the equality of all nations, in which the ultimate benchmark for success would be world peace and universal harmony. (p. 276)
● ... American idealism and exceptionalism were the driving forces behind the building of a new international order. (p. 277)
● With nearly every president insisting that America had universal principles while other countries merely had national interests, the United States has risked extremes of overextension and disillusioned withdrawal. (p. 279)
● America has been searching its soul about the moral worth of its efforts to a degree for which it is difficult to find historical parallels. Either America n objectives have been unfulfillable, or America did not pursue a strategy compatible with reaching these objectives. (p. 279)
● In this context, the United States assumed leadership of the global effort to contain Soviet expansionism—but as a primarily moral, not geopolitical, endeavor. … as a moral crusade for the free world. ¶ … to advance the general interests of humanity. (p. 287)
● The preservation of American credibility in defense of allies and the global system of order—a role the United States had performed for two decades—remained an integral part of Nixon’s calculations. (p. 300)
● America as a shining city on a hill was not a metaphor for [Ronald] Reagan; it actually existed for him because he willed it to exist. (p. 311) / … Reagan believed the [Cold War] conflict was likely to end with the realization by the adversary of the superiority of American principles. (p. 312)
● … the perennial American hope for a rules-based international order (p. 315)
● In Prague in November 1990, [George H. W.] Bush invoked a “commonwealth of freedom,” which would be governed by the rule of law; … “a moral community united in its dedication to free ideals.” … [to] “forge for all nations a new world order far more stable and secure than any we have known.” ¶ “Our overriding purpose must be to expand and strengthen the world’s community of market-based democracies.” (pp. 315-316)
● Bill Clinton: “The United States wants Iraq to rejoin the family of nations as a freedom-loving and law-abiding member. (p. 324)
● … the tragedy of a county whose people have been prepared for more than half a century to send its sons and daughters to remote corners of the world in defense of freedom but whose political system has not been able to muster the same unified and persistent purpose. (p. 326)
● … no other major power has brought to its strategic efforts such deeply felt aspirations for human betterment. (p. 328)
● On the way to the first truly global world order, the great human achievement of technology must be fused with enhanced powers of humane, transcendent, and moral judgment. (p. 360)
● America—as the modern world’s decisive articulation of the human quest for freedom, and an indispensable geopolitical force for the vindication of humane values—must retain its sense of direction. (p. 373)
2. Hagiography: “adulatory writing about another person; biography [histography?] that idealizes its subject.”
3. A second chance to consider footnote 1: that small sampling of facts and patterns of American “values” worth studying and remembering: Native American and African-American treatment, past and present; Hawaii 1893; Cuba 1898; Philippines 1899; Nicaragua 1909; Honduras 1912; Japanese & Japanese-American internment 1940s; Iran 1953; Guatemala 1954; South Vietnam 1963; Cambodia 1970; Chile 1973; Indonesia/East Timor 1975; Grenada 1983; Panama 1959-89; Afghanistan 1980s to present; Iraq 1960s to present; hundreds of SOFAs and military bases worldwide; economic sabotage; etc., etc., etc.
4. Read and listen to (YouTube) the facts and warning voices of Chris Hedges, Chalmers Johnson, Jeremy Scahill, Naomi Klein, Stephen Kinzer, Noam Chomsky, etc., etc., etc.
5. Old Testament | Isaiah 10:6
6. “The Picture of Dorian Gray is an 1891 philosophical novel by writer and playwright Oscar Wilde. First published as a serial story in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Summary: Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorian’s beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life. / Understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied and amoral experiences; all the while his portrait [hidden in the attic] ages and records every soul-corrupting sin.” From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray
7. “Shadow on the mantel” parallel: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bill-clinton-portrait-contains-lewinsky-in-joke-artist-says-1.2979416 “Bill Clinton portrait contains Lewinsky in-joke, artist says: / A Philadelphia artist has disclosed that his museum portrait of former President Bill Clinton contains a shadow reference to Monica Lewinsky's infamous blue dress. / Nelson Shanks told the Philadelphia Daily News that a shadow beside Clinton is a literal reference to the dress and a symbolic nod to the shadow the affair cast on his presidency. / "If you look at the left-hand side of it there's a mantel in the Oval Office, and I put a shadow coming into the painting," Shanks told the newspaper.
[So like this other shadow on the mantel, America’s sins never seem to make it into the picture or enduring consciousness of her citizens.]
8. George H.W. Bush: “Our overriding purpose must be to expand and strengthen the world’s community of market-based democracies.” (p. 316)
Free markets would uplift individuals, enrich societies, and substitute economic interdependence for traditional international rivalries. (p. 362)
The global economic impetus is on removing obstacles to the flow of goods and capital. (p. 368)
[So, are American values and policies to be the mother-lode of WO where global capitalism will finally trump communism? where nations will no longer compete, leaving all that to the “invisible hand” of the corporate capitalists?]
9. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
The Georgia Guidestones is a granite monument erected in 1980 in Elbert County, Georgia, in the United States. A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight modern languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

A shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient language scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs.
[Again, several fine-sounding phrases, but what are the images to accompany their implementation? Is this “American Stonehenge” the model of the “American Order” planned for the world? Is WO in charge? And if not, how does WO plan to get its “agreed-upon rules” past this “cast-in-stone” crowd?]
10. http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/02/niccolo-mockiavelli.html