Word: moynihan
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...PROBLEM is that Moynihan fails to make some crucial distinctions, and also to face some undeniable realities. To begin with, he never stipulates his exact criteria for those states he classes as totalitarian: he himself admits, for example, that there are states with formal constitutional rights that systematically ignore them, as well as despotic regimes that welcome large margins of economic liberalism. He also fails to point out that states are more than just receptacles of ideas. They have also become brokers of power, based on their natural resources and geopolitical positioning. This means that the U.S. cannot hope...
...realized that the current phase of Third World grandstanding against Western imperialism is also a reaction to individual histories of economic exploitation and political tampering at the hands of liberal internationalism. There is also the historical reality that state socialism has been a structural imperative in many countries. Moynihan never pauses to discuss these sorts of complexities, however; to him, the world must be seen in sharp contrasts, in terms of "us" and "them." Yet if the U.S. hopes to better promote the cause of liberal ideas in the future, it must learn to better understand these histories and experiences...
...heels of economic modernization; nonetheless, it is still accepted that the contest over political systems in the future will be largely informed by the outcomes of "hard politics," or economic relations. In the "group of 77," the OAU and the United Nations, Third World leaders may test Moynihan's patience with denunciations of Western imperialism, interventionism, exploitationism and hegemonism. But at the same time, they have almost all come to accept, and begin to conform to, the realities of interdependence--in their dealings with Western-supported world banking organizations, with Western-based multinationals, and in bilateral deals with democratic powers...
...MOYNIHAN is familiar enough with this line of criticism. Thus in speaking of developing nations, he concedes that "it is time we commenced to treat them as equals, a respect to which they are entitled." Accenting the positive, he calls "for the United States deliberately and consistently to bring its influence to bear on behalf of those regimes which promise the largest degree of personal and national liberty." But it seems that for Moynihan, treating other nations as equals generally means telling them they are inferiors. Bringing influence to bear on behalf of virtuous regimes means spending one's time...
There are two functions this sort of chauvinistic breast-beating must serve. It is clearly cathartic: It makes the apostle of the American system feel 100 percent secure that he is in the right place, fighting the right fight. It must also account for much of Moynihan's popularity--this propensity for seeing the world in simple black and white--since Tocqueville himself observed that democracies love generalities, and have a hard time contemplating specifics. But it remains a mystery how Moynihan thinks it might ever win over what he should really be concerned about: the hearts and minds...