Move Over Alexis de Tocqueville!
Random and Sundry Things
Here’s one you’re going to love. Personally, I think it’s a hoot.
I ran across this review for a book called America Through Foreign Eyes. And, immediately, I thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, who you no doubt remember was a French guy who sort of critiqued the USA’s whole “we’re an awesome new democracy, full of men (white and answering to no royalty, except eventually celebrities and rich people) who are equal” vibe.
And now we have a new one!
Okay, so, what does this book say? I’m glad I you asked. Here are some excerpts:
Castañeda holds a mirror up to America and warns that the once-shining model for much of the world is now crumbling. “Please don’t hold this against me: The United States itself is at fault,” he writes. “Like a great many people on earth, I’ve long been fascinated by this remarkable phenomenon which calls itself America.”
Interesting. I was thinking the same thing. And please don’t hold it against me, okay?
Castañeda argues that America is fast losing its encanto — its charm — as it increasingly looks like other trouble spots that have authoritarians at the helm, from Europe to Latin America and beyond.
Uh, yeah. No shit. I could really go for some encanto right now.
“This book is not written from a Mexican perspective,” Castañeda writes, “but rather from that of a sympathetic foreign critic who has seen the United States from both inside and outside.”
We have so much in common, it’s downright spooky! 🙂
The U.S.-Mexico relationship, of course, is more than a bit complicated. The countries share a 2,000-mile border, tightly woven manufacturing chains, and growing family ties between millions of Mexican immigrants in the north and their families back home.
Not to mention all that cheap labor that immigrants do so yuppies millennials cool people with dough don’t have to deal with dat shit.
The fact that Texas and much of the American Southwest were once claimed by Mexico only adds to the irritants in the relationship, Castañeda believes. “Having lost half its territory to the United States in the nineteenth century, having found itself caught up in the maelstrom of America’s current identity crisis,” he writes, “Mexico can never ignore what happens north of the border.”
Yo? The Aztecs just texted me. And have they got a response for you. Be careful. They may open a Twitter account!
But Mexico isn’t the main character in “America Through Foreign Eyes.”
Because it’s about America, as you probably figured out by reading the book title.
This is a report card on the United States, now in the grip of a narcissistic, xenophobic reality TV star fumbling on the world stage and stoking division and fear at home.
My only question is, which one?
Trump’s cynicism is emblematic of a deeper problem. He’s simply a symptom of America’s identity crisis — rooted in the nation’s birth. The cry for independence was for equality, Castañeda writes, though limited to certain segments of the population. Equality existed, he explains, “as long as slaves and Native Americans were excluded from the calculation, which, of course, they could not be. Equality, but not for everybody.”
What can I say, except …
Castañeda warns that the world is growing fatigued with America because of Trump and his enablers’ disregard for institutions and Trump’s obsession with walls — not unlike the barriers he ordered built around the White House to keep Americans out during recent protests.
Oh, honey. My fatigue with America happened long before that.
America’s best hope for going forward may be based in its grand legacy of reinvention, an inherent ability for renewal and replenishment.
Hmm … this is starting to get awfully close to being bullshit selling something a motivational speech.
Castañeda’s book is short on storytelling and anecdotes and long on wonky policy musings.
Yet another reason I won’t be reading it.
“American democracy will no doubt survive,” Castañeda writes. “But how it rides out its current storm will inevitably shape its future.”
Again …
PS: In case you were wondering, here’s a photo of Alexis de Tocqueville from his Wikipedia page. I suggest that the faint of heart not scroll down too far into the part about Democracy in America.
He da man! :)