You might think as I do, that America-bashing in universities is both unwarranted and misplaced. The country isn’t as bad as so many liberal elites wish it to be. Yes, “wish it.” The reality of America stands in contrast to the illusion of “some better place,” typically unnamed, but on occasion some European country like Sweden. The university liberals who denigrate the country never seem to acknowledge that their lives are better here than they would be “there”—wherever “there” might be. If they really thought the country is as bad as they say it is, there would be a mass exodus of university liberals—and other Leftists— for “better theres.”
Two Anecdotes
1) At an event at Youngstown State some quarter century ago, I sat at a luncheon with sundry professors. For whatever reason, my ears picked up a sentence from a Canadian professor at the next table speaking disdainfully of America, the country he chose for his job as a professor. Although I heard only a bit of the rather loud conversation, I did hear him ask, “When was America ever fair?”
Ah! Fairness, the liberal virtue-signaling go-to in many conversations. That comment coincided more or less with liberal pundits’ criticism of the Bush Administration for sending an aircraft carrier to the countries devastated by the Christmas tsunami. I mention this because Bush was ridiculed for the move by people who, thinking they were “elite,” had no knowledge that an aircraft carrier has the ability to turn salt water into fresh water and to aid injured people with its doctors and hospital rooms.
Want to talk about fairness? Ask any self-proclaimed “elite” to name a country that has provided more aid to other countries than America. And on the domestic scene, that same penchant for charitable aid has made the poorest of Americans vastly richer and better cared for than more than several billions of people living in other countries. Poverty in America doesn’t even come close to the destitute poverty elsewhere. Go visit India, Guatemala, and other countries where people struggle to feed their kids, where women carry sticks for firewood on their heads, where water is polluted and infrastructure is in disrepair if it exists at all. Go see the hovels composed of a palisade of sticks and branches topped by a rusting sheet of tin that make a structure people call homes outside Antigua Guatemala.
2) I took a Guatemalan family to a mall in Guatemala City, where I bought a pair of shoes for the little girl my wife and I sponsored. After buying her a pair of shoes, I offered to buy a second pair and socks. The socks came in a bundle of three. I didn’t bother to look at the price—they were cheap—but the social worker/translator who accompanied us said in astonishment, “Three pairs!” The exclamation caught me by surprise. My American penchant for excess was startling, I discovered.
Back home in America I think nothing of buying a bundle of socks or of replacing worn out running shoes, of buying shoes and clothes for grandchildren, of buying gift cards for friends and family. I realized in Guatemala City that when I’m home in America, I’m often unaware of the relative affluence in which I’m immersed. This is the America in which elite professors—even emigres—find themselves affluent and protected, free and coddled, and living in homes with garages for not one, but two cars as a third car sits in a driveway.
That comment by the Canadian-turned-US-professor, struck me as indicative of liberal dissociation from reality. And I mention it in the context of the many democratic countries’ dependence on America for their continued freedoms and safety, a context outlined in an editorial by William Hague in The Times (of London). Hague notes the dependence of the UK on America and writes about the reason for America’s superiority.
Hague’s Main Points
I don’t know whether that professor at the next table was a potential Nobel laureate or just a lecturer with little research in his vita. I do know that he left Canada to teach at Youngstown State. The question is “Why?” What was wrong with socialist Canada’s fine universities?
That foreign “intellectuals” have flocked to America is undeniable and Hague points this out as both a reason for America’s greatness and an indication that that greatness will likely continue. He writes, “That a large share of the world’s brilliant minds congregate in America is a critical and massive advantage. It is why, ultimately, China is unlikely ever to surpass the US: it can rely on the most ingenious members of a huge population, but few migrants will go to China to fulfill their dreams. The US recruits from a global talent pool that is nearly five times bigger.” *
So, chalk one up for America: It is a magnet for talent, skill, and innovation. “The most striking thing about visiting Silicon Valley is how many of the pioneers of new technologies and creators of the world’s most valuable companies that you meet were not born in the US. Many started their careers in India, and quite a few in Britain. That a large share of the world’s brilliant minds congregate in America is a critical and massive advantage.”
The country that American liberals—including immigrant liberals from Canada— denigrate is, in fact, superior to other countries for many reasons. Hague notes, “The result is clear, starkly laid out for EU leaders in the recent Draghi report. Incomes have grown twice as fast in the US as in Europe since 2000. None of Europe’s giant companies has been established in the past 50 years, but all of America’s six companies worth more than a trillion dollars were created in that period. The US spends more on research and innovation than its transatlantic allies and is far ahead on developing AI and building supercomputers.”
Yep. America isn’t really a bad place. And as far as fairness goes, it seems to me to be a bit fairer than most other countries. I wonder how many Guatemalans sponsor needy American kids, and I wonder how many migrant Canadian professors continue to live in Youngstown and other American cities rather than repatriate themselves.
*https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/like-it-or-not-us-is-more-powerful-than-ever-x8ln7qwd0
Two Anecdotes
1) At an event at Youngstown State some quarter century ago, I sat at a luncheon with sundry professors. For whatever reason, my ears picked up a sentence from a Canadian professor at the next table speaking disdainfully of America, the country he chose for his job as a professor. Although I heard only a bit of the rather loud conversation, I did hear him ask, “When was America ever fair?”
Ah! Fairness, the liberal virtue-signaling go-to in many conversations. That comment coincided more or less with liberal pundits’ criticism of the Bush Administration for sending an aircraft carrier to the countries devastated by the Christmas tsunami. I mention this because Bush was ridiculed for the move by people who, thinking they were “elite,” had no knowledge that an aircraft carrier has the ability to turn salt water into fresh water and to aid injured people with its doctors and hospital rooms.
Want to talk about fairness? Ask any self-proclaimed “elite” to name a country that has provided more aid to other countries than America. And on the domestic scene, that same penchant for charitable aid has made the poorest of Americans vastly richer and better cared for than more than several billions of people living in other countries. Poverty in America doesn’t even come close to the destitute poverty elsewhere. Go visit India, Guatemala, and other countries where people struggle to feed their kids, where women carry sticks for firewood on their heads, where water is polluted and infrastructure is in disrepair if it exists at all. Go see the hovels composed of a palisade of sticks and branches topped by a rusting sheet of tin that make a structure people call homes outside Antigua Guatemala.
2) I took a Guatemalan family to a mall in Guatemala City, where I bought a pair of shoes for the little girl my wife and I sponsored. After buying her a pair of shoes, I offered to buy a second pair and socks. The socks came in a bundle of three. I didn’t bother to look at the price—they were cheap—but the social worker/translator who accompanied us said in astonishment, “Three pairs!” The exclamation caught me by surprise. My American penchant for excess was startling, I discovered.
Back home in America I think nothing of buying a bundle of socks or of replacing worn out running shoes, of buying shoes and clothes for grandchildren, of buying gift cards for friends and family. I realized in Guatemala City that when I’m home in America, I’m often unaware of the relative affluence in which I’m immersed. This is the America in which elite professors—even emigres—find themselves affluent and protected, free and coddled, and living in homes with garages for not one, but two cars as a third car sits in a driveway.
That comment by the Canadian-turned-US-professor, struck me as indicative of liberal dissociation from reality. And I mention it in the context of the many democratic countries’ dependence on America for their continued freedoms and safety, a context outlined in an editorial by William Hague in The Times (of London). Hague notes the dependence of the UK on America and writes about the reason for America’s superiority.
Hague’s Main Points
I don’t know whether that professor at the next table was a potential Nobel laureate or just a lecturer with little research in his vita. I do know that he left Canada to teach at Youngstown State. The question is “Why?” What was wrong with socialist Canada’s fine universities?
That foreign “intellectuals” have flocked to America is undeniable and Hague points this out as both a reason for America’s greatness and an indication that that greatness will likely continue. He writes, “That a large share of the world’s brilliant minds congregate in America is a critical and massive advantage. It is why, ultimately, China is unlikely ever to surpass the US: it can rely on the most ingenious members of a huge population, but few migrants will go to China to fulfill their dreams. The US recruits from a global talent pool that is nearly five times bigger.” *
So, chalk one up for America: It is a magnet for talent, skill, and innovation. “The most striking thing about visiting Silicon Valley is how many of the pioneers of new technologies and creators of the world’s most valuable companies that you meet were not born in the US. Many started their careers in India, and quite a few in Britain. That a large share of the world’s brilliant minds congregate in America is a critical and massive advantage.”
The country that American liberals—including immigrant liberals from Canada— denigrate is, in fact, superior to other countries for many reasons. Hague notes, “The result is clear, starkly laid out for EU leaders in the recent Draghi report. Incomes have grown twice as fast in the US as in Europe since 2000. None of Europe’s giant companies has been established in the past 50 years, but all of America’s six companies worth more than a trillion dollars were created in that period. The US spends more on research and innovation than its transatlantic allies and is far ahead on developing AI and building supercomputers.”
Yep. America isn’t really a bad place. And as far as fairness goes, it seems to me to be a bit fairer than most other countries. I wonder how many Guatemalans sponsor needy American kids, and I wonder how many migrant Canadian professors continue to live in Youngstown and other American cities rather than repatriate themselves.
*https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/like-it-or-not-us-is-more-powerful-than-ever-x8ln7qwd0
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