GUEST BLOG: John Stroh – Learning from History and what it really means to “AVOID AMERICA”

It’s a good line, ‘’we should learn from History”, but what if there’s no-one willing or able to help us learn. What if the teachers have been trained by those who would have us cow-tow to American commercial interests and the world’s leading neo-liberal power structures? What if, we are so tantalised by the comforts ensuing from an American lead jihad on ‘the good life’ that we stubbornly resist facing our nemesis in order to, perhaps, recover our humanity?

I am not an historian, but I did grow up in post WW2 Europe. I was educated in the best traditions of the war-mongers of our time; the French, English, Russian and Austrian ways of compelling others to do their will. I left for the New World in my early twenties. I had been duly educated in the finer points and subtleties of racism, fascism and the misogynist practices of the privileged elite of my generation at the ‘best’ schools.

Influencing other countries to conform to an elitist value system, such as that promoted by neo-liberal thinking, does not always require the placement of sleepers, the deployment of deep cover agents or even the presence of trained soldiers in mufti and counter-intelligence officers operating under the immunity of diplomatic cover. With sufficient, purpose specific vocabulary and some tasty morsels of commercial interest that can be deployed to seduce the unwitting, the entrenchment of status quo and the preservation of elitist class structures is all but guaranteed – as long as no-one rocks the boat too hard.

Not an etymologist, nor a psychiatrist, psychologist or for that matter any other ‘ist’ am I, one who is awarded status and authority to make determinations over what is good, bad or ugly. But, I smell a rat hidden within the sheep’s clothing of at least one word that is finding increased use amongst those indirectly promoting American neo-liberalism.

One such word is ‘isolationism’ and this is how the argument goes for those who cite isolationism: America’s Trump is establishing its right to focus on its national interests ahead of that of all other countries on earth. It is doing this by implementing isolationist strategies, laws, policies and programs. This is designed to boost its own commercial interests and make it a great country once again. Many other countries don’t like this. Retaliation with isolationist strategies only serves to acerbate the situation, so other countries must go along with the dictates of the lead dog.

It is worth noting that under this model of economic co-operation, it is only the view of the lead dog that changes. For many years the perfume of this approach served as our sniffing glue until our man Lange detected Uranium on their breath. We woke up one day and realised that we were on a little island in the Southern Ocean and that it probably didn’t matter if we showed them the finger. Or was it something else? Was it that we were finding our identity? Were we making a stand for what we believed was right? The consequences would be dire for our economy, they said. The sun would no longer rise in the east and any chance New Zealand might have to remain a constructive participant at any and all levels of human endeavour would cease to exist and that was thirty years ago that they told us this…

Even doddery Bolger and ditzy Shipley had the decency to understand that New Zealand had a unique national identity to protect, one that was strenuously attempting to heal the wounds of history; but then along came fact-free-Key. His position on the Husky team is way down the ranks as he jostles to maintain his head high so as not be afflicted by the increasing potency of the stench emanating from today’s America.

Another concept to reflect on is that of the narcissist megalomaniac, probably the only stereotype capable of truly rocking today’s neo-liberal boat. Trump is the epitome of this particular stereotype and as such, one that we have not seen since Adolf Hitler wooed the suckers who fell for his particular seductive style of fascist authoritarianism.

So is this man a blessing in disguise? Is he the saviour who will lift the dense layers of fog that befuddle Americans? Will he put an end to failed and corrupt neo-liberal ethics and return the country to the style of liberal socialism envisioned by its founding fathers? Or should we look for parallels with 1930s Germany? America will change under Trump’s Presidency. Checks and balances aside, if even a fraction of this man’s ideas are implemented, they will be in the vein of his historical role model. This we call not learning from history.

And that is why I ask, is it time to let go of America? Not, out of outrage over either Mr Trump or Mrs Clinton, nor over their respective supporters, but because of the instability that the new political reality brings with it.

This month’s 9/11 (NZ time) debacle in America reverberates uncomfortably in many communities across the world. It sets a new low standard for systemic political mayhem not seen since the time before the surprise invasion of Poland in 1939. There are as many possible outcomes now as there were then. For that reason alone it would seem prudent to re-assess our collective position as one of many small Southern Ocean communities. It may be foolish to now sit back and allow an egocentric narcissist like Mr Trump influence who we are or who we become as a nation. Easier said than done, but doing nothing is not an option even if our current Government chooses to turn a blind eye.

This is a wake-up call for the world to realise how unsavoury America has become and it does not help that over sixty percent of Americans disapproved of the two candidates on offer. The American people allowed this to happen. Part of any healing process is the phase in which we must learn to let go, but this is a difficult process when the media feeds on the object of our anger, grief or disappointment, a US President. Must it be?

What if we choose to disengage? What if we just “AVOID AMERICAN”? A handy slogan that may offer a generalised path to letting go of America, thereby allowing ourselves to consciously denounce the unhealthy and extreme neo-liberal values that have driven America to where it is today.

The spectacular emergence of repugnant, fascist, racist and misogynous personalities who will now rule the world’s hitherto most powerful country is more than just uncomfortable. So what can we do in our daily lives to safeguard our sanity and political integrity? The proposition at hand is to let go of America as a strategy for life and as a way of contributing to the healing our own communities that are breaking under the weight of failed neo-liberal politics.

“AVOID AMERICAN” has no rules, no members and no affiliations. It is a way of life that will find as many expressions as there are people to live it. People will require different levels of relief to appease their bad conscience, the one that tells them that they have contributed to the problem: living in the delusion that neo-liberal interpretation of democratic principles has worked. For some it will be useful to systematically evaluate their TV and social media preferences, their spending habits and group affiliations. For others it may just be an unorderly set of priorities that lead to more distance from things and beliefs American. And these priorities, expressed as intent, may change in nature and intensity over time, as relief sets in.

For instance, I commit to stop buying or using any American imports wherever possible, particularly in Supermarkets. I will try to identify Country of Origin on any product that I intend to purchase. I will deliberately avoid succumbing to the temptation of evaluating new American social media. I will stop using Facebook and Facebook Messenger on a regular basis, perhaps altogether – will see how it goes. I will stop using Apple and Google products as far as possible and will phase out my use of my Gmail account. Bill Gates products and Mozilla software will be forced exceptions to the “AVOID AMERICAN” rule at this stage and I will continue to use Bing as a search engine. It may take a while to find replacements for Google’s Android operating system and some apps.

In cases where it’s difficult to avoid buying American goods, I will attempt to purchase second hand product that is already in New Zealand. When purchasing new product, I will make every possible effort to avoid purchasing anything with components that are made in the USA. I will always award higher priority to non-American services when making purchase decisions.

I will no longer read media published in the US (I’ll leave that to more robust individuals at the Daily Blog for dissection). I have already eliminated all desktop and browser shortcuts to US owned business and media web-sites. I rely on Democracy Now, Aljazeera, the Intercept and the Daily Blog for news. It will take time to weed out American product and services from my daily life.

I am sad that this world of ours is manifesting itself in this way in the later stage of my life. I had always hoped that we were making progress towards a kinder, safer world in which fascism, racism and misogyny had a lesser presence. America now even seems to be finding new ways of rationalising the deliberate destruction of our planet. I think we have become very good at looking the other way and pretending all is well with our democracy – especially those of us with enough education to keep out of the poverty trough. There are many things most of our generation could have and should have done to postpone this blatant resurgence of a darker world. I am sad that the next generation will have to re-engage and work through those challenging battles that we discovered in the nineteen sixties and seventies and I hope that the global community can find ways to reverse the repugnant trends that America is setting for our world.

About John Stroh
Following a professional and management career with IBM in New Zealand and overseas, John owned and managed small companies in IT, niche market food exports to Japan and business consultancy. After his first wife, Annie, died in 2010, John ‘retired’ and spent several years in the remote outer Sounds. Now a Gold Card holder, he has remarried, has a husband & wife landscaping business and lives in an old farm homestead near Christchurch.