Sunday, March 10, 2013

Imposing Kindness


James Cone    
Instructor Stacy Knapp
English 1A
March 10, 2013
           
Throughout the history of man, pride has been the downfall of many great nations and societies. Allowing help from another person is not easy, and in fact, it goes against our primary instinct of self-preservation. “Like truculent adolescents, we do not want to be told how to do things, or have them done for us; we want to make our own, even fatal, mistakes” (15). It is hardwired in us to fight harder and to explore more avenues for a solution that is our own. Robin Fox expresses this idea in his article, “The Kindness of Strangers” as an example of why America’s efforts to cultivate democracy in Iraq was near impossible.

America is a country that strives on equality. It has gone through trials and tribulations, to then rise from the ashes into the democratic country that it is today. A beautiful progression that did not happen overnight. What happens when a country like the U.S. imposes its government on a country like Iraq? Iraq is a country that is suffering from the same growing pains that America did prior to its colonization.  Fox talks about the relationship between America and Iraq, and how sometimes well intentioned acts of kindness are not always well received. Sometimes the imposing of ones’ assistance or advice can be invasive.

Why is it Iraq is not willing to receive with open arms America’s great tidings of freedom and reform? First, in Iraq a random of act of kindness is a foreign concept. It is probably puzzling to them why people would want to go to serious lengths to help them. For example, the commonest of weddings in Iraq are often between cousins, even parallel paternal cousins. This is because close family is the only people that the Iraqi’s can truly trust (18). The idea of marrying a complete stranger is preposterous to them, and the idea of an entire nation wanting to help must be insane. 

Fox emphasizes that a country cannot be pulled from the grasps of a corrupt government even with the insistent help of another nation. He writes, “The goals set, beyond the toppling of Saddam, were impossible, and the real mystery is why our leaders ever thought they could be achieved. The administration may, by increased force and bribery…patch up some kind of ‘order’ for a while. But it cannot recreate the whole civil infrastructure and the sea change of values that underpin a functioning liberal democracy” (21). His claim is based on the fact, that even after relinquishing Saddam Huisan from his dictatorship, the violence in Iraq between the people and the government continues. 

 America’s efforts to implement democracy in Iraq is like lecturing to a person who has a drinking problem, but he/she is at the place in their life where they want to continue to drink. You cannot instill the desire to change in the person, it must come from within themselves.Fox concludes that Iraq is not ready for democracy. That we in America look to unity as a solution for a struggling nation, a concept that is not shared by the country of Iraq. They have not endured the turbulent phases that must come before a society can truly achieve democracy. America is trying to bypass this and make Iraq succumb to the same government as the United States.
           
Works Cited

1.    Fox, Robin. "The Kindness of Strangers." Society 44.6 (2007): 164-70. Print.
            

No comments:

Post a Comment