New Statesman article
Excerpts from 'Why America can't cope' by Andrew Stephen
'The self-image of America, now largely adopted in Britain, too, is that of a nation of uniquely hardy and resilient people predestined by God to be omnipotent in the world, be it against the forces of nature or of bogeyman dictators.
Because, in reality, the reverse is so often true- present-day Americans, after all, are the most pampered human beings in history - the mythos fostered by popular cultre and especially Hollywood, have given rise to a complacency that is increasingly dangerous not only for the rest of the world but for Americans too.'
'Thus, the task of spearheading the mighty US government's response to Katrina was left to a twit appointed because of his social networking rather than any sound qualifications to lead. The prevailing ethos, after all, is that government is unimportant and can be left to amateurs, just like Bush himself.'
'Since 1993... progressively larger areas of protective wetlands had been lost forever in Louisiana alone. Bush then, in effect, froze spending on the US Army Corps of Engineers, the body responsible for protecting US coastlines and inland waterways from disaster. So that just at the point when the corps said it needed 62.5 m for the Louisiana urban flood control project in the next fiscal year, the Bush administration slashed its projected budget to 10.5 m.'
...'nurtured on tales that America is a paradise.. but the reality is that it is increasingly falling behind western Europe in technology, education and healthcare.'
Americans are 'self-deluded'. They still believe the myths that they're the greatest. But didn't Katrina show the reality? Didn't it show how vulnerable, inefficient, uncaring and brutal it really is?
