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America's Communicative Arrogance
toward the Arab World
Paul Fallavollita
There has been much discussion about America
losing the public relations war in the Arab world.
Various pundits and politicians have come before
the cameras, calling for a renewed "Voice of America"
and "Radio Free Europe"-style operation directed
toward the public in the Arab world. They believe
such efforts will better communicate America's
"message," although it is unclear what exactly we
plan to tell the Arabs as our military shuttles about
their ancient and hallowed lands. These budding
propagandists have apparently forgotten, while
wallowing in their arrogance, to inquire whether
the average Arab already knows all he wants to
about America, and that it might be better if we
stopped forcing our message upon unreceptive ears.
The notion that American principles and values
are universal, or worse, that they should be made
so, is one of the most persistent flaws in the
prevailing political discourse today. One stuffed
shirt on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
suggested that Hollywood and Madison Avenue
were made in America, and that we should be able
to sway the Arab public with the same success
seen in the United States. Of course, our stuffed shirt
forgot to mention an important distinction: Hollywood
and Madison Avenue may be geographically in
America, but in all other respects bear the stamp of
the denizens of Tel Aviv.
This arrogance and lack of realism on the part of
our leadership toward understanding the
differences between American and foreign,
particularly traditional cultures, is astonishing,
at first glance. However, it becomes easier to
comprehend these failures of our elites when
viewed against the background of the idea that the
United States is a universal nation, and that
multiculturalism is destined to reign supreme.
America's decadent elites are increasingly
prisoners of their own narrow assumptions,
and left unchecked that will bring about their
ultimate demise. The elite view that the United
States is simply a successful, microcosmic
version of the United Nations will prove
untenable. One can only hope that some day
Americans will learn this without paying too
high a price in blood and treasure.
Reliance on Hollywood and Madison Avenue
to make America's "case" to the average Arab
is unwise, simply because Arabs are not
Americans. In our "diverse" society, it seems
Americans have forgotten what foreigners are,
that non-Americans might see things in
fundamentally different ways. Surely, we
cannot tout that forgetfulness as one of the
elusive "strengths" of diversity we always
hear about. Indeed, our leadership is proving
itself hypocritical. Far from respecting the
differences of others, it plans to intensify the
blanketing of the Arab world with American
news and culture to stamp out diversity and pave the way to forced homogenization.
The average Arab is much different from the
average TV-addicted American. Those who live
in traditional cultures, where life is lived a little
more slowly and in consonance with enduring
values, have much longer memories. America may
give the Arabs more radios, and even TVs and
remote controls, but no matter how many times
we invite them to click through 500 channels, the
Arabs will see the same thing: American materialism
and decadence. They are also unlikely to forget the
many injustices generated by America's
hyper-interventionist foreign policy over the years.
Pouring new money and effort down the rathole of a
new "Radio Free Europe" project in the Arab
world is useless, not to mention dangerous. As
satellite technology beams MTV and Skinemax
around the world, replete with programming
increasingly reliant upon gratuitous and blatant
sexuality and looseness, traditional peoples are
not likely to be convinced of American virtues.
Indeed, such a sharp contrast (brought to you by
the Jews of Hollywood and Madison Avenue),
will only heighten suspicions of American
Machiavellianism as we attempt to seem good,
rather than be good.
A true demonstration of American virtues, the
kind that typified the Old Republic, would be
quite different from the current plan to step up
our propaganda in the Arab world. Rather,
America should end its open-ended military
adventurism abroad, including in the Afghan
theater, and cut off all types of aid to that rogue
regime most responsible for inciting Arab ire: Israel.
On the cultural front, America is better off shutting
its mouth rather than building new megaphones
and broadcasting towers. It is high time to clean
up America's popular culture that so revolts those
more spiritual peoples overseas (and plenty of
Americans here at home). Pulling the plug forever
on borderline pornographic media products,
including Sumner Redstone's MTV, should be a priority.
Such a bold, America-First plan is sure to eliminate the
primary cause of terrorism against us: the pushiness
and projection of American decadence.
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Paul Fallavollita holds an M.A. in political science from
Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He can be
reached at pfallavollita@aol.com
PAUL FALLAVOLLITA
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