Media transcripts aren't crop-limited? Fareed ZAKARIA piece is priceless.

[UTUSN]

If it falls under the copyright rule, I'll cut it down, but the whole thing is priceless.

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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2008/30/fzgps.01.html
ZAKARIA: I want to conclude the special by giving you my thoughts. America is a strange country, at once amazingly dynamic and yet utterly chaotic. It can be an inspiration to the world for its values, but also a constant reminder of its own unresolved tragedies like racism. It has shocked the world with its generosity and broad mindedness, and also with its selfishness and isolation.

The quintessentially American poet Walt Whitman wrote, "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." This has been the story of America and the world, sometimes a beacon of hope, at other times a picture of arrogance and aggression.

But what is going on now is something different from that age old tale. People are not shocked today, so much by what America does around the world, but by what America is. They are stunned not so much by the country's maligned qualities like racism, but rather its dysfunction.

The Irish writer Fintan O'Toole described the situation thus, "Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world; love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now, pity."

Before we start shedding tears for America's weakness, let's keep in mind that the United States remains extraordinarily powerful along many dimensions. Its best companies dominate the world of technology. Its universities are the envy of the world. It's movies, television and music still set the standard for global popular culture. The world of social media is shaped and given force by Americans. But America is now crippled along one crucial dimension, it's government and politics are an international laughingstock. The country that could land men on the moon and bring them back safely, cannot put together a testing and tracing program that would compare with those in Vietnam or New Zealand.

Its political system is now so polarized and paralyzed that many of us fear the November election will ultimately be resolved in court, though with the real possibility that the losing side will still contest the legitimacy of the winner, and street violence could ensue.

What has happened? As with any complex historical phenomenon, there is no one answer. But ever since Vietnam and Watergate, America has lost faith in Washington. Ronald Reagan celebrated the idea that Washington was responsible for all America's woes. It somehow became the definition of patriotism, to love the country and yet hate its government, and that created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As government was defunded and delegitimized, it became more dysfunctional. Then confirming the views of antigovernment activists. But beyond America, there's also a story here about the rise of the rest.

For a long time, America had a huge advantage. There were very few countries on the planet that had gotten their acts together. The United States, a handful in Western Europe and in East Asia that defined the advanced world. But over the last three decades, other countries, lots of other countries have become savvy at economics and politics and government.

Places like Singapore rival the best in the world for government. South Korea and Taiwan, once corrupt autocracies, have handled the pandemic with extraordinary skill. Canada and Australia have managed to combine an Anglo-Saxon cultural freedom with a caring and efficient welfare state.

Suddenly, America faces competition and goes well beyond China. The U.S. faces a choice now, it can either consider the pandemic awakened call, learn from its mistakes and other's successes and get to work and reform.

Or it can delude itself that it is still number one, that it's testing is the best, it's response has been amazing, its numbers are phenomenal. That latter attitude, of course, is the road to decay and decline. You see, once upon a time, the world needed to learn from America. Now, America needs to learn from the world.

Thanks to all of you for being part of this special edition of GPS, and I will see you next week.

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[futureliveshere]

1. Wow.. that is a remarkably self aware commentary!

I hope it reaches far and wide. We are seeing an empire in decay and dissolving into a fascist republic before our eyes accompanied by a tragic and wholly unnecessary loss of lives. We need to open our eyes and GOTV like our lives and the life of the country depends on it this year, because it does.

[Hekate]

2. Fareed Zakaria always strikes me as a very wise & articulate observer of America,his adopted country

I would only add one word to “pity” — and that word is “squandered.”

Thank you for bringing this here, UTUSN. It’s well worth reading.

[Klaralven]

3. The US has become like Austria-Hungary in the late 1800s prior to WW I

It had the government that inspired Franz Kafka.