Apparently U.S. government funds weren’t appropriated to put the thing together, so the organizers had to raise corporate money. Which is fine, but instead of putting together a real exhibition about the United States and then slapping a nice “thanks to a generous sponsors” panel together, they really only managed to assemble what amounts to a series of advertisements for the U.S. brands who put up the money plus a couple of barely coherent movies. The mightiest nation on earth probably doesn’t need to brag, but it would be nice if one of those films said something—anything—about the actual achievements and history of the country. Instead, we get kids talking about the importance of innovation and a bizarre parable about a group of people coming together to build a community garden.
Most problematic of all, at one point Hillary Clinton appears on screen on says the pavilion will highlight “core American values” and then doesn’t mention democracy or anything resembling democracy. I can see making the decision that you don’t want to try to talk about democracy in China, but if that’s the decision you make then I think you can’t talk about core American values. What’s more, talking about democracy as a core American value actually seems like the most benign way you could talk about it in China. You don’t need to say “democracy is awesome and we plan to use our military might to impose it on the world,” you’re simply saying democracy is crucial to American political culture and debates about political reform in our society almost always take the form of arguments about how to become more democratic. Certainly the Chinese pavilion isn’t shy about promoting the slogan of “harmonious society.”
It also struck me as odd that the videos featured Kobe Bryant as a representative of America, since he seems like one of our least-likable major athletes. I’m told, however, that polls show Kobe is one of the most-beloved Americans in China and apparently that was borne out during the Beijing Olympics.
Perhaps the most striking embodiment of the aggrandizing culture of the corporation is Wal-Mart, the consumer's low-cost paradise and the perfect economic complement to Superpower. In its own way it is an invasive, totalizing power, continuously establishing footholds in local communities, destroy8ing small businesses that are unable to compete, forcing low wages, harsh working conditions, and poor health care on its employees, discouraging unionization. It is inverted totalitarianism in a corporate, imperial mode.As the scandals about Enron and WorldCom demonstrated, the self-interest of the corporate executive takes precedence over the interests of the institution. During the last decade corporate crimes and abuses involving the highest executive levels have been commonplace: cheating, lying, deceptive practices, extraordinary bonuses despite corporate failure, ruthless conduct, and so forth. Recall that in the Reagan presidency, corporate managers rather than public service--oriented officials dominated the upper levels of government, bringing with them a corporate ethos. Not surprisingly, "conflicts of interest" flourished. Equally unsurprising, the reverse did not occur; no corporate executive stood accursed of sacrificing private interest to the common good. The effect of persistent, pervasive corporate misconduct is to promote public distrust of power holders in general. From Superpower's vantage point public cynicism, far from being deplorable, is one more element contributing to political demoralization and languor....The broad question is whether democracy is possible when the dominate ethos in the economy fosters anti political and antidemocratic behavior and values; when the corporate world is both the principle supplier of political leadership and the main source of political corruption; and when small investors occupy a position of powerlessness comparable to that of the average voter.
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