Making Democracy Work

Author: Bryan Goldberg '05

Since arriving at Middlebury College a little more than two years ago, I have taken more classes in the Japanese Department than any other. Indeed, Japan has always fascinated me, and I look forward to traveling there many times during the course of my life. The thing that impresses me about Japan, more than anything else, is its ability to fuse its own unique culture with everything that's great about Western Culture.

That is, even though Japanese language, writing, theatre, visual culture, cooking, religion, mannerisms and general behaviors differ greatly from those found in America and Europe, their political culture, legal code and economic structure is modeled after the successes found in the West. Indeed, the old saying, "Western things, Japanese spirit," has propelled Japan into one of the world's most successful nations in virtually every measure.

In this sense, Japan has proven to be one of the few nations in the world that has aptly discerned between "artistic culture" and "political and economic culture."

That is, the Japanese have embraced democracy, capitalism and the Western legal code while still enjoying their own artistic accomplishments as manifest in hundreds of forms from Noh theater to Sumo wrestling. For the most part, they have also maintained their traditional Buddhist and Shinto religions. Rarely, at any point in their modern history have they made the ridiculous argument that democracy, capitalism and equal rights cannot co-exist with a very foreign culture.

Unfortunately, even though the Japanese smartly recognized and embraced many elements of Western excellence almost 150 years ago, there are still many who live under the false conviction that democracy, capitalism and many other elements of Western ingenuity are somehow incompatible with some of today's struggling societies. Some on the left have gone so far as to suggest that concepts such as democracy and equal rights are not necessarily better, but are just "one way of doing it." These misguided people would have one believe that Shariah, the strict Islamic law that would have led to the stoning of Aminal Lawal, an innocent Nigerian mother, is an equally valid interpretation of how laws should be carried out. The fact, though, is that strict Islamic law is not just "a different way" of doing things, it is a definitively worse way of doing things.

Similarly, Taliban law, which forced women into burqua, was objectively horrible, and it is good that America toppled the tyrannical regime. Many disagree with this because of the universally accepted fallacy that human rights abuses are justified when shrouded as "cultural differences." They are not.

Human rights abuses, the denial of inalienable rights, the disenfranchisement of women and every other form of injustice that is found in dozens of nations should never be seen as "cultural differences."

Six months ago, the United States put an end to a tyrannical regime that was denying basic human rights to over 20 million people. The list of atrocities was so great that it would be unfair to those who suffered for me to attempt an enumeration. These were not a primitive people. Rather, they had accomplished many feats from an artistic standpoint, but their political culture was in shambles.

The American goal of spreading democracy, capitalism and equal rights doctrine to Iraq, both in hopes of augmenting the safety of America and the safety of the genocide-stricken Iraqis, will eventually succeed despite the sabotage efforts of a few thousand minority zealots. It is imperative, though, for Americans and Europeans alike to recognize the potential for Iraq, and for them to acknowledge that democracy and capitalism are objectively good and can be applied to every nation, even ones that celebrate a different culture.

As President Bush stated in his speech that was applauded the world over (except in Middlebury, Vt., it seems), the spreading of democracy and Western law is not "imperialism." Iraq's beautiful Islamic tradition can still co-exist with elected leaders.The United States is not trying to destroy foreign cultures, nor does President Bush have any desire to obliterate traditional Iraqi art, literature, language, calligraphy, cooking or religion. Rather, our nation and its leader want to show the people of Iraq that the accomplishments of the West, as manifest in political, economic and legal culture, are the best way of doing things.