Documentary

I had a good conversation with a professor at USC today about the state of the documentary I'm developing. She gave me tons to read...it was almost humorous, her answer to most of my questions went something like this, "oh, you should really read this book, or this article," and she kept piling things on me. Academics.

Eventually, I actually stopped her and told her about why I wanted to make a documentary, as opposed to say, write an article or book - to get more at the personal side of things, as opposed to simply the readerly. Anyhow, it was still good stuff.

We talked about how America is perceived around the world and she seemed to think, like most people, that America is perceived as ignorant and bossy to people in the middle east. Even the French and British, she insists tend to know more about the middle east and muslim culture and so forth, and therefore their news coverage and so forth tend to reflect a greater sophistication.

It got me thinking about the hostility towards America and I'm beginning to think it's all about power. America is probably less ignorant today than of any other time in our history. Prior to WWI, we were essentially an isolationist nation - we exercised power in subtle ways, but we weren't widely recognized as the exercisers of power around the world. Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire and so forth would exercise power much more liberally than the US.

During the Cold War, we exercised a great deal of power around the world, as a counterweight to the Soviets. We were the source of some anger, but we got to share it with the Soviets, who I'd argue, were probably worse than we were.

Without the Soviets, we are the lone super power. We exercise power overtly and without shame. And this builds resentment. Whether it's justified is another factor. I've been in a position of power at an office and believe me, the crap I dealt with from underlings was unbelievable...almost as unbelievable as the bullshit I had to take from my bosses.

With the exercise of power, we ought to expect a certain amount of resentment. My question for Americans is this: Do we deserve this power? Are we responsible enough to exercise it? Are we capable of being a good boss? Are we ready?

Part of me truly thinks the answer to this is no. We aren't ready. But the other question is - what is the alternative? Power will exist whether we exercise it or not. The question is whether we are better suited to exercise power over Iraq than Saddam. These types of questions are what we are faced with today. Perhaps this is a lens we ought to be using more, as opposed to the typical justifications of war, ethical, strategic, ideological, etc....