Perspective

I had an interesting discussion with one of my friends the other day about China and it's place in the world, and he got me thinking a lot about perspective. This conversation really wasn't about politics, but to me it really became politics. And then I spent some time reading up on Fareed Zakaria, who really put into perspective the Western view of China: "What took 100 years in Europe has taken one generation in China. And in handling this massive transformation, what is really striking is the absence of large-scale violence." Now don't get me wrong, like I told my friend, I am not a gung-ho believer of the Chinese government. Yes they were able to have unheard of economic growth, yes they were able to do it in less than 50 years, but a lot of what China did was and still is perceived as wrong.

I just had a thought on what perspective most of us today take the world from. For instance, China has been known to implement it's 'greatness' through propaganda, making her citizens believe that China is the best thing ever. Who's to say that the West is not a user of this tactic as well? I was reading on cnn.com about the "100 great things about America," 100 things in America that all Americans should take pride in: opportunity, freedom, Steve Jobs, innovation. Of the 100 things, I could not truthfully find fault in any of them. In America, we all do believe in these great crowning achievements. Who's to say that China cannot do the same? I will always be one of the first to speak against the Chinese government about the suppression of protesters and anti-Chinese government political activists(think Ai Weiwei), but I will also be one of the first to admit that, while it is terrible and violent, it has worked, and it continues to work.

But that's not the point of my conversation today, what is important is the perspective of the audience. We are, as living, breathing people, witness to the world around us. To Americans, we are the greatest, we are the dream. Throughout our history, we have conquered, subjugated, grown, and reached the pinnacle of human capability. But so did China. And so did a lot of empires and nations that don't exist today. The way I see it, this next century will probably be recorded by us, based simply on the fact that our language is the most widely used language in the 'recording' world. We are the American perspective. Our basic foundations of any nation, of any person, of any corporation, depend on the natural human rights. Based upon philosophers who believed that rights should belong to every individual, we consider them to be a 'changing same,' something that is critical to who we are and something that will always and has always been there. Our newspapers discuss the gray line between right and wrong because in our world there is a right, there is a wrong, and there is that gray area inbetween them. But think about this: In other nations, in other communities, the things that belong in each category are different. Every individual, I think, will always believe that they should have some thing. Every community, every nation, might think differently. By giving responsibility to our government, we are telling them that they can write history as they see it, as those who write history see it. In America, it is through the lens of liberties. Our media will always mention the enemy. To our enemy, they possess another lens through which they view us. For some, it might be the lens of stability, where their people, their media will always talk about us depending on whether or not we threaten or can help the stability of their nation. Or they might view us through the lens of fear, where their media will record the fear that we carry with us.

Each community can never say they are not biased, because with emotions there is bias. For us, we speak about the world through the eyes of a king, speaking about what we can give to those we see that are below us. This past decade focused on terrorism. We talked about how we should not fear them, for never was there a doubt in our eyes that we were stronger and better than them. Maybe this next century we will talk about the fall of China, or the rise of it, and I will definitely be interested to see if our media will shift lens'. Will our eyes shift from the perspective of a king? Will we no longer fear other nations deep down, but acknowledge it and change because of it.