The Character of Nations

In an age that values cleverness over wisdom, it is not surprising that many superficial but clever books get more attention than a wise book like 'The Character of Nations' by Angelo Codevilla, even though the latter has far more serious implications for the changing character of our own nation.

The recently published second edition of Professor Codevilla’s book is remarkable just for its subject, quite aside from the impressive breadth of its scope and the depth of its insights. But clever people among today’s intelligentsia disdain the very idea that there is such a thing as “national character.”

Everything from punctuality to alcohol consumption may vary greatly from one country to another, but the “one world” ideology and the “multicultural” dogma make it obligatory for many among the intelligentsia to act as if none of this has anything to do with the poverty, corruption, and violence of much of the Third World or with the low standard of living in the Soviet Union, one of the most richly endowed nations on earth when it came to natural resources.

The Character of Nations is about far more than the fact that there are different behavior patterns in different countries — that, for example, “it is unimaginable to do business in China without paying bribes” but “to offer one in Japan is the greatest of faux pas.”

The real point is to show what kinds of behaviors produce what kinds of consequences — in the economy, in the family, in the government, and in other aspects of human life. Nor do the repercussions stop there. Government policies are not only affected by the culture of the country, but can in turn have a major impact on that culture, for good or ill.

Written in plain and sometimes blunt words, The Character of Nations is nevertheless the product of a man whose knowledge and experience span the globe, extending into economics, philosophy, and other fields, as well as encompassing the wisdom of the ancients and the follies of the moderns.

The book is an education in itself, more of an education than many students are likely to get at an Ivy League college. However, its purpose is not academic but to clarify the issues facing us all today when “the character of the American way of life is up for grabs perhaps more than ever before,” as the author puts it.

While nations differ, particular kinds of behavior produce particular kinds of results in country after country. Moreover, American society in recent years has been imitating behavior patterns that have produced negative — and sometimes catastrophic — consequences in many other countries around the world.

Among these patterns have been a concentration of decision-making power in government officials, an undermining of the role of the family, a “non-judgmental” attitude toward behavior, and a dissolution of the common bonds that hold a society together, leading to atomistic self-indulgences and group-identity politics that increasingly pits different segments of society against each other.

Those among the intelligentsia who say that we should “learn from other countries” almost invariably mean that we should imitate what other countries have done. Angelo Codevilla argues that we should learn from other countries’ mistakes, especially when those same mistakes have repeatedly produced bad results in many countries and among many very different peoples, living under very different political systems.

Putting ever more economic decisions in the hands of those with political power is just one of those mistakes with a track record of producing painful repercussions in many countries around the world. These repercussions have included not only serious economic losses but, even more important, a loss of personal freedom and self-respect, as ever-wider segments of the population become supplicants and sycophants of those with the power to dispense largess or to make one’s life miserable with legalistic or bureaucratic harassment.

We in America have taken large steps in that direction in recent years, and are accelerating our moves in that direction this year. Getting some clearer sense of what this risks is just one of many reasons to read The Character of Nations.

WRITTEN by Thomas Sowell at National Review on June 10th, 2009

What Are You Prepared to Do?

In the motion picture "The Untouchables", Kevin Costner plays legendary FBI man Elliot Ness. He is trying to break the grip of organized crime on the city of Chicago, and is running into obstacles at every turn when his partner puts things into clear resolve. Sean Connery's grizzled veteran police character turns to Ness and asks the key question: "What are you prepared to do?" It is this very response that is the key question that needs to be asked when talking about the big problems in our world today. There are many well meaning people in America who are concerned about Third World hunger. There are many well meaning people who are concerned about AIDS in Africa. There are many well meaning people who are concerned about illicit human and drug-trafficking. There are many well meaning people who are concerned about illegal aliens flooding into the United States. There are many well meaning people who are concerned about ethnic cleansing in various nations. There are many well meaning people who fully understand the danger from and are concerned about the spread of radical Islam. But most of these people don't have a clue as to what they should do next. Many simply resort to the easiest thing for them individually: they write a check. "Hey, if I mail off $20 to some organization each month, I can feed one child. If everyone did that, we could feed all the children." Nice sentiment, but is it true? The organization doesn't take your $20 and go shopping for the child whose photo and alleged 'bio' they sent to you. They pool all the money sent by people like you, and put it together in trying to improve conditions in some particular village or country. There are many good people, Christian missionaries and others, out there trying to do this good, necessary work. Unfortunately as often as the food and medical shipments get through to the village, they are even more frequently intercepted by military regimes in those nations, and sometimes by the governments themselves, and dispersed to a privileged few. That is the reality of what happens to the supplies bought by the check that you write. It is exactly what happened to the massive amounts of food and supplies purchased by the huge 'USA for Africa' effort that culminated in the storied 'Live Aid' concerts of the mid-1980's. In the end, a lot of people heard some good music, donated some money, and went home feeling good about themselves. But they never bothered to look into what all this happiness actually accomplished. That is the nature of much of liberal idealism: everyone be nice and take care of one another. All we are saying is give peace a chance. Feed the world. It takes a village. Why can't we all just get along? But that is not in any way effective in the reality of trying to actually accomplish something. The unfortunate fact of real life is that there are bad people in the world who simply will not allow that to happen. These people are motivated only by power and their own greed. The check that you write, the rock concert that you attend, the time that you donated in packing and shipping goods, none of it matters to them. When the boat arrives with the rice and medicine and equipment, they will steal it for themselves. There is only one way to deal with the situation. Think about it. Unfortunately, liberal idealists never want to 'go there'. Words like 'security', 'force', and 'war' are dirty words to them. You cannot simply buy stuff here in America, send it over on boats, and dump it on some dock in Africa. You need to then secure the supplies as they are unloaded and shipped to villages, and then need to ensure that the supplies are actually dispersed to the people for whom they were intended. This all takes security forces on the ground. And when the inevitable local warlords and militants try to steal the supplies, it will take more than waving a flag and saying 'sorry, this is not for you' to make them stop. And you won't solve the problems by one ship load of food and supplies. If you really want to stop hunger in Africa, then you will need to continue such shipments repeatedly. You will need to help the people learn to build and grow on their own, using their own natural resources. All of this will require continued security. But the evil people don't want your help. They just want you to go away so that they can return to dominating the region and controlling the people, abusing them for whatever purposes they desire. This is what you have to be willing to overcome. But you don't want to commit our American troops to Africa to fight these evil people, because that will take a near permanent commitment, at least will take decades. It will cost thousands of young Americans their lives fighting in the jungles of Africa to help build a civilization that can sustain itself. It will take decades and cost thousands of young American lives fighting in the fields of South America and the streets of America to truly win the War on Drugs. It will take decades and cost thousands of young American lives to fight off those who use ethnic cleansing as a tactic in Africa or Eastern Europe. But liberal idealists have already proven that they are not willing to continue similar efforts in the Middle East to help free people and protect nations from the grip of Islamofascism, right? The question for all those good meaning people in America who have legitimately big hearts and really want to help make the world a better place remains the same as it ever was: "What are you prepated to do?"