The United States has been the “most powerful country on earth” for a good number of years and this has resulted in a psychologically hazardous situation not only for ourselves but for others. I would not like to pick on any nation here but let me choose, perhaps because I like the sound of it, the Netherlands. Contrast the psychological landscape over the past decades of a resident there compared with the American resident. Do you have any idea what it can do to one’s mind to wake up every day knowing that you as you embody your country are the strongest of all nations? The results of this are not always pretty. A certain amount of arrogance almost inevitably seeps in. We become kind of like the guy who can never ask for directions. A tad of “my way or the highway” can seep in. It is not always good for a child when he knows that his dad is the “most powerful honcho in town.” Bad things, sometimes paradoxically, can happen to the little gray cells. Thus for the benefit of all Americas as well as the world, the time for unilateral action regarding many, many issues has long-since passed. Now we are facing a terrorism crisis in which (as is typically the case) lawlessness cloaks itself with self-justification, even righteousness. For everyone’s mental health and the global commonweal, let us act and abide in the company of close friends.
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