My professor and I found ourselves in discourse about 'democracy'; for someone so against the current state of American foreign policy, I was surprised to hear his argument that "for as long as [he] felt that he deserves democracy, [he] believe[s] that [his] brother in another country deserves it as well."Well. Not one kind of democracy will work everywhere in the world. Everyone has different cultural values.
"This" kind of democracy, this capitalism, it's accepted in America. Does it work? For a select group, yeah it works.
But America is a place of individualism, of rising that social ladder. Not all places are like that. The Philippines, the country where American democracy (and all its hypocrisies) has been "bestowed" from the oh-so-benevolent Americans, is not a place of individualism. Kinship, community, entertainment, sustenance... the Filipinos have different priorities. But then again, who knows how long those priorities will stay the way they are--maybe American "values" will cross the Pacific in my generation, or my kids'.
Anyway. Something to munch on.
Image Source: motz under Creative Commons
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