Alistair Cooke, prophet
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006Alistair Cooke was a legend of British radio, sending his weekly ‘Letter from America’ to provide thoughtful insights into the differences between the British and Americans, as well as more general observations of American lif and politics. It was always a pleasant surprise to turn the radio on and find his calm narration on American life. Following his death in 2004, a book was released chronicling choice ‘letters’ from the 60 years he spent doing Letter from America.
I bought the book around last Christmas, but I sadly never got around to reading it, but spotted it again today and have finally begun to read. On only the second page, part of a broadcast from 1946, I was struck by a comment that couldn’t have been more prescient had he been using a crystal ball:
Americans are not particularly good at sensing the real elements of another people’s culture. It helps them to approach foreigners with carefree warmth and an animated lack of misgiving. It also makes them, on the whole, poor administrators on foreign soil. They find it almost impossible to believe that poorer peoples, far from the Statue of Liberty, should not want in their heart of hearts to become Americans. If it should happen that America, in its new period of world power, comes to do what every other world power has done: if Americans should have to govern large numbers of foreigners, you must expect that Americans will be well hated before they are admired for themselves.
A mere 55 years before the attacks on the World Trade Centre, here was Alistair Cooke warning of the potential troubles America could have with foreign policy and imposing its own culture on others. The trouble America has had in creating democracy in its own image in Afghanistan and Iraq provides striking parallels with Alistair Cooke’s words all those years ago. That’s simplifying things, as there is obviously a huge number of other factors affecting the current state of affairs, but the general point about Americans (in general) having trouble understanding other cultures’ perspectives still rings true today.
Cooke was by no means anti-American either. The simple fact that he spent 60 years writing and recording his letters from America show how happy he was staying there, but he was also adept at noticing the small differences - both positive and negative - even in his earliest correspondences.
Hopefully this post won’t be taken the wrong way, that short passage just really stood out to me - and on only the second page!