Statue of Fraternity

In my neighbourhood in Paris, there is a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty, built in recognition of the gift presented to a young America by its older mentor in 1886, celebrating the centenary of the war of independence. It stands on a crest of land abutting a bridge on the Seine, welcoming the tired, the hungry, the poor barge drivers, pleasure craft owners and tour boat operators entering the inner sanctums of the great city from rural France. One windy winter day, as I stood looking at this dwarfed green replica of the world's greatest symbol of individual freedom, I reflected on the choice of liberty as the prime virtue to be depicted by the statue, and to be the beacon call of America itself.

I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that, when they studied the national virtues and government structures of their French sponsors in search of a model to adopt, the leaders of the American Revolution placed greater emphasis on the virtue of liberté, the principle of individual freedom, than on fraternité (community, brotherly love) or egalité (equality). What else would we expect from the wealthy landowners and sons of privilege who signed the Declaration of Independence and set the tone for how America’s national values would shape up and evolve over time?

But who would have anticipated that the primacy of this simple principle – liberty – would have such a colossal impact on the whole world for the balance of what I fear will be a comparatively short-lived existence? Liberty, and America’s ongoing pursuit of happiness – at least for the descendents of that landed class of signatories - has informed domestic policies of low taxes for the rich and few services for those in need, little regulation of industries that pollute the planet and exploit impoverished workers in foreign lands while depriving American citizens of jobs at home, a domestic melting pot of fear that sees people living in virtual prisons behind gates and armed guards to keep out the riff-raff, and a gluttonous orgy of consumerism and materialism among the mass population that has spawned an epidemic of obesity, plastic surgery, debt, and diabetes.

And this is not to mention a foreign policy shamelessly and transparently based on “American national interest”. The legacy of American engagement in the world is a literal feast of greed and selfishness of biblical proportion: Its refusal to enter World War II until it was itself attacked left other countries big and small to try to fend off tyranny in its most evil form. Active US support of a host of ruthless dictators from Marcos and Somoza to the Shah of Iran, Pinochet, and the military junta in El Salvador – not to mention the tyrants they set up but ultimately turned on, like Noriega and one Saddam Hussein - resulted in the torture, disappearance and death of thousands, maybe millions…all to protect and preserve American national, and often corporate, interest. I mentioned a few of these names to an American heckler at Speaker’s Corner in London one Sunday, when I could no longer stomach his assertion that “America was a beacon of liberty and freedom for the world”. He stormed off, unwilling to face the fact that America was really only a beacon of liberty and freedom to Americans, and few of them at that.

And now we come to America’s latest project – the “democratization” of the planet – read opening up and securing markets for American consumers, products and services. This policy has seen America (and others) imposing free market democracy on countries that are clearly not ready for it, spreading ethnic hatred and often genocide. Even before the calamity that is Iraq unfolded, Amy Chua wrote a great book called World on Fire, that explores the horrific impact of this policy across the globe. Surely enough has been written about ongoing US efforts to stoke the fires of the Middle East in order to justify its military presence there (and thereby protect its oil reserves).

It is sad, but again perhaps not surprising, that King Louis XVI and his cohorts were not in a position to impart to their American students the other French virtues of brotherly love and equality – before losing their heads. For that matter, is it any wonder that these two old friends, both among the most powerful countries on earth, and each completely enamored of its own sense of self-importance and greatness, spend much of their time these days butting heads and opposing each other's ongoing litany of self-serving policies for the planet?

Don't get me wrong. I admire the US on may levels - the optimism, the boldness, the embrace of the future. But as I stood on that windy day looking at Liberty's "mini-me", I found myself wondering what the last 230 years might have looked like if the French had shipped a “Statue of Fraternity” to New York… if the Americans had only understood the beautiful balance created by the harmony of the three French virtues taken together, or if they had focused on one or both of the others and not liberty. What course would human history have taken? What would the headlines have been through the ages?

Here are just a few of the possibilities that occurred to me:

• 1777 - Washington and Jefferson free their slaves: Declare slavery incompatible with American values of fraternity and equality
• 1778 – Slavery abolished in US
• 1779 – Women given the vote
• 1862 – Lincoln holds conference to resolve North/South issues
• 1864 – Lincoln re-elected
• 1940 – Americans enter war
• 1942 - Victory! – Germany turned out of France; concentration camps discovered
• 1945 – United Nations formed – US promises support and means it
• 1960 – Kennedy elected
• 1964 – Kennedy pulls last US advisors out of Viet Nam
• 1964 – JFK re-elected – introduces sweeping civil rights legislation
• 1965 – Kennedy signs comprehensive nuclear disarmament treaty with Soviet Union
• 1966 – Cold War over!
• 1968 – Robert Kennedy elected president
• 1970 – RFK orders massive FBI sweep to destroy Mafia
• 1972 – Nixon appointed CEO of Disney

OK, so this may be a little extreme. But I submit that the possibility of any or all of these headlines would have grown exponentially if only America (and Americans) placed the same emphasis on fraternity and equality that they do on liberty. Slavery, the American Civil War, the Holocaust, the Viet Nam War, the Cold War, and possibly even the drug epidemic could have been averted, contained or minimized, if only the notion of fraternity and equality had resonated the way liberty did.

What do you think? Go ahead. Dare to dream about what could have been for this planet. Add your own headlines….or feel free to challenge mine.