Our 'American Truth'

…..the recently deceased Boris Berezovsky, once the most powerful of the Russian oligarchs and the puppet master behind President Boris Yeltsin during the late 1990s. After looting billions in national wealth and elevating Vladimir Putin to the presidency, he overreached himself and eventually went into exile. According to the New York Times, he had planned to transform Russia into a fake two-party state-one social-democratic and one neoconservative-in which heated public battles would be fought on divisive, symbolic issues, while behind the scenes both parties would actually be controlled by the same ruling elites. With the citizenry thus permanently divided and popular dissatisfaction safely consistent with power for themselves, with little threat to their reign. Given America's history over the last couple of decades, perhaps we can guess where Berezovsky got his idea for such a clever political scheme.

David Stockman, who, as Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1981 to 1985, overlapped Roberts in service to the Reagan Administration, gave an interview on 19 April 2013 to Fox Business, which was reported under the headingThanks to the Fed, We're in "Monetary Fantasyland". His final paragraphs added a further perspective to the problems with which Unz and Roberts have been concerned:

Stockman said the real growth rate of the economy for the past 13 years has been the lowest since the Civil War and median income of the average family is down 8% since 2000.

"What we have is massive fiscal stimulus; what we have is a Fed that creates serial bubbles," Stockman said. "All of this creates kind of the appearance of prosperity temporarily and then the day of reckoning comes, the bubbles break. Then we have disaster in its wake and then they come back and say let's do more of the same so that we can get out of the mess that we're in."

Unz, Roberts and Stockman are all fiercely patriotic American writers. All have demonstrated through their work and lives a profound dedication to very high American ideals. In an imperfect world, some may think their ideals unrealistic. All, however, are experienced and accomplished in positions of high responsibility in managing the imperfections of this world. And all have been sufficiently troubled by what they observe and understand to be openly critical in ways that are likely to lose them favour in the circles that have shaped their lives.

For Australia, the most critical aspect of their insights concerns a type of rot in American culture and process. In this context, the latest American dream that innovative genius offers cost free solutions to deep seated problems can become a problem in itself. For instance, frequent claims that the innovation of fracking may turn America into another Saudi Arabia are far from reassuring. The problems outlined by Unz, Roberts and Stockman are too profound. They threaten the future viability of the US Dollar, American defence expenditure and American political integrity.

This leaves a high probability that Australia will quickly need to take its "Asian Century" rhetoric seriously and move far beyond the meaningless gestures of recent decades. While Prime Minister Gillard's recent visit to Beijing took important and informed steps forward, neither political nor administrative leaders seem to show any practical understanding of the cultural and educational challenges of a world where Anglo-American exceptionalism could become a troubled memory.