Singapore is an amazing country. It very packed into a little space, yet rarely feels cramped or crowded. It relies on high rises and a concrete jungle to create space for living and business, yet it is remarkably green and tropical. It is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, yet one of the most environmentally friendly. It is amazingly multicultural with people from both the East and West, yet remarkably devoid of many racial tensions. It is also remarkably religiously diverse, yet few tensions over religious diversity.
It seems there is much the rest of the world could learn from Singapore. Still, it is not a utopia. The way they have accomplished this includes taking away some of the precious freedoms we love in the United States. There are strict quotas for where people live. There is greater regulation over many behaviors, including it being illegal to chew gum or eat/drink in some public places. There are challenges and limits to the ability to speak out against the government and it does not seem the elections are really free. Yet, there seems to be very little discontent, little poverty, and few drug problems.
I'm sure most who read this will not agree with what I say in the next couple of paragraphs. Many may be angered and accuse me of being unAmerican. Some may want to encourage me to move to Singapore. But I hope people can understand where I am coming from. I like democracy and greatly treasure being a US citizen, but part of the reason I treasure this is because I am allowed to be critical of it and I am allowed to play with ideas that many would consider "unAmerican."
I do not think we have arrived at the perfect form of government. Democracy, for all its wonders, is not perfect. This is extraordinarily evident with many of the problems we face today in America. It is important to remember that many of the founders considered American democracy to be an experiment. They did not think that we had arrived, or discovered any perfect form of government. They knew we had much to learn and would make many mistakes along the way. Many areas that are very important for the future of the United States and the world are areas where we are failing. In many of these very places Singapore is excelling. In addition to the many other areas already mentioned, Singapore is much better than America at providing health care to those who need it and values education on a national level much better than we do in the US.
So what can we learn from this, especially from an existential perspective? Even politically, freedom and responsibility are always connected. Freedom is also connected to risk. Greater freedom means greater risk. In the US we've been arguing and debating this greatly since 9/11, but often missing the existential level of the question. Instead, the debate has been placed on the realm of ideals. When talking about ideals, freedom will almost always win over risk. But this is not reality. Post 9/11 we've taken away a great many freedoms in the name of protecting freedom. Interestingly enough, it is the people who have taken away the freedom that most often engage in the rhetorical speeches about freedom while accusing their opponents of being haters of freedom. Paradox.
On the trip, my colleague Jim Ungvarsky, presented on self deception. In this presentation he used a quote that basically stated if you say something often enough you will come to believe it. Maybe we have done this in America. Maybe we have said that "America is the greatest country in the world" enough to not just believe this, but also to believe it so blindly that we are unable to see the value in alternative perspectives; that we are unable to learn from the successes of countries such as Singapore. When we say, "America is the greatest country in the world," I think we need to ask, "By who's standards?"
I value my freedoms and the freedom of speech in particular is very important to me. But I can also see the value in the form of government that exists in Singapore. I don't think I would function well as a Singapore citizen as I would get myself into too much trouble speaking my mind. I can visit here and "be good," but I don't think I could live this way. But yet I can honor those that see this as a pretty good life. And I think by many standards, Singapore could be in the running for "the greatest country in the world." It is done what few, if any, countries have been able to do on many social and environment issues.
Some may be muttering under their breath now, "Love it or leave it" -- an American phrase that couldn't be more in contradiction to the values on which America is based. But let us not forget, America has its coersion, too. I know many colleagues and friends who have had bad experiences from being accused of being "unAmerican" for exercising their very American right of free speech. Our coersion is not the same as Singapore, but instead is a different form of social coersion. When people do not agree with the dominant view of American culture, they are ostrecized, made uncomfortable in their jobs, given diagnoses or other derogatory labels, or maybe event removed from their jobs or social circles. As Chomsky once said, "Rhetoric to a democracy is what the military is to a dictatorship." In addition to rhetoric, I think we could also add social pressure. Yet, we, in America, are critical of the focus on social harmony and not allowing for disagreement that is prevalent in different ways in China and Singapore.
I think my biggest criticism of the US is that we are blinded to the paradoxes that we live with on a daily basis. We are great, but not so great. We do many things well, but we have much to learn from countries very different from us like China and Singapore. In China, many scholars and social researchers have pointed out that they have done more to alleviate poverty and improve the standard of living for more people in a short period of time than any country in history. This has been accomplished during a period of great social change, which you would think would be a challenge to such social progress. China, too, is not perfect, but no country is, not even the US. And China is doing some amazing things in areas we have failed.
The more I spend time in various places around the world, and expose my worldview to many different perspectives, the more I can see value in the many different perspectives and governmental experiments in existence around the world. If we could lay aside the adolescent talk about "who is the greatest," maybe we could learn from each other. Maybe we could have greater respect for our differences. I am not advocating that we ignore the atrocities occuring in places like the Sudan, but I am saying that we should be looking more to what others are doing right and trying to learn from them. We also need to be more honest about the decisions we are making.
Freedom comes with risk, and freedom comes with responsibility. To ask for anything else is to deny basic existential realities -- politically and personally. I have long advocated that Americans too often naively seek after freedom with out responsbility, but they also often seek freedom without risk. There is no such thing. Americans like to claim to live in the greatest country in the world -- again, there is no such thing in my mind. American may be great, but it also may be that the most threatening challenge to our greatness is our insistance of being the greatest. Once again, paradox.