What's So Great About America

In most countries in the world, your fate and your identity are handed to you; in
America, you determine them for yourself. America is a country where you get to
write the script of your own life. Your life is like a blank sheet of paper, and you are
the artist. This notion of being the architect of your own destiny is the incredibly
powerful idea that is behind the worldwide appeal of America. Young people
especially find irresistible the prospect of authoring the narrative of their own lives.

-- America has gone further than any other society in establishing equality of rights.
There is nothing distinctively American about slavery or bigotry. Slavery has existed
in virtually every culture, and xenophobia, prejudice and discrimination are
worldwide phenomena. Western civilization is the only civilization to mount a
principled campaign against slavery; no country expended more treasure and blood
to get rid of slavery than the United States. While racism remains a problem, this
country has made strenuous efforts to eradicate discrimination, even to the extent of
enacting policies that give legal preference in university admissions, jobs, and
government contracts to members of minority groups. Such policies remain
controversial, but the point is that it is extremely unlikely that a racist society would
have permitted such policies in the first place. And surely African Americans like
Jesse Jackson are vastly better off living in America than they would be if they were
to live in, say, Ethiopia or Somalia.

-- America has found a solution to the problem of religious and ethnic conflict that
continues to divide and terrorize much of the world. Visitors to places like New York
are amazed to see the way in which Serbs and Croatians, Sikhs and Hindus, Irish
Catholics and Irish Protestants, Jews and Palestinians, all seem to work and live
together in harmony. How is this possible when these same groups are spearing
each other and burning each other's homes in so many places in the world?

The American answer is twofold. First, separate the spheres of religion and
government so that no religion is given official preference but all are free to practice
their faith as they wish. Second, do not extend rights to racial or ethnic groups but
only to individuals; in this way, all are equal in the eyes of the law, opportunity is
open to anyone who can take advantage of it, and everybody who embraces the
American way of life can "become American."

Of course there are exceptions to these core principles, even in America. Racial
preferences are one such exception, which explains why they are controversial. But
in general, America is the only country in the world that extends full membership to
outsiders. The typical American could come to India, live for 40 years, and take
Indian citizenship. But he could not "become Indian." He wouldn't see himself that
way, nor would most Indians see him that way. In America, by contrast, hundreds of
millions have come from far-flung shores and over time they, or at least their
children, have in a profound and full sense "become American."

-- America has the kindest, gentlest foreign policy of any great power in world
history. Critics of the United States are likely to react to this truth with sputtering
outrage. They will point to long-standing American support for a Latin or Middle
Eastern despot, or the unjust internment of the Japanese during World War II, or
America's reluctance to impose sanctions on South Africa's apartheid regime.
However one feels about these particular cases, let us concede to the critics the
point that America is not always in the right.

What the critics leave out is the other side of the ledger. Twice in the 20th century,
the United States saved the world -- first from the Nazi threat, then from Soviet
totalitarianism. What would have been the world's fate if America had not existed?
After destroying Germany and Japan in World War II, the United States proceeded to
rebuild both countries, and today they are American allies. Now we are doing the
same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consider, too, how magnanimous the United
States has been to the former Soviet Union after its victory in the Cold War. For the
most part America is an abstaining superpower; it shows no real interest in
conquering and subjugating the rest of the world. (Imagine how the Soviets would
have acted if they had won the Cold War.) On occasion the United States intervenes
to overthrow a tyrannical regime or to halt massive human rights abuses in another
country, but it never stays to rule that country. In Grenada, Haiti and Bosnia, the
United States got in and then it got out. Moreover, when America does get into a war,
as in Iraq, its troops are supremely careful to avoid targeting civilians and to
minimize collateral damage. Even as America bombed the Taliban infrastructure
and hideouts, U.S. planes dropped food to avert hardship and starvation of Afghan
civilians. What other country does these things?

-- America, the freest nation on Earth, is also the most virtuous nation on Earth. This
point seems counterintuitive, given the amount of conspicuous vulgarity, vice and
immorality in America. Some Islamic fundamentalists argue that their regimes are
morally superior to the United States because they seek to foster virtue among the
citizens. Virtue, these fundamentalists argue, is a higher principle than liberty.
Indeed it is. And let us admit that in a free society, freedom will frequently be used
badly. Freedom, by definition, includes the freedom to do good or evil, to act nobly or
basely. But if freedom brings out the worst in people, it also brings out the best. The
millions of Americans who live decent, praiseworthy lives desire our highest
admiration because they have opted for the good when the good is not the only
available option. Even amid the temptations of a rich and free society, they have
remained on the straight path. Their virtue has special luster because it is freely
chosen.

By contrast, the societies that many Islamic fundamentalists seek would eliminate
the possibility of virtue. If the supply of virtue is insufficient in a free society like
America, it is almost nonexistent in an unfree society like Iran's. The reason is that
coerced virtues are not virtues at all. Consider the woman who is required to wear a
veil. There is no modesty in this, because she is being compelled. Compulsion
cannot produce virtue, it can only produce the outward semblance of virtue. Thus a
free society like America's is not merely more prosperous, more varied, more
peaceful, and more tolerant -- it is also morally superior to the theocratic and
authoritarian regimes that America's enemies advocate.

"To make us love our country," Edmund Burke once said, "our country ought to be
lovely." Burke's point is that we should love our country not just because it is ours,
but also because it is good. America is far from perfect, and there is lots of room for
improvement. In spite of its flaws, however, American life as it is lived today is the
best life that our world has to offer. Ultimately America is worthy of our love and
sacrifice because, more than any other society, it makes possible the good life, and
the life that is good.

Dinesh D'Souza's "What's So Great About America" has just been published in
paperback by Penguin Books. He is the Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at
Stanford University. E-mail: thedsouzas@aol.com.

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