NY Times Article Critique - Assignment Example

? NY Times Article Critique Word Count 300 Introduction Robert Wright’s “Two Years Later, A Thousand Years Ago” is a profound piece. Wright argueseloquently and convincingly that history and morals both have profound impact on how the United States will respond to global terrorism.1 Wright makes it clear that America only has a few choices when it comes to protecting its freedoms, and that security and liberty is directly tied to how the U.S. chooses to defend itself from attack. In this particular piece, what will be focused on are the following elements: globalization and agreement or disagreement with Kaplan on various issues; America’s ‘grander mission’ and its ‘deep and subtle moral challenge’; and whether Kipling’s view of human nature would be more in agreement with Wright or Kaplan, after having read Kim. Globalization and Agreement or Disagreement on the Issues Wright’s argument was that globalization is a force that has ultimately contributed to why the 9/11 attacks occurred. Wright is saying that if there were more financial equality in the Middle East, then perhaps there would not be rioting and all kinds of dissent among people in the Arab world regarding savage inequalities. These inequalities are problems like poverty and high populations, and not enough resources. Perhaps one of the greatest issues, however, that concerns the Middle East is how poverty has affected the people. People in these regions feel very upset that they are being ignored. Take, for example, the current situation in Syria. These people, hundreds of thousands of them, have been left to die at the hands of Bashar Assad. The president of Syria thinks that just because he can kill people, he should kill people. He hedged a bet that no one would stop him, and he was right. He is figuring on being able to kill a lot of defenseless, innocent people just because he can. What is sickening about this is that the globalized world is standing idly by while this monster kills his own people and nothing is being done about it. Globalized nations should be nations hopefully at least leaning towards democracy. In that sense, Wright agrees with Kaplan. Undoubtedly, what Wright has been able to achieve in this piece is to connect the historical dots here and illustrate what is the fundamental problem between the East and the West in earnest. America’s “Grander Mission” and Its “Deep and Subtle Moral Challenge” What is America’s “grander mission”? It seems that America’s grander mission would be to help those less fortunate than itself. However, that is not always the case, sadly. While in the U.S. we attempt to give aid to those who most need it, unfortunately what the case is is that we are drowning in a budget deficit that threatens to send us off the edge of a fiscal cliff. While America’s greater or grander mission is to help those who are less fortunate, we must also realize our deep and subtle moral challenges. Those moral challenges include: taking the moral high ground; having interest in situations where they do not necessarily benefit us financially but are still situations in which people need help; and not benefiting from the suffering of others. One of America’s biggest issues is that its leaders only do things that are for their own benefit or America’s benefit. For example, one of the key reasons America does not have a vested interest in helping the Syrians is because they have no oil. They have no resources to offer the U.S. in return for what the Americans would do for them. And, unfortunately, that kind of reciprocity is exactly why the U.S. got involved in Libya and Iraq—because the oilfields there would have jeopardized the oil deliveries to the U.S. and other countries. The key word here is the United States. Anything affecting the United States directly are what we consider our best interests. Unfortunately, that is a selfish policy that our leaders execute while forgetting about people who are suffering elsewhere that have just as valid plights from which they need to find relief. The problem is that America does not take into account for peoples’ health. The U.S. wants to police the world, yet it fails to consider that helping level the playing field among different groups would greatly help people in those countries to gain upward mobility. Unfortunately, American foreign policy is such that it deigns whichever country does not have monetary gain to be gotten is forgotten by the U.S. That is such a destructive part of the American foreign policy legacy that has been left out of Wright’s article, which is the other side of the argument. Hopefully, what we can take away from this knowledge is that the U.S. has to be more sympathetic to the plight of those who are living in foreign countries that happen to be less financially able to support themselves. A lot of people need economic help, not just pleas of platitudes from writer Robert Wright is going to help. People in the U.S. have to be fired up and take action—supporting good causes with their time if not their money. Perhaps they could even give some of their talent. For, the important thing for us to remember, if the U.S. does have a moral foundation, is for us to realize that we must help our neighbors in need and remember that we can also use our ingenuity and patriotism to help those people living in countries that are less fortunate than we. Kipling’s View of Human Nature: Would He Agree With Wright or Kaplan? After having read Kipling’s novel Kim, it is very dicey trying to balance two worlds. In Kim’s case, he was having to balance the worlds of Buddhism with Russian spying. Ultimately, the book does not say what outcome he chooses. However, he alludes to the ending of the book by saying that he is not a sahib but that he was a chela. Generally, a sahib is a polite title of address for a man in India. However, Kim became a chela, or an assistant to a lama—and he helped the lama go on a spiritual journey into the mountains. To some extent, it seems that Kipling would have agreed more with Kaplan about the issues of human nature, that they are even more complex than Robert Wright was trying to articulate in his article. In this sense, it is a fundamental issue that must be now taken seriously. Conclusion Wright has written a masterful piece here that transcends time, and, in fact it has for nine years. Even having read this piece in 2012, much if not all of what Wright said in his article is true. That is why it is so important to get this problem of poverty within the Middle East resolved—or at least find a salve to help people get through these difficult economic times. More sanctions only hurt the people the most and do not effectively cripple the government officials; they merely hurt people on the ground. What is necessary is to continue this conversation is about: globalization and how Wright agrees or disagrees with Kaplan; what we define to be America’s “grander mission” and its “deep and subtle moral challenge”; and what Kipling’s view of human nature would be with regard to whom he would agree with more, Wright or Kaplan. Wright has shown in this piece that he is a serious editorial writer with the goal of informing the public about the true state of how the Arab world views the West and why this contributed to the idea of manifest destiny and why 9/11 essentially occurred on our soil, consequentially. Without a doubt, Wright’s unique piece here has shown us, with the proof of history to bolster his claims, that globalization has helped some and hurt others—and, that in order to remedy that, we must level the playing field. Thusly, it is most important to giving people equal chances to succeed in our global economy. WORKS CITED Wright, Robert. "Two Years Later, A Thousand Years Ago." The New York Times Op-Ed [New York City] 11 September 2003: 1. Read More