After being introduced by Hamilton College Professor Steve Orvis as "one of the best known social scientists from Africa, ever," Ali Mazrui presented his lecture, titled "The Roots of Rage: Why is the U.S. Unloved in the Muslim World and Beyond" on February 23 at Hamilton. Mazrui, the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, and recently appointed as the Chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya, presented to an attentive crowd of students, faculty and community members in the Chapel.
Mazrui issued a brief warning against his own opinions before he began; he asked the audience to "disagree and sill remain friends."
He then began by discussing why the United States is "unloved" by the Islamic world. September 11, Mazrui explained, forced this idea to the forefront. Many people, following 9/11, asked whether this was the beginning of the clash of civilizations. Mazrui reflected back to an article published in 1993 by political scientist Samuel Huntington; in his article, Huntington argued that the major conflicts of the world for years to come would be between coalitions and culture, not nation-states. After the Cold War, there would be, according to Huntington, an inevitable unfolding clash. Mazrui, among other critics of this idea, argue that there have been clashes between cultures for centuries now.
Mazrui then explained his own outline of phases that clashes have undergone during the course of human history. The first stage was the genocidal phase, which occurred whenever a triumphant civilization attempted to obliterate ancient, pre-existing cultures. The second phase of cultural clashes came during the enslaving phase, Mazrui explained. When slavery began, according to Mazrui, the globalization of labor truly began; unfortunately, its inception was involuntary. The third phase of cultural clashing occurred during imperialism. The fourth and final stage of clashing is the stage we find ourselves in currently: the hegemony phase. During this phase, one nation (the United States) leads the world in economic globalization, information technology, and security systems.
Noting how far ahead the United States is over all other nations of the world, Mazrui informed the audience that the U.S. currently has military presence in more than 100 nations; this control is unprecedented, and is "empire control rather than occupation" according to Mazrui. The rule that Americans have over other nations is comparable, Mazrui explained to Britain's indirect rule over Africans before independence.
Quickly shifting gears, Mazrui then covered a wide range of topics, including a discussion in depth the United States excuse of Israeli behavior and the increasing levels of anti-Semitism worldwide, and how they were relevant to the conflict between the world of Islam and the United States.
Bringing the discussion back to the United States specifically, Mazrui described the American presidents' infatuation with war. Over the last 70 to 80 years of American history, every American president has ordered one act of war during his presidency. Beginning with FDR, American presidents in the 20th century have equated "going presidential" to "acting in war" according to Mazrui. This clearly has worldwide implications. Because of this, all nations have become increasingly dependent on the Untied States.
Mazrui then asked: what can be done about it? How can the world together deal with the empire that is the United States? For starters, Mazrui said, foreign nations need to become less dependent on the United States. Additionally, the world needs to make America pay for abusing power in foreign countries. Mazrui explained that the United States clearly makes other nations pay when they abuse their power; why does not the world as a whole make America pay? This could obviously be done in an economic sense; by finding America's vulnerabilities and attacking them, other nations could quickly have more power than the United States. An example of this would be a recreation of the oil embargo. Making Americans feel uncomfortable in foreign nations could also do this. Boycotting worldwide American products, like Coca-Cola and McDonalds, could make businesses uncomfortable in foreign countries.
Mazrui believes another way that this problem could be dealt with is if America used its own internal democratic structure to limit its powers externally. Mazrui emphasized that the United States does not need to vote for war, but rather they can vote against it. Mazrui urged the audience to vote against war in the upcoming election; he also took a stab at the Bush administration; "This is the worst government for civil liberties since the McCarthy era!"
In conclusion, Mazrui explained that the world does not hate the United States because of its freedom. The world hates America because of the empire it has on other nations, and the advancement the U.S. has in terms of culture, technology, economics, the military, and security. Ending on an inspirational note, Mazrui stated that although external nations can do more to limit the U.S. government's power, we, as Americans, can make a change by strengthening the level of democracy within the United States.
Mazrui's lecture was followed by a brief question and answer session. The Dean of the Faculty's Office, the Chaplaincy, the religious studies department, the Anthropology department, the Africana studies department, the history department and the Dean of Multicultural Affairs sponsored the lecture.
-- by Emily Lemanczyk '05
