Big Think

Question: What is the legacy of the Cold War?

Michael Sandel: You know after the fall of Communism, there was a kind of triumphalism in the west, and especially in the United States. The idea was there is only one system really left standing: liberal capitalism, American style. We’ve won. They’ve lost. And the world, sooner or later, will come over to embrace American style liberal capitalism. From the time of the fall of the Berlin wall, when that triumphalism was at its apogee, until now, there’s been a huge deflation, I think, of that kind of … . From the time of the fall of the Berlin wall, when that triumphalism was at its height, there’s been quite … that triumphalism has really been punctured by events in the world, September 11th being one vivid example. And so I think the real question is what do … what do we need to do to make democracy possible, and to enable it to flourish within the United States? And other countries will have to think that through for themselves. So in the United States, the problem is how to revive democracy at a time when the ordinary voice of citizens seems to matter less and less, and the political parties seem incapable of organizing meaningful debate on the questions that people care about most. And money has a disproportionate influence on the political process. That’s the challenge for … United States. And then I suppose a further question is how the United States will engage with the rest of the world. And I think there has been not only a kind of destructive triumphalism and hubris on the part of the United States. The other thing I worry about is America’s role in the world, and the way we deal with the rest of the world. I think the Iraq war has been a blunder of really historic dimensions that will take a generation or more to try to dig out of. Because I think what we’ve done in Iraq is precisely to set in motion a kind of civilizational conflict that Osama Bin Laden dreamt of, but didn’t believe that even he could achieve with September 11th. And it isn’t just the blunder in Iraq, but really the … America stands for in the world a kind of hubris that’s been displayed by America in the world that I think poses an enormous challenge now for America’s relation with the rest of the world. And I think what we need to do is to try to come by a way of … our power in the world. And we still have enormous power and influence – the United States – in the rest of the world. And we have to figure out how to bear and carry that power, and exercise that responsibility with a confidence and humility that befits a great power – and an idealistic power. I think it would be a great tragedy – maybe the greatest tragedy of our disaster in Iraq – if we allowed it to discredit idealism in America’s role in the world as such; the idea that America has a contribution to make in the world at large to make the world a better place, and to promote democracy and respect for rights. We need to find a way of bearing our power in the world and exercising our responsibility that involves a certain measure of humility not only for the sake of treating other countries better or with more respect, but also for the sake of being open to learning something from other countries, other traditions, other experiences. And so that, I think, is another very concrete challenge that the United States faces today.

Recorded on: 6/12/07