What Are You Looking For?
American conservatives and American liberals have something in common: they’re Americans. The same overlap is true for Canadian conservatives and liberals, as well as their counterparts in Japan, England, Argentina, Morocco, Estonia, etc.
That’s because partisans in every country tend to look at the world not just through the lens of their diverging political opinions but, more often than not, through the convergent perspective of a shared culture and history. They may extend their fingers to the left or to the right but their horizon is one and the same.
Only by recognizing this shared horizon can politicians speak in a common language to foreign powers. Although telecommunications now makes it possible for me address a global audience, it is not a uniform audience with a shared set of memories and values.
For this reason, it is wise to think of political cultures as islands. To the islanders, left and right are obvious and well-known. But to the foreign observer with a telescope, the islander pointing left is pointing right, and vice versa.
I once quipped to my friend Becky, a Southerner, that if racists could, they would probably wear glasses that prevented them from seeing people of other races.
Becky, much wiser than I, responded that should anyone wear such glasses they would probably get mugged very often.
The following photograph was taken recently by our friend Daniel during his visit to Toronto, Canada.
Blacks represent 2.2% of the “visible minority” population in Canada. While that percentage is much higher in Toronto, Canadians are still, for the most part, not black.
Cuba, as you can see from this billboard, is black. Therefore, it’s diverse. In pseudo-mathematical terms, this truth can be expressed thusly:
Also, Cubans are happy. Don’t believe me? Just look at that photo!
But, remember, while you’re looking, pay no attention to the 79 year-old dictator behind the curtain. That guy, by the way, is white.