The Return of America’s Missionary Impulse

[Gerald]

Less than a decade after invading Iraq, the U.S. has rediscovered its outreach spirit. Should we be troubled by this?


NEW DELHI — Bill Gates, Sarah Palin and Warren Buffett (now there’s an opening in search of a punch line) each passed through here recently, instructing the Indians on how to be better Indians.

Palin came to preach the evils of bureaucracy, the soulfulness of rural life and the iniquity of mainstream media. Because her audience was thick with high-ranking bureaucrats, prosperous urbanites and media elite, and because her speaking fee was paid by an Indian media conglomerate, the reception in the hall was lukewarm.

Gates and Buffett came to export their gospel of private philanthropy, urging a closed-door gathering of India’s richest to share more of their wealth. The two American moguls are worshiped in India for their business acumen, but in a country where the word “mogul” has an echo of imperial conquest, there was more than a trace of defensiveness in the coverage of their appeal. “Did India Inc. Thumb Its Nose at Gates and Buffett?” asked the long-winded headline in The Economic Times. “Yes. India gives in its own way and can’t write fat checks, as it’s still an emerging economy.”

Unlike The Economic Times, I hold no brief against these ambassadors of betterment. Gates and Buffett are preaching what they practice, and beyond Palin’s Delhi lecture, I’m sure her burden-of-government message resonated powerfully in an India whose suffocating bureaucracy makes America seem like a libertarian paradise.

But their coincidental visits reminded me that our American urge to fix the world is not always as welcome as we want it to be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/ma...html?ref=world


Note: April 15, 2011