The health care debate: Seeing ourselves through the eyes of others

Source: The Guardian

I wonder if the behavior of Europeans is restrained by a desire to maintain their self-image in the eyes of neighboring countries. Is there social pressure in France to avoid outrageous behavior because your nation would immediately be ridiculed by England and Germany? Does national pride operate as a constraint?
That certainly doesn’t happen in the US. We have little knowledge of what other countries think of us. We get our news from American media outlets – Fox, MSNBC – that confirm our narrow point of view. It’s in the interests of these outlets to magnify events and fan our emotions so we’ll keep coming back for more. Their tactics include demeaning or demonizing those who hold a different point of view. Liberal and conservative media are equally guilty of this behavior.

Scientist Peter Gleick recently returned from meetings in Europe attended by people from over 130 countries. He reports that foreigners read about our acrimonious debate over health care and are incredulous. They’re shocked by “the expanding efforts of home-grown extremists to undermine rational discourse, eliminate the use of fact and science in policymaking, and shut down public debate over the vital issues of our times through hate, vitriol, and ad hominem attacks.”

The view from South Africa: Ubuntu

A doctor from South Africa, Martin Young, offers a similar perspective. He notes “the disparity of views, the fractured arguments, the protectionism and desperation.” What he finds lacking is the humanitarian argument that’s captured by the African phrase “Ubuntu.”
In the words of Desmond Tutu:

A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.
[Ubuntu is] the essence of being human. [It] speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity.

Dr. Young adds:

Human beings originated in Africa. Geneticists tell us we share a common great…great grandfather, that we are all, irrespective of color, race or creed, cousins. Africa is our ancestral home. Ubuntu is an African consciousness pulling us all into one global family, where we can care about each other emphatically.
There is no place in an honest quest for healthcare reform for protectionism and selfish self-interest – the principles of ubuntu are critical. Follow them, and success is almost guaranteed, ignore them and fail.
Barack Obama is as much African as he is American. We can be sure that he understands exactly what ‘ubuntu’ means. And while America debates, the world watches and waits.

In his speech to Congress this week, President Obama touched on the spirit of Ubuntu when he referred to “That large-heartedness – that concern and regard for the plight of others. … Our ability to stand in other people’s shoes. A recognition that we are all in this together; that when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand.”

Related posts:
The Economist reviews Kaiser Permanente health care
Why is it so hard to reform health care? National identity
Kennedy’s posthumous letter, Obama on American character, a Congressman’s apology