Exporting the First Freedom
Abstract
Rightly or wrongly, Americans continue to bear the glad tidings of our ideals, our way of life, and our religion to the 95 percent of humanity who are not American.聽 Despite the parlous state of our country鈥檚 reputation, it is widely agreed that the best form of public diplomacy is what President Eisenhower called 鈥減eople-to-people鈥� contacts.聽 Globalization has greatly increased the quantity of such contacts, but has it increased their quality?聽 This talk will focus on some of the pitfalls encountered by Americans who seek to share with others our distinctive understanding of religious freedom and tolerance.
Speaker Bio
Martha Bayles聽writes and lectures frequently about the arts, music, media, and cultural policy. She is a regular contributor to the聽Wall Street Journal聽(where she was arts and television critic),聽Wilson Quarterly聽(where she was Literary Editor),聽Weekly Standard, and聽Claremont Review of Books. She blogs at World Affairs (鈥淗earts and Minds鈥�) and at ArtsJournal.com (鈥淪erious Popcorn鈥�).
Bayles is the author of two books,聽Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music聽(University of Chicago) and聽Ain鈥檛 It a Shame? Censorship and the Culture of Transgression聽(Center for U.S. Studies, University of London). Her new book,聽America鈥檚 Cultural Footprint, will be published in 2011 by Yale University Press.
In May 2006, Bayles was a Fulbright lecturer at Marie Curie Sklodowska University and the Catholic University in Lublin, Poland, as well as at Warsaw University and the Warsaw School of Social Psychology. Currently she serves as a Senior Academic Advisor to Business for Diplomatic Action. In 1998 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and during the 1990s she was arts correspondent for PBS鈥檚 鈥淩eligion & Ethics News Weekly鈥� and writer-producer for New River Media in Washington, DC.
Bayles鈥檚 essays and reviews have appeared in the聽New York Times;听Washington Post;听Atlantic Monthly;听Times Literary Supplement;听New Republic;听贬补谤辫别谤鈥檚;听Chronicle of Higher Education;听Michigan Quarterly;听Brookings Review;听Public Interest;听National Review; and many other publications. An excerpt from her memoir,聽Off White, appeared in the fall 2006 issue of the聽Antioch Review.
A native of Boston, Bayles is a graduate of Harvard University and a former teacher in the public schools of Philadelphia, Boston, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Between 1997 and 2003 she taught humanities at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. Since 2003 she has been a Lecturer in the Arts & Sciences Honors Program at Boston College.
Event Photos
Martha Bayles at the Boisi Center
Photos by Christopher Soldt, Boston College MTS Photography
Event Recap
According to Martha Bayles, cultural critic and lecturer in the Boston College Honors Program, America鈥檚 image abroad has suffered mightily in recent decades. Speaking at the Boisi Center on March 10, Bayles discussed past and present trends in American cultural exportation. Although the quantity of contacts between the United States and the rest of the world has increased, the quality of these contacts has not. In fact, In fact, she said, foreigners鈥� esteem of the U.S. has diminished as a result of three major kinds of interaction: religious missionary work, study abroad programs, and American media.
While the number of American missionaries has increased, these trips are frequently being taken for short-term work, rather than life-long vocations. American missionaries are increasingly perceived as 鈥済ospel tourists鈥� who bring paternalistic attitudes to local communities, said Bayles. Additionally, by sharing material affluence, such short term missionaries may actually subterfuge values of self-sustainment that long-term missionaries have built in underdeveloped countries.
Studying abroad has been another way Americans increasingly come into contact with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, Bayles noted, for some students such experiences have become an excuse for reckless behavior, as young Americans in foreign countries feel exempt from responsibility for their actions. Such behavior inevitably leaves negative impressions abroad.
Finally, Bayles pointed to the growing exportation of American popular culture since the end of the Cold War. Foreign box offices provide American film studios with twice the revenue of domestic box offices. While Americans usually recognize when films reflect or distort American popular culture, foreigners who know little of the U.S. cannot make that distinction. Pop culture frequently misrepresents religion in the U.S., for example, by omitting it entirely or portraying it as overly puritanical. As a result, Bayles, said, religious freedom and tolerance are given a bad name, and American credibility suffers even as we seek to engage in religious dialogue abroad.
Overall, Bayles said, Americans need to be more mindful of the United States鈥� image abroad. Failure to do so will have destructive consequences for dialogue and cooperation with other countries.
Read More
Further Reading
Goodwill Hunting聽by Martha Bayles
The Return of Cultural Diplomacy聽by Martha Bayles for聽Newsweek
External Links
by Martha Bayles for the Washington Post
Report by the Heritage Foundation
Report by World Public Opinion.org
publication by the Pew Research Center