The U.S. Lacks Cultural Literacy #shorts #podcast #history #United States #China

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00][MARSHALL]: One of the reasons I wanted  to do this examination of China is because I felt that there were certain key  lessons that we could extract from the experience of the U.S. and China  that we could apply elsewhere.

[00:00:13]We have this almost Wilsonian disorder of trying to impose our values — impose  our vision of the world — on other countries to promote democracy and U.S.  interest as being the only way — the best way — to do things. And not just  in China, but we've tried to do this in the Middle East most recently. And this is not...like...a political partisan  issue. Both parties buy into this.

[00:00:40][MIKE]: It's an American issue. [MARSHALL]: It's an American problem, if you ask me.

[00:00:43][MIKE]: We want the world  to be  like us. We honestly think our way is better. We don't see why other people don't agree with us. And when they don't agree with us, we think that there must be  something wrong with them.

[00:00:51][MARSHALL]: And their society needs fixing.

[00:00:53][MIKE]: So we go in. You know...We step in something, very often. We...We screw things up.

[00:00:57]Then we get mad at them for not cooperating with us and turning into what we wanted them to turn into. Then we leave.

[00:01:02][MARSHALL]: And there's chaos.

[00:01:04][MIKE]: They're mad at us.  There's chaos. We achieved nothing we wanted to. People died. We spent lots  of money, and on and on and on, and we didn't get anywhere. And this keeps happening over and over  and over again. And it goes to the concept that Marshall is bringing up with  us of "cultural literacy."

[00:01:18][MARSHALL]: Yes. [MIKE]: Do you understand the country that you're dealing with?

[00:01:21][MARSHALL]: Yeah. And....And... [MIKE]: And, therefore, do you understand how to get your way there, or cooperate with it to create something there  — if you don't have cultural literacy?

[00:01:29][MARSHALL]: So this is not a new concept —  cultural literacy — that we're trying to impose on the United States. I think it's a sensible  concept and one that we have failed to...to grasp.

[00:01:41]In some respects, it is a failure of education.  Beyond that...that...I think it's just laziness.

[00:01:48][MIKE]: Laziness, but I...I...I would put it more as ethnocentrism. Almost all countries are guilty of ethnocentrism. But when  you get to be a big power like we are, your ethnocentrism can backfire on you big time.

[00:01:58][MARSHALL]: What we developed in the West  in the modern age was ethnocentrism, racism, eugenics to justify colonial practices, not  just in China but throughout the world.

[00:02:08][MIKE]: But — in...in...in my view — ethnocentrism and...and racism are...are not really  purposeful. I...I think that for many people it's...kind of...the default of the human  mind to look at the world that way — that... that I'm the best, and I'm better than those  around me who are...who are different. But you don't have to think that way. If you are curious  about the world and if you're willing to try, you can learn not to look at the rest of the world  that way. And you can learn to take an interest in other societies, other cultures, and other  countries. And if you do that, it allows you to overcome the tendency toward cultural illiteracy  and overcome the misunderstandings that...that we have made over and over and over again  towards China and toward the rest of the world.