America's Moral and Ethical Stature Abroad

Abstract

The modern liberal is still inclined to inquire into the moral and ethical stature of nations in the manner of the eighteenth-century social critic who presupposed the rationalism of individuals and the progress of society. Such questions do not have much meaning in the relativized world of contemporary man. America's standing among the nations of the world is an endlessly varied equation determined by time, accident, and circumstance, but, in the long run, most affected by her standing as the foremost national power with the most highly developed scientific-technical plant in the world. Nationalism is the primary source of the internal and external problems of contemporary societies and is fraught with great risks when scientific-technical competition occurs in its framework. America tends always to act to preserve the international status quo, a tendency which is not only futile in the long run, but which also tends to prevent the development of a world community and the reconstruction of local society which could turn scientific-technical developments to positive account.