Open Space & Anti-Americanism

[David William McKay]

Sorry I'm on digest so can't refer to a specific posting.

Someone linked to an article and said something like:  Anti-americanism
is dead. Or some such. I agree there's nothing to be gained from
anti-americanism. Speaking from the pacifist side of the open-space I'm
glad we finally are seeing nudges towards democracy in Iraq. But I also
find it hard to see how anyone in favour of collaborative organizational
change -- which is what I take open-space to be -- could feel all that
comfy with a war justified by lies and false intelligence.

War is always about changing the government of another nation-state by
killing its citizens. That's about as far from collaborative change as
you can get. It may at times be necessary. But when it is -- surely the
ideal in a democratic state is to have a meaningful conversation about
what counts as necessary so the management team (aka the Executive
Branch) can have a mandate based upon informed consent.

If I was an American -- I'm a Canuck -- I would be worried about the
situation. Perhaps I have it bass-ackwards. But in wartime survival
dictates "my country right or wrong" but in peacetime democracy dictates
that the citizenry place democracy itself as the priority.

David McKay

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