Two heads better than two glass houses

One of the best feelings I know is being able to trust someone and to be trusted in return. First, it means one doesn’t have to think about how to behave. It also provides a sense of inner stability that can’t easily be found outside of a trusting relationship. Human trust is an inner contract with more promise than a loan from a bank, the praise of an institutional authority or than a foolproof plan.

The best thing about trust, however, is that it is always demanding new things. It won’t let interpersonal connection go stale. It won’t let one idolize the comfort of human relationship.

This applies on an international level as well as interpersonal. I believe Europe and the U.S. have come to trust in an outdated, comfortably human relationship with each other.

Europe is no longer as fractured as it was following World War II. Nor is the United States of America the shallow, judgmental country it has been seen as by its critics. Europe has adopted a common currency, and the US people undergone such abuse by their government that where used to be simple pleasures are now the voices of Muslims whom our justice system imprisoned and tortured.

Admittedly, it is presumptuous to talk about “the U.S” and “Europe” as if they could each be understood in simple terms. And I haven’t even mentioned Canada or Mexico or addressed the differences between Eastern and Western Europe.

Yet no matter how complex or vaguely defined each is, the United States of America and Europe have been world powers for the last several centuries. They have come to trust in their roles of power, but both are beginning to experience a change in the shape of these roles.

Psychological thinker Abraham Maslow theorized that human beings operate according to a pyramid of needs that must be fulfilled before an individual may grow into the ideal version of him/herself. When a need – whether physiological, safety, self-esteem, community or self-actualization-based - is fulfilled, the individual changes their goals to adjust to a new level of potential for growth.

As a pair Europe and the US have fulfilled their need for political empowerment, probably closest to Maslow’s definition of the need for esteem. They have established themselves as intellectual and material leaders in the world. Countries like Zimbabwe and Uganda in Africa and Burma in Asia are going through the type of political turmoil that marked Europe and the US’ rise to their current leadership positions. These areas of the world are forming their civic identity. The US and Europe are not perfect, but functional civically.

But the two regions are moving out of their established roles. Each is experiencing discomfort with its current image in the world.

Europe has established itself as an intellectually vibrant community, but with all of the mistakes the US has made in recent years, America has more to think about.

The United States prides itself in its strength of character. Yet it has tarnished its dearly-held independence by entangling itself in Iraq’s political system. The U.S. people (yes, me included; I enjoy a good tv show and know the word “Brangelina”) have abandoned justice by letting the media entertain us away from truth and into “truthiness.”

Europe is strong internally. It has focused on building up interconnecting services and coalitions in order to create unity, and could teach the US about doing the work that sits behind cultural values honestly held.

But Europe could also do more for itself if it allowed itself the moral flexibility that Americans allow themselves. While this flexibility has caused the U.S. to become dependant on foreign oil and violently defensive, it has also made for perhaps the most ethnically and socially diverse country in the world.

The U.S. and Europe no longer need to be in a combative relationship with each other to be the world power. Other areas of the world are stretching toward new forms of self-governance.

Trust is wonderful because it presents the sacrifice of self-knowledge in order to broaden one's life and perspective. May America and Europe work together to enrich and expand each other’s traditions and continue their service to those who need it.