Zakaria's Point, Sober and Resounding.

Patch Adam Perryman

As a gift for my birthday this month, my wife gave me a single ticket to see Fareed Zakaria speak at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall last evening. She'd known for some time that I enjoyed reading his articles and books, but I wondered why she had only purchased just the solo ticket. She offered two reasons when I asked.

First, she explained that the cost was rather extravagant (better than a C-Note for the balcony). As we tend to live on a moderate budget she decided that one would suffice and that I should go and enjoy myself. Second, she told me that her interest wasn't quite as piqued as it would have been for, say, seeing the play Wicked. After all, she was offering me an opportunity to be entertained by a well-received expert as he spoke upon the finer points of politics and power. This was not exactly a Willy Wonka moment for the surreptitious, as my wife regards herself. This was my field of interest and my gift. So, for last night, I was as happy as a post-chocolate-bar-Charlie Bucket.

Dr. Zakaria opened with an anecdote most fitting for both the time and geography of his lecture. In recalling a previous conversation with a friend, he told the audience that when addressing gathered crowds, "You've got to have a point." He explained that you can have several points (as most speakers do), but there has to be a gist to the dialogue. As mired-down as we are -- both here in Oregon and as an entire Nation -- with the uncertainty and shiftiness of our politics as the clear and present focuses, finding a point in our hyperactive news cycles and fanciful punditry can fade and blend into frivolity like the background noise of a cult-classic movie.

Last night's lecture sounded different. For nearly an hour straight, with the occasional injection of humor and the steadiness of a scripted television host, Zakaria made his point -- regarding statecraft and global mistrust -- with confidence and clarity.

Politics remains the only substantive field that has shirked globalization.

As he has detailed in his book, The Post-American World, the largest or most extravagant structures and complexes no longer reside within the United States. The largest Ferris wheel: was London (now Singapore and will soon be Berlin). Shopping Mall: Dongguan, China. Tallest building: Taipei (and soon it will be dwarfed by the structure under construction in Dubai). The list goes on, but the problem he identifies goes to matters greater than municipal attractions.

Vast portions of the rest of the world have actively pursued a global model of financial, entrepreneurial, social and commercial interdependence while the United States has turned turtle by preferring a lackadaisical and highfalutin' style. This is what the United States was seeking, however. A world full of nations that embraced the open exchange of information, labor, technology and goods is exactly what America most sought to create no more than a century ago. Now that world has come to embrace the Yankee Will, it looks at America and finds an skeptical, and cautious observer.

Today's Oregonian article, which covered last evening's event, misses Mr. Zakaria's message with near-equal ambivalence but with a different rationale. Despite the periodical's wonderful support for the World Affairs Council of Oregon -- who organized the lecture series that made Mr. Zakaria's lecture possible -- they focused entirely upon the quirky punchline of America no longer receiving a "free lunch" when it comes to the unchecked credit it has allowed other nations like China and India to create through the purchasing of U.S. debt and government bonds. While it is obvious that the concerns over economic instability in our politics, investment centers and even our pay checks is the lead for most 24/7 news organizations (the rationale I mentioned before), it is too easy a play for The O to use as a byline to cover the event.

Last night's lecture wasn't a sack lunch workshop. Mr. Zakaria offered the audience a meat-and-potatoes dinner full of facts and conclusions, served eloquently with humble pie.

Of the many notes that I scribbled in my back pocket notebook, I can transcribe many of the same insights you would find in his book.

"In aggregate terms, the world is far more peaceful than it has been in modern history."

"The United States spends more on defense today that the rest of the worlds does --combined."

"Stimulus packages -- if used -- need to have coödinated efforts to create effective changes in global economics."

There is a global paradigm shift currently taking place in America and the region, and Mr. Zakaria described it succinctly last evening to the assembled crowd of Oregonians, Washingtonians and young professionals. However, I could not consider him an oracle because he reminded me of wife's insights from just four days before. The reasons she gave me as to why she bought me the ticket in the first place were the best insight to the current strategies our experts, politicians and forebarers are offering/have offered.

Though our budget is strained - as are those of many American families - to live within our means is not just a frugal lifestyle. It is the way to create the smallest impact on your surroundings while displaying the greatest regard for them.

Despite her disinterest in attending the lecture, it cannot really be considered terrible that you'd rather isolate yourself from your surroundings simply by declining to interact with them. So long as you remain aware of what's around you -- as she did by realizing my interest in last night's event and undertaking the means to have me attend it -- you're not truly isolated from the world around you.

Lastly, what was missed in oratory by Mr. Zakaria, in nuance by The Oregonian and by my conscious self until my writing of this article is the fact that no matter how the world, nation or state continue to expound the frailty of our communal bonds, there is always room for -- and great benefit from -- altruism.

By Patch Adam Perryman March 10, 2009