Whatever weak resolution comes out of the talks about the global environment, the fact remains that the US has become the caricature of a self-aggrandising bully. Whilst its history of ‘exporting democracy’ at the end of a gun over the last decades, whether in South America, the far east or the middle east has had all the hallmarks of a schizophrenic’s inability to understand and reflect upon his or her violent attrition, the ‘buck’ doesn’t stop there. It is forever trying to bolster its economy to the detriment of others, whether equally developed nations or those that are trying, grimly, to raise themselves from poverty. Thus any attempt to curtail its massive depletion of carbon fuels and the ingredients that keep our atmosphere stable, is met with hostility from its deep core of industrial and domestic gluttony.

Even though there is a large percentage of Americans who disagree with national policies, they hardly scratch the chromium plated gloss of Washington’s rhetoric. We will wait forever for the Americans to drive a global effort in the equitable sharing of resources because the US psyche is driven by a basic belief in capitalism, not the wholehearted support of the extremes of neo-con, necessarily, but at every level there is competition to grasp what’s available. This happens at individual, communal, state and national levels. It results in no healthcare for poorer people, homelessness as a result of the greed of the sub-prime market, the bearing of arms that leads to children and students’ deaths and the conspicuous guzzling of resources by those who can afford them.

Societies cannot maintain civilised, democratic and socially responsible behaviour without a barter between entrepreneurism and socialism. Global democracy means going without to a certain degree, in order that those who have little or nothing can gain enough to make life tolerable. Bali is a battleground between battle-hungry exploiters and would-be cohabitees of global conservation. The US, as a nation, hardly comes anywhere near the line between the two.