The psychology of the nations of the world

Great Debates
1

I want to have a discussion about the different nations of the world and how they interact with each other. I can only speak for the USA because this is where I was born and raised and have spent the majority of my time.

I think it’s easy to label the USA as a bully and is not an innacurate description. We have a massive army and occupy many different countries to access their natural resources. Many other countries that have their civilians working for slave wages do so to feed our materialistic ways.

We are a largely ignorant and blind group, too. I don’t think a lot of people question or even ponder worldly issues very much. People are so caught up in their nationality, religion, political party, lifestyle, (you name it) that we forget we are all on this one lonely planet together.

I wonder how long this relationship between the U.S. and the rest of the world will last. I would think that at some point these other countries are going to wise up. Most of the other major nations have just as many, if not more people. They have bright people, hard working people. They have their own modern cities. They have their army’s. They have everything that we do but not to such a large extent.

What they seem to lack compared to us is “wealth.” But, it seems to me that wealth and money is just a made up concept anyway. All that really matters in survival is power.

Which makes me wonder two things. Why doesn’t the USA just dominate the rest of the world and make everyone our slaves? On the flip side, why don’t other countries build up their army’s to try and take us down?

Please, keep in mind that this is just a subject I’ve been thinking about. I’m not a history expert and I don’t really know a lot about other countries. I’ve seen some documentaries and read different articles. So I would say I have a beginners understanding of the world and how it works. I’m just looking for some feedback and maybe to hear from those of you who are more knowledgeable.

2

With all due respect that displays some extremely limited perspective. It’s easy to think of other countries as being populated by noble oppressed savages, but in truth they often live under regimes that are far more dysfunctional, dangerous and downright stupid than the U.S. ever could be. Many of their citizens risk life and limb to leave. Starting some stupid war is hardly a solution to be taken seriously on the world stage - every country needs to do the hard work of confronting its own problems from within.

(I won’t even get started on the “occupying” and “slaves” rhetoric)…

3

They can’t. Consider a nation such as Guatemala. In the early 1950’s, Guatemala was governed by a democratically elected government that was leaning towards socialism. At that time, the United Fruit Company owned enormous portions of the country, using them to grow bananas and other products for markets all over the world. Leaders of the company knew that if Guatemala turned socialist, their property would be seized. They had a word with their contacts in Washington D.C. and soon the CIA staged a coup in Guatemala. For many decades after that, the country was ruled by a murderous right-wing dictatorship. By some estimates, as many as 200,000 people were killed so that one company could continue selling cheap bananas.

Guatemala does not build up an army because it can’t. It has always been too small, weak, and technologically backwards to fight against the United States.

By the way, the United Fruit Company lives on, though its name is now Chiquita. Here’s their story.

4

The only countries with more people than the US are China and India. Most Industrialized countries, other than the US and a few others, have shrinking populations.

5

Help help! I’m being repressed!

6

It is a fallacy to view any country as a monolithic entity. Every nation/state is a group of individuals who are working for their own purposes. Sometimes this serves a collective goal, but other times different parts of the country might be working at cross purposes. Check out America’s political history… all of the recent elections have been won by extremely tiny margins, indicating that half our country can’t agree with what the other half wants to do.

Most countries get perceived as behaving in a certain way because of the policies their leaders make, but there is often disunity even among the governments of dictatorial regimes.

I imagine most folks are just trying to play the hand they’re dealt.

7

“They have everything that we do but not to such a large extent. What they seem to lack compared to us is “wealth.” But, it seems to me that wealth and money is just a made up concept anyway. All that really matters in survival is power.”

Exactly. Not to a large extent. The US has tons of money and with money comes power. We also have a lot of weapons. With weapons comes power. Unfortunately, but it’s the reality. With money, you can make just about anyone do anything you want them to. The lack thereof is a disadvantage to the weaponry and any other resources we have that they don’t.

China’s one of my favorite countries. One of the few nations that has any chance going against the US. They hate America. And the feeling is mutual.

This kinda seems to be old news and I haven’t heard anything on it in awhile (so if anyone can enlighten me on it, please do), but apparently Iran has nukes and WMD’s. (So did Iraq under Saddam, according to Bush. Which everyone knows was a lie.) So who knows if Obama’s lying about Iran. China says they will fight and defend Iran against the US if they had to.

Next thing to happen US will be all like “2 to 1? That’s not fair!” So they bring out some of their bad guys and China brings more big guns out. Japan might get their revenge on US from WWII. And then comes WWIII.

Iran is a country who “barks louder than they bite” in my perspective. Maybe that’s why China’s on their side (?)

There are plenty of nations who isn’t exactly best buds with US, they just need a boost and a good leader to bring their spirits out. A new Hitler would be mighty helpful. AS long as he’s on China’s side at least.

On the other hand, “Why doesn’t the USA just dominate the rest of the world and make everyone our slaves?”

It takes gradual time and decisive planning to such an evil act. We already have the leashes on them. We just have to tighten and control. Our so called “foreign business” is the beginning. By foreign business, we can make entire countries into “corporations”, pay them all 20 cents an hour, and completely destroy their economy.

Africa is the most diverse continent with tropical forests of fruit, vast deserts, diamonds, fertile soil, etc. And guess what? Those poor African children on the commercials are real. Poverty in Africa is so widespread. Great civilizations of the past are now gone. Why do you think that is? Because of European colonization. And now, the US businesses overseas.

After Germany got all depressed from losing WWI, Hitler rose from the ashes and used their despair to manipulate and control them.

In US, the only thing on the news is about an oompa loompa from New Jersey having a baby, or some really depressing, scary news about their being no hop for the human race. Storms and genocides, mass murders and oil spills. All these negative things will take a toll. 9/11 was an inside job. Bush rose from the ashes of 9/11 and hurricane Katrina -two great tragedies since the depression- and tried to control the people with their grief.

The US is already turning the world into it’s slaves. And if we don’t act now, we’ll be having curfews and watched from the time we wake, to the time we sleep. They already know tons about us from the popular social network where people share their information all over. The CIA controls facebook. They shut down people who open their mouths too much about the truth.

My father speaks a whole awful lot about how the US is a tyrannical country and how we need to rise above. He logs in one day to see his facebook account deleted for no given reason. There’s no such thing as freedom of speech.

They killed John F. Kenned, Malik El Shabbaz (Malcolm X), Martin luther King Jr, and many others who spoke of peace and justice.

They’re tightening the chains. It’s all up to the youth to stand up and do something about this horrible society. Before we no longer have the freedom to do so.

There’s still hope of someone fighting against the United States of Aggression. And if all else fails, we’ll start a REBELution!

Lol sorry for the wordy response! Silly me! I’m ranting again. Anybody wanna show me how to use the quote thingy? I’m a noob.:wink:

8

The US dominates foreign countries via economic subjugation, not military. Militarily we can’t even conquer Iraq or Afghanistan. But we can help drive nations into debt, then use that debt as leverage. Or demand they privatize everything for our corporations, etc.

This sounds naive, but I thought the war between the have and have nots was what communism was about, and communism didn’t work. De-colonization worked, but communism did not. So I don’t know if there will be anything like a second worldwide communist revolution. My understanding is the tide now is a mix of liberal democracy, market economics and social democracy that countries are using to free themselves and increase standards of living (as opposed to dictatorial communism).

Plus with WMD, the concept of nations conquering each other becomes tricky. Any nation with WMD can do trillions in property damage and kill millions of people if they are attacked. Any nation that tries to conquer the US is going to face trillions in property damage. It defeats the purpose of war if war is about controlling natural resources. Again, taking over a country by taking over its political or financial system is cheaper and more effective than a military conquest.

I don’t think the world hates us that much, at least much of it doesn’t. If the US is thrown off our perch, who will take over? China isn’t necessarily going to be better for the human race if you are concerned about human rights, economic equality or national independence.

9

“The US dominates foreign countries via economic subjugation, not military. Militarily we can’t even conquer Iraq or Afghanistan.”

Funny on how true that is. The USA has some of the top notch military weaponry, wouldn’t you agree? And all they’ve got in the Mid East is some basic AK47’s and a few rocket launchers.
(I don’t know much about weaponry, but I know an AK can’t beat a military tank.)

So why is the Middle East winning? Can anyone answer that?

“If the US is thrown off our perch, who will take over? China isn’t necessarily going to be better for the human race if you are concerned about human rights, economic equality or national independence.”

Good question. I’ve got no answer to that one…

10

They are not winning militarily, on that we easily slaughter those reactionary misogynist pigs with drones and commando strikes. However our political goals in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and the will at home to implement them are a problem.

11

We seem to have an awfully big conscience for a bully.

On the contrary with some exceptions, all the countries will have our military in want us to be there.

Third worlders wouldn’t be any better off without globalization-if anything they’d be worse off. With the exceptions of certain aesthetics I don’t see anyone else is less materialistic if lacking in means.

The rest of the world is quite ignorant too-witness the riots over the Mohammed video for example or the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Our policymakers to a certain extent do realize we are all in it together which is why they promote globalization and free trade.

Hence why other nations that have some sort of a future are at least somewhat capitalistic and are trying to beat the United States at its own game.

Wealth is a large factor in power today.

Because we aren’t the Third Reich.

MAD.

12

USA is also an enormous soft power. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Hollywood, your universities etc enhance your image immensely and make people around the world want to be friends with you.

13

@Qin Shin HUangdi "Third worlders wouldn’t be any better off without globalization-if anything they’d be worse off. With the exceptions of certain aesthetics I don’t see anyone else is less materialistic if lacking in means. "

Are you sure about that? I’m pretty sure that if America, or any of the West for that matter (Europe), never settled anywhere on the entire African continent, dozens of countries would be flourishing from trade and profits that go into their own pockets. Any probably anywhere else in the world, except maybe China. China seems pretty bad so idk if it’s for better or for worse…

truthSeeker2 “USA is also an enormous soft power. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Hollywood, your universities etc enhance your image immensely and make people around the world want to be friends with you.”

What does that even mean? I’m not understanding what you meant by this. :dubious:

14

America never had a colony in Africa. Unless you count Liberia, which was pretty hands-off.

He means that America pulls other nations into our culture. American ideas and products flood the world, because we create goods, services, and ideas that other people want (very badly).

15

thats what I meant:-). USA has enormous soft power.

16

@truthSeeker you’re right about that. The business is good for the USA. And thanks for the clarification smiling bandit.

@Smiling Bandit I never meant they had a colony. By “settled” I was referring to the many businesses America has overseas and how they exploit foreigners because there’s no law saying they can’t No law saying they can’t pay 10 cents an hour. Moral law? Nobody seems to care enough to change it. Or at least, that I’ve heard of. There’s no federal law saying they can’t so they do it anyway.

For some, 10 cents a day is better than none.
For others, it’s a whole lot less than they would’ve made themselves without America’s help.

If Africans, depending on the country, had the resources to start a diamond mining business or Chinese to make their own clothes and electronics, they would make more than what they already are. Can you disagree with that?

17

The Soviets were not nearly as restrained as we are, and they couldn’t conquer Afghanistan either.

18

Because the Middle East is BOSS! Kudos to the Middle East!

19

Why do people keep saying we want to conquer Iraq and Afghanistan?

In my mind, to conquer something means you control it semi-permanently with the intent to absorb it into your empire.

At no point have we ever demonstrated an intent to colonize Iraq, force Afghanistan to be our vassals, or anything else that I would call a “conquest.” This does not accurately describe our military goals in either case. Further, no one with any understanding of military science would say “conquest” is the purpose of applying military force.

Because you are wrong. We are not bullies. We don’t want to conquer or make anyone our slaves. This is not a video game, and the meaning of life is not to “win the world.” The nation you are describing is one led by supervillains, not decent, compassionate human beings.

I wake up every morning and put on a uniform because I want to make people safe, not because I want to “conquer” anything. Making people slaves is the exact opposite of what I am trying to accomplish.

20

Ok, I think I came off a little stupid in my OP. I really just want to gain a better understanding of the psychology of the nations of the world, as the title states.

I’m a bit critical when it comes to the USA. I understand the merits of capitalism and I respect that it has brought us this far. With all the technology and industry, a lot of good has come from it. However, I feel that we as a species, are too immature for capitalism, and it is causing everyone a lot of grief and will continue to do so. Furthermore, resources on this planet are limited, oil will only last so long. We have to start thinking cooperation and not competition.

The income disparity is the most clear-cut example I can say to use this. I won’t go into details because everyone knows that it is literally ridiculous that so few people are allowed to amass huge fortunes of wealth while billions are left to starve and slave their lives away basically for those people.

But I don’t want to get into a discussion about communism vs. capitalism. I just want to understand the world as it works today.

I think that the U.S. is a bully, albeit with a conscious. Look at what we do to Mexico with the drug war. We purchase millions of products from china knowing full well what their people are going through. We bomb the shit out of people in the middle east for their oil and because some fringe group from around that area attacked us.

But at the same time, like another poster said, we have “soft” power. An image of peace, loving and a thirst for knowledge. That I can respect. Also, there’s lots of charitable work that starts with our people.

But the good things always seem to come from the little people, and not those in power. I have no faith in Obama, or congress to change the status quo when it comes to human rights and atrocities.

So I maintain that we are bullies. What would be your opinion? Also, how would you diagnose other countries?