Obviously, the USA is a lovely place - blessed with far more innate “goodness” than “malevolence”.
Here’s the thing though, OK? Ultimately, this whole issue of “is the USA too big for it’s boots? or is the USA a loose cannon? blah blah blah blah” is really just a question of perception in reality. And here’s why…
Firstly, whether we like it or not, the English language is currently the world’s language for doing commerce. This hasn’t been the USA’s doing primarily - it has just kind of evolved that way over 200 years - and in particular, since the dawn of the industrial age.
Next, because English is the world’s lingua franca for doing the commerce, you then have a situation where the world’s largest economy, which also happens to speak English as it’s primary language, is then perceived as having undue influence.
But there’s more to it than that. It also involves the perceptions of undue influence via communications.
For example, how many of us watch a Chinese version of CNN? Or a Russian version of CNN? They might possibly exist, but if they do, you or I certainly aren’t regular viewers. Accordingly, stuff which happens within China, or Russia, or central Asia, or South East Asia, or Africa tends to be VERY important to the locals in those regions - but we here in the West tend not to notice too much.
However, within those local regions, stuff often happens which is just as tumultuous, if not more so, than stuff which happens in the Western World - but it’s importance invariably remains inherently localised if those regions are not members of the “English speaking business club”.
Take this scenario for instance - perhaps, and we might never know, but perhaps already a Chinese equivalent of the Oklahoma tragedy has already happened within mainland China. If so, would we have heard about it? Consider also, China’s population is simply gargantuan - and yet, human rights violations aside - exported terrorism on a scale of al-Quaida is never seen or mentioned.
Ponder on something else for a moment… Consider also those nasty al-Quaida folks - ponder on their mindsets, and the need that they have for the USA to exist for their own self-definitions of self worth to also exist. Have we ever once heard a pronouncement by bin Laden regarding the heathen Godless hordes which exist in China, or Africa? Have we ever heard al-Quaida go on the war path against Australian aborigines for example? Or Tibet’s monks?
Nope… of course not… and the reason is self-definition. All things being equal, the sentiments of militant Islam are as much defined by “jealousy of the West” as they are by anything else. Militant Islam needs the West to exist, and moreover, to be thoroughly successful, for it to prosper on the seeds of emnity and feeling exploited.
Another example - Shell Petroleum is a huge company and a huge player in Arabian oil - and yet I rarely hear al-Quaida or militant Islamists haranguing the Dutch. The reason primarily is this - to define themselves, those who criticise the West invariably have to target the brightest, most visible exponent of the West - and that country is the USA.
And now, to the crux of my point - the USA is in an unenviable position it seems to me - and as a loyal Australian ally and friend of my lovely American cousins - I offer you my sincerest empathy. Unlike sport, the innate problem attached to world affairs is this - when you reach Number One, the jealous types out there don’t just want to improve themselves and beat you fairly and squarely - rather, they prefer to bring you down and degrade you down to THEIR level - via horrible cowardly means.
Trust me when I say this - if the worlds language for doing business was German (just as a random example) and if CNN was aired in German as well - I bet you London to a brick that September 11 would have targeted Berlin and not New York and Washington.
Indeed, Germany is one of the luckiest countries in the world nowadays - it was amazingly rebuilt and reinvented after WW2 - and it has few, if any Colonial interests - and yet it has prospered and prospered and prospered - with hardly any jealousy and mean spiritedness from places outside of the Western World. I honestly believe there’s a insightful message to be learnt there.
