[QUOTE=Sitnam]
I recently finished Why Do People Hate America? by Ziauddin Sardar,Merryl Wyn Davies and I have a debate topic for the noble readers of the Dope.
The book was, I believe, intended for Americans with a shaky history education and almost no knowledge of the consequences of US foreign policy decisions. Still, it reads like a Junior High School assignment. We’ll save a lot of time if I break up their nebulous arguments into:
People hate American because,
1.) American pop culture spreads globally devouring other cultures.
2.) Americans view the world through a predominantly Western lens through which American value systems are then imposed on other societies.
3.) America often disrupts democratically elected stable governments for its own agenda, often with serious consequences for said state.
My initial reaction to all three of these was, “no shit, but how are Americans implicitly wrong?”
The first two don’t really interest me because I don’t see this as uniquely American, so to some extent it’s all about calling pots and kettles.
I’d instead like to focus on the # 3 argument with these questions:
Since when has a nation implicitly been expected to act against its own interests for the benefit of another?
Is this a modern phenomenon?
Is it because of the 50 years young global respect for national sovereignty?
Is it specific to America?
I don’t want to get into Machiavellian politics, I believe we should help if we can, but why do other nations feel they can expect it?
If I don’t nip this in the bud right now I feel this thread will devolve into another tedious Iraq debate, so for the sake of my sanity and any hope of rational perspective let us pretend its pre 9/11 for any US foreign policies brought up.
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Since you ask, maybe you would like the view from a country where the people generally like Americans and are probably more culturally similar to the US than any other country on Earth: Canada. Sometimes it is easier to tak criticism from friends who love us.
Sorry, but we cannot just ignore the first two questions because they are bound up with the 3rd.
Take culture. People LIKE American culture, pretty much universally. Did you know that the Muppet Show, when it was on, was the no. 1 program world-wide?
But that same culture can be seen as a threat. Some of it is America’s fault and some is not. By that I mean that somethings are actually the result of arrogance and greed by some Americans, and some just happen because an elephant in a room full of cats is bound to crush a few no matter how hard it tries not to.
Ever hear of Cnadian films? There IS a Canadian film industry, believe it or not. But did you know that Canada’s original attempt to found a film industry in the 1930s was actually frustrated by Hollywood? Canada was after all 10% of their market. So Hollywood and the US government pressured Canada NOT to start a real film industry. In return, Canad would be mentioned in American films. Like a guy in the movie would say, “I have an uncle in Montreal” instead of “I have an uncle in Cleveland”.
What may come across as anti-Americanism by Canadians is nothing more than a fear of having our identity swamped by this huge megalo-monster next door. Ironically, French-Canadians are MORE pro-American than English Canadians, because they speak a different language, watch more of their own home-grown TV programs, and feel less culturally threatened.
Americans have this feeling that Canada does not even exist, or is not a “real” country. It can get very annoying. I remember a few years ago when Bill Clinton Came on a State Visit to Canada. Now admittedly, this was during the Monica L. affair. He and the Prime Minister had talks in private and then they came out to speak to an enormous American Press corps that had followed Clinton, and was gathered in a very beautiful room with a maginificent view of the Parliament Buildings. The place was full of US and Canadian flags. The two leaders announced a series of Canada-US initiatives they had just approved, many quite significant and newsworthy..
The American press corps sat there, cameras off but ready, and seemed to look around like people waking up from a dream, as if to say, “Oh yeah, I guess we are in Canada. Oh well, who cares?”
Then began the question period. Immediately, ther were 10 questions about the Lewinski azffair, some questions about fiv or six situations in the US, and that was it. I remember a Canadian journaslist skaing his head and saying “They just don’t believe we exist”.
Regarding the third point, you have made an illogical leap. You have gone from this statement: “3.) America often disrupts democratically elected stable governments for its own agenda, often with serious consequences for said state.” . . . . . .
. . . . . .And you have transformed it to this question: "Since when has a nation implicitly been expected to act against its own interests for the benefit of another? "
You are not, of course. But manufacturing the overthrow through the CIA of someone like Salvador Allende, a democratically-elected Marxist, and replacing him with a bloodthirsty fascist murderer and torturer like Augusto Pinochet in Chile is closer to the first statement than the second. Sorry, man, but people have the right to elect a government the US does not like.
Take Cuba. Yes, Castro is a Dictator. So was the Shah of Iran, who was not royalty, but an army officer that the CIA put into power in the 1950s. So was Diem in Viet Nam. So was Pinochet. So was SaddamHussein whom the US supported with arms and chemical weapons. The US has no real problem with dictators when it suits them. The REAL crime of Cuba was that it was a virtual US colony that revolted. For that “crime” it has been under an eceonomic embargo that has hobbld its economy for the past 50 years. This is one reason that Canada does not emrago Cuba and that Cnadians travel there as tourists. Not because we sympathize with a dictatorship but because we sympatize witgh another small country in our hemisphre who has the balls to stand up to the US.
I have travelled often in the US and I believe the American PEOPLE are basically good and decent and peace-loving. I think that the problem is that the actions of their government and the military-industrial complex (a term invented by Dwight Eisenhower, BTW) are hidden from them by biased media reporting, and by trashy jingo patriotism that is used to shout down any serious criticism of US foreign policy.
It is very difficult to negotiate treaties with America. Why? Because no administration wants to be accused of “compromising America’s interests”. But wait a second! Isn’t mutual compromise of interests exactly what nations do to arrive at an agreement? In any other county, this would be understood. But in America, you have only to say, "But these are AMERICA’S intersts and that is that. No compromise, unledss you are a traitor.
Look, I think it can be summarized this way. The US is the only remaining superpower. Its people are, understandably, patriotic, decent and love their country and the brave fighting men and women who defend it. Nothing wrong with that. You have a country worth being proud of. But even though you are a democracy with free speech and a free press, it is very easy for the government and certain news media to dress up gross, self-seeking agressions and defend them with slogans like “support our troops” (or would you rather be a traitor?)
Of course this has happned in other countries. The average Brit at the height of the British Empire probably believed that all those darkies were being raised to civilization by a wonderful Britannia whom God had mandated to Rule the Waves.
Ditto the French Empire, mutatis mutandis.
My advice to Americans. Get rid of the phoney Hollywood concept that you are the “good guys” in the world and accept that you are nation like any other, capable of good and evil, albeit more powerful. Americans are good, decent folks that can be manipulated by greedy governments, corporate interests and the media they own, and that will always use your quite legitimate love of country as a club to beat down any thinking man or woman who objects to their imperialistic adventures. But you are a democracy, and you can fight back with reason and criticism. People in places like Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia could not.
