From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Mon Mar 16 1998 - 11:01:49 MST
Dwayne wrote:
> Anton Sherwood wrote:
> > I like to think it's not *only* military power that makes Americana
> > fashionable around the world ...
>
> What on earth makes you think "americana" is *fashionable*??
> American military prowess and money are *desired* around the
> world, but "fashionable" "americana"??
>
> I find it amusing in the extreme that a collection of people who
> declare themselves anti-statist are defending the US so
> vigorously...
>
Americana: Disney Japan is the most successful theme park on earth. The US movie
industry generates more revinues overseas than it does domestically, and
outnumbers foreign domestic movie production by multiples in almost every country.
There are very few nations left in the world that don't have at least on McDonalds
or Burger King. Of the top ten grossing/attended/participated sports in the world,
at least three were invented in the US. Picabo Street is the most popular femaile
ski racer among Europeans. Oh, yeah, we are just totally unfashionable.....
The reason why the most rabid anti-statist here in the US would defend the US
system so vigorously is that a) the US has been, if anything, anti-statist in
general, at the very least to a greater extent than any other nation to date, b)
we have repeatedly shied away from world leadership, until the circumstances of
WWII demonstrated that nobody else seemed to be at all competent to do the job, c)
though we could have used the post WWII situation to expand in an imperialist
manner, the fact that we did not do so is rather indicative of the US's general
demeanor, as opposed to the prior behavior of any other great power in history. As
much as anybody else in the world thinks, most Americans, no matter how they feel
about our government, know down to their bones that the rest of the international
club has demonstrated a distinct incompetence for the job, and typically have
demonstrated an incompetence in handling their own populace.
Which is the main reason why most Americans are suspicious of the UN, since it
puts everybody else on an equal footing with us vote wise, while we have been
expected to foot the majority of the bill (as always).
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