Jacques Du Pasquier wrote:
>
> It seems quite clear that anti-US resentment will not go away soon in
> the world. Anders spoke about such feelings in EUrope, and then
> rightly said, "And remember - we are your *allies*. Now think about
> the rest of the world."
>
> These feelings have some good reasons (some of the interventions
> mentionned here these days, etc.), and some bad reasons (false
> representations, jealousy, blaming your misfortunes on someone else
> and escaping your responsability, etc.)
>
> I think the resentment is bad, not (only) because it is so sad for the
> US to be misunderstood, but because it allows leaders in those
> countries to bring their countries in destructive and
> auto-destructive directions.
>
> So what about issuing a kind of formal, symbolic, named, short,
> evocative, simple, strong statement of the basic world view and
> intentions of the US, for all people to refer to it. It would be
> directed to everyone, and written in terms understandable by all.
The problem with this idea is that any such statement would be not that
of the people of the US, but of the US government, which for some reason
the rest of the US-hating world can't seem to comprehend, changes hands
every 2-8 years or so as the two major parties wax and wane in influence
and control over various offices. Should George Bush be blamed for the
misdeeds of Clinton, or Johnson, or Carter, or FDR? If we, the people,
vote someone out of office and replace them with someone of different
opinion, shouldn't said US-haters then reevaluate the basis of their
hate. The fact that it persists irrespective of the current
administration is indicative that it is not the result of our policies,
but of their own prejudices, ignorance, and misperceptions of us.
If Bush issues the statement you ask for, and is replaced in 3 years by
Gore, would you continue to hold Gore to the standards espoused by Bush?
This point is illustrative of how much better the US is (and more
'sophisticated') than the US haters (especially those in europe), as we
have a very good record here in the US of judging a country not on
decades of past history, but on its actions NOW, and the policies of the
governments that are in power now. If a country we see as bad gets
itself a new government, we are perfectly willing and able to give that
country a second chance. If the country changes its policies, we will do
the same. The US haters are constitutionally incapable of doing the
same. No matter what we do, they will always find a reason to hate us.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:20 MDT