Since the end of World War II, it's been apparent that the world hates the United States of America because the US is imperialistic and overbearing, because it annihilates local culture and customs with unethical military and economic practices, and because it's drunk on self-righteousness and power.
And you know what? It's true.
But does it make sense to oppose these facets of American foreign policy with simple anti-Americanism? It's easy to say, "It's all America's fault!" but is that really the case?
Here's my viewpoint: every single country in the history of humanity that has found itself with more power than its neighbors has acted just like the United States, ranging from Mesopotamia and the Indus River Valley civilizations to the European empires (with their abysmal human rights records) that immediately preceded the US' current stranglehold on world politics. And how have they acted? With callous indifference to the plight of outsiders for the benefit of their own residents. Every time, without exception.
Why? Because a country looks out for its own, and its own only, always. Stronger nations conquer weaker nations in order to exploit their resources, and then to either assimilate the weaker nation into itself or to indefinitely subject it to servitude. This is a universal feature of international politics which predates politics itself.
Right now the United States occupies the top slot of humanity militarily, economically, and ideologically, thus it is the object of relentless scorn as it blunders along raping the defenseless and shoving aside the guarded. But I submit that blaming the individual country will not cure the trend. Every country, defenseless and guarded, stands ready to stab the United States at the first sign of weakness-but not to end the debacle, but rather to take the US' place as supreme oppressor, because it is each country's view that its people alone deserve to rise above the rest because its people alone possess the knowledge and the rectitude worthy of humanity.
That's the problem, isn't it? People collect into groups and then convince themselves into thinking that their group inherently deserves better treatment and access to resources than any other group. The United States is guilty of that mindset, but so is every other nation-state on this planet. So, is anti-Americanism the ultimate answer? No. As soon as America declines, some other country will take its place and impose its exclusionary policies on a resentful world, and nothing will have changed as it hasn't changed in 6,000 years of recorded history.
Instead of anti-Americanism, a type of pan-humanism would be much better. A recognition that global problems have global causes that include the United States, but also include the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Mozambique, North Korea, Argentina, Lesotho, ad infinitum. Address the exclusionary policies that all countries exhibit which are the root cause of human suffering from conflict. This in no way absolves the United States of responsibility for the current state of humanity, but the main failure of anti-Americanism is that is absolves all others of responsibility, and that is a fatal presumption.
Why do you guys think? Is anti-Americanism useful? How?
And you know what? It's true.
But does it make sense to oppose these facets of American foreign policy with simple anti-Americanism? It's easy to say, "It's all America's fault!" but is that really the case?
Here's my viewpoint: every single country in the history of humanity that has found itself with more power than its neighbors has acted just like the United States, ranging from Mesopotamia and the Indus River Valley civilizations to the European empires (with their abysmal human rights records) that immediately preceded the US' current stranglehold on world politics. And how have they acted? With callous indifference to the plight of outsiders for the benefit of their own residents. Every time, without exception.
Why? Because a country looks out for its own, and its own only, always. Stronger nations conquer weaker nations in order to exploit their resources, and then to either assimilate the weaker nation into itself or to indefinitely subject it to servitude. This is a universal feature of international politics which predates politics itself.
Right now the United States occupies the top slot of humanity militarily, economically, and ideologically, thus it is the object of relentless scorn as it blunders along raping the defenseless and shoving aside the guarded. But I submit that blaming the individual country will not cure the trend. Every country, defenseless and guarded, stands ready to stab the United States at the first sign of weakness-but not to end the debacle, but rather to take the US' place as supreme oppressor, because it is each country's view that its people alone deserve to rise above the rest because its people alone possess the knowledge and the rectitude worthy of humanity.
That's the problem, isn't it? People collect into groups and then convince themselves into thinking that their group inherently deserves better treatment and access to resources than any other group. The United States is guilty of that mindset, but so is every other nation-state on this planet. So, is anti-Americanism the ultimate answer? No. As soon as America declines, some other country will take its place and impose its exclusionary policies on a resentful world, and nothing will have changed as it hasn't changed in 6,000 years of recorded history.
Instead of anti-Americanism, a type of pan-humanism would be much better. A recognition that global problems have global causes that include the United States, but also include the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Mozambique, North Korea, Argentina, Lesotho, ad infinitum. Address the exclusionary policies that all countries exhibit which are the root cause of human suffering from conflict. This in no way absolves the United States of responsibility for the current state of humanity, but the main failure of anti-Americanism is that is absolves all others of responsibility, and that is a fatal presumption.
Why do you guys think? Is anti-Americanism useful? How?
