27 Nov 2007

The Unpopularity of the US Abroad

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Dennis Praeger explains the fundamental, underlying dynamic:

One of the most widely held beliefs in the contemporary world — so widely held it is not disputed — is that, with few exceptions, the world hates America. One of the Democrats’ major accusations against the Bush administration is that it has increased hatred of America to unprecedented levels. And in many polls, the United States is held to be among the greatest obstacles to world peace and harmony.

But it is not true that the world hates America. It is the world’s left that hates America. However, because the left dominates the world’s news media and because most people, understandably, believe what the news media report, many people, including Americans, believe that the world hates America.

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Dominique R. Poirier

I did read a bit about French anti-Americanism, which reputedly is one among the most virulent of the occidental world—If not the most virulent. Also I have had the opportunity to witness it for years and at all levels of the social fabric in France. I concluded from all those cues that authentic and seriously, say, “documented” anti-Americanism is rarer than many assume; even among those who consciously and purposefully promote it.

For, I met a tiny minority only of persons who proved able to stand unabashedly against American people and its whole set of values when their learned-by-heart rhetoric happened to be confronted with sound and hardly questionable facts and numbers.

Among those rare birds, those who expressed sincere feeling of hatred whose origin proved to be found in recollections of unpleasant personal experiences were under the influence of a priori and popular rumors before being given any opportunity to meet and talk with Americans already. In many instances as well, the same remark applies to those foreigners, for example, who once tripped to New York City and latter claimed they found their tour just “disappointing,” without being able to elaborate clearly and rationally.

It’s not so easy to sincerely hate someone you don’t know. It’s not easy at all, actually.

Owing to the ubiquitous presence of American values, through films, famous persons, historical linkages, certain folklore and food and many more; America is pretty sheltered against xenophobia. Its cult of liberty and unbridled hedonism cannot be honestly questioned in most occidental country but by alibis to feelings of frustration.
How can one sincerely prefer less, sadness, and pain; rather than better, happiness, and well being—If not the mentally impaired or the depressed?

In fact, I find two very different forms of anti-Americanism only:

– a less or more acute one expressed and spread by certain ruling minorities that have a vested interest to do so—a formal meaning is used as alibi covering a true, but less attractive meaning;

– and frail and baseless anti-Americanism—the most common, by far—typically expressed by masses ruled by the formers and which is under daily influence of a skillfully planned and less or more subtle propaganda.

Note that I deliberately dismissed a minority made up of innocent and/or accidental victims of past conflicts in which the United States involved. For, this third category does not express anti-Americanism in the ideological or cultural sense of the term as debated here; but because people it is made of share in common to bear a strictly personal grudge against U.S. soldiers. Those persons once lived in Dresden, Hiroshima, Saigon or elsewhere when they experienced their ordeal which, in some instances and with time, came to underlie an ideological commitment which better suits claims of certain intellectual maturity.

In fine the subject pertains more to fundamentals in behaviorism and to an elaborate expression of drives originating in the Reptilian Brain in particular than to intellectual reasoning stricto sensu; and this same conclusion applies to any other political claims in numerous instances. Often, the depth of someone’s ideological commitment and the knowledge underlying it proves to be surprisingly smaller than what was initially assumed.

Most Communists-Socialists never did read a line of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, and few among them ever even heard of Claude Henri de Saint Simon and Barthélemy-Prosper Enfantin.

Some further reading I recommend on anti-Americanism and on the roots and history of French anti-Americanism:

http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Americanism-Jean-Francois-Revel/dp/159403060X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196470946&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Oldest-Enemy-Disastrous-Relationship/dp/0767917553/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196471004&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/American-Enemy-History-French-Anti-Americanism/dp/0226723690/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196471031&sr=1-1



Dominique R. Poirier

I did read a bit about French anti-Americanism, which is the most enduring of the occidental world reputedly. Also I have had the opportunity to witness it for years and at all levels of the French social fabric. I concluded from all those cues that authentic and seriously, say, “documented” anti-Americanism is rarer than many assume; even among those who consciously and purposefully promote it.

For, few proved to be able to stand firmly against American people and its whole set of values when their learned-by-heart rhetoric happened to be confronted with sound and hardly questionable facts and numbers.

Among those rare birds, those who expressed sincere feeling of hatred whose origin proved to be found in recollections of unpleasant personal experiences were under the influence of a priori and popular rumors before being given any opportunity to meet and talk with Americans already. In many instances as well, the same remark applies to those foreigners, for example, who once tripped to New York City and latter claimed they found their tour just “disappointing,” without being able to elaborate clearly and rationally.

It’s not so easy to sincerely hate someone you don’t know. It’s not easy at all, actually.

Owing to the ubiquitous presence of American values, through films, famous persons, historical linkages, certain folklore and food and many more; America is pretty sheltered against xenophobia. Its cult of liberty and unbridled hedonism cannot be honestly questioned in most occidental countries but by alibis to feelings of frustration.
How can one sincerely prefer less, sadness, and pain; rather than better, happiness, and well being—If not the mentally impaired or the depressed?

Ultimately, I find two very different forms of anti-Americanism only:

– a less or more acute one expressed and spread by certain ruling minorities that have a vested interest to do so—a formal meaning is used as alibi covering a true, but less attractive meaning;

– and frail and baseless anti-Americanism—the most common, by far—typically expressed by masses ruled by the formers, and which is the outcome of a skillfully planned and less or more subtle propaganda.

Note that I deliberately dismissed a minority made up of innocent and/or accidental victims of past conflicts in which the United States was involved. For, this third category does not express anti-Americanism in the ideological or cultural sense of the term as debated here; but because people it is made of share in common to bear a strictly personal grudge against U.S. soldiers. Those persons once lived in Dresden, Hiroshima, Saigon or elsewhere when they experienced their ordeal which, in some instances and with time, came to underlie an ideological commitment which better suits claims of certain intellectual maturity.

In fine the subject pertains more to fundamentals in behaviorism and to an elaborate expression of drives originating in the Reptilian Brain in particular than to intellectual reasoning stricto sensu; and this same conclusion applies to any other political claims in numerous instances. Often, the depth of someone’s ideological commitment and the knowledge underlying it proves to be surprisingly smaller than one initially assumed.

Most Communists-Socialists never did read a line of Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin, and few among them ever even heard of Claude Henri de Saint Simon and Barthélemy-Prosper Enfantin.

Some further readings I recommend on anti-Americanism and on the roots and history of French anti-Americanism in particular:

“Anti-Americanism,” by Jean-Francois Revel.

“Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America’s Disastrous Relationship with France,” by John J. Miller and Mark Molesky.

“The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism,” by Philippe Roger.



henry balfour

Ask someone who lives in a Western Demicracy (whatever the definition of THAT could be) and at least 70% will report very strong negative impressions of the USA. You clowns just don’t get it, do you? The USA is not hated by “leftists” who are “controlling the Press” – there is a clear realisation amongst most people out here that the US is out of it’s mind, and completely screwed. If it were a dog, I’d shoot it.



JDZ

The “negative impressions” you refer to as based upon the partisan reporting and editorial opinions disseminated by the treasonous clerisy dominating the media high-ground.



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