Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 9/13/01 12:41 PM, Henry Ambrose at henryambrose@home.com wrote: > John Brownlow wrote: >>> >>> What do you mean, John? >> >> I mean the US is the most powerful economic, military and political force on >> the planet. WTC aside, Americans have no need to feel sorry for themselves >> about the way they are treated in the world. >> -- >> John Brownlow >> > Please try again to get this through my thick head. > Feeling sorry for ourselves? > > There's been lots of hand wringing about how "we're changed forever" and > "things will never be the same". Is this what you mean? no not at all. I mean stuff about how ungrateful everyone is and how nasty they are to the poor Americans. > > Or do you mean the part where we seem to be saddled with maintaining > world order while hindered by other countries who seem to want us to do > all the dirty work while they sit on their hands? Saddled? You could stop tomorrow. The only reason the US continues to fulfil this role is that it is necessary to retain its political primacy in the world arena. America has also had periods of isolationism which have ended abruptly when its interests have been threatened by outside forces, as they have once more. I don't think any of this is WRONG, it just a fact of life. Great harm has also flowed from US influence in the world as well as undoubted benefits. Corrupt right- and left-wing regimes propped up, countries crippled by massive debt and commercially exploited by multinationals based in the US, cultural Disneyfication, economic 'reform' which has crippled economies and caused even greater reliance on aid. The list is very long. So long as the US citizens persist in feeling misunderstood and put-upon, rather than opening their eyes and trying to understand WHY others resent them, the hostilities directed against them will indeed appear to be a sign of madness. But that is just another way of not thinking about it. Henry, you and I both know the virtues of America. But many Americans don't realise that when outsiders see their country they don't see the same thing. Frankly, the twin towers of the World Trade Center were not symbols of hope and democracy to anyone I met. They were much more widely seen as symbols of corporate power and globalisation. The Pentagon is not, even in America, a symbol of democracy and light, but a symbol of the military-industrial complex. America's own myth-makers, the folks who make the X-Files and ENEMY OF THE STATE, riff on that symbolism constantly. Not only am I not anti-American, those who know me know that I am a positive FAN of the country. But it is a country with great flaws as well as great virtues -- like anywhere else. The one thing that will not help right now is a bunker mentality. - -- John Brownlow http://www.pinkheadedbug.com