Do you find it sad that many people are concerned more about what the world thinks of American than?

Question

what Americans think of America?

Answer 1

As a Canadian, not at all.  If so many countries are putting pressure on your to adopt better environmental policies, maybe you should listen.

I'm not trying to hate on America.  I used environmental policy as an example because we Canadians are being pressured to adopt better policies in this area too, and we need to.  My point is that international pressure can be an important factor, and positive one, in shaping a country.

Answer 2

I think the only way is to do what we think is right. We will get criticized anyway.

Answer 3

Remember the fall of the dollar internationally???  Leads to the rise in gas prices???  It's partly because everybody the world over hates us because of what Bush has done.  When they hate us, they don't want our Yankee Dollar.

Answer 4

If we weren't concerned about America, we wouldn't care about what the world thinks of us.  Do you not care about what your friends and neighbors think about you?  

There are practical reasons for worrying about the rest of the world.  Our manufacturing and industrial sectors are dying.  We have to buy everything from our jewelry and electronics to the clothes that we wear from other countries.  

Another reason for worrying about what our trade partners think of us is that the Bush Administration has almost doubled the national debt, from about $5.3 billion when he was sworn into office, to about $10 trillion as of the day he leaves office.  Our economy wouldn't be able to absorb that much, so we have had to borrow almost 2 trillion from China.  We have to sell as much of our national debt to other countries as we can, so that the weight of all that debt doesn't finish crushing our already strained domestic banking industry.

We haven't been able to produce enough oil to support our industries or consumers for a long time now.  All of our domestic production combined is 5 million barrels per day.  We use 22 million barrels per day. That means we have to buy 17 million barrels of oil.  EVERY DAY.  And that c**p that McCain and Bush were spouting about our domestic oil in the AWR and the gulf was just that:  c**p.  Bush may not read, but I know that McCain has read the US Geological Survey; he knows that all of our reserves combined just total 32 billion barrels, it'll take 10 years to start producing from those locations, and they will just pump a little oil each year for decades.  In other words, we'll see a couple of cents reduction in prices 10 years from now.  We had better get along with the Arabs, because they can shut down our whole economy any time they want to.

Answer 5

You'll find that the anti-American attitudes across the world pre-dated Bush and pre-dated the Iraq war.  This is a long-standing thing, and the world is frankly just looking for something to pick at.   Having lived under the umbrella of US protectionism, the democracies of Western Europe have largely forgotten what it means to defend themselves.  The military of France, for instance, is in complete disrepair.  Over half of their tanks don't even work.  

It's only natural for the anti-American sentiments to begin to rise in Europe with the fall of the Soviet Union.  We don't have the same common enemy, and frankly, the US the predominant economic partner (yes) to Europe, but also its biggest rival.    There has also been a precipitous decline in European nationalism, which has been seen at fault in creating two Great Wars.  The United States has never had this consciencious thrust upon itself, and Europeans respond to American nationalism with an animosity that most Americans don't understand.

But speaking of guilt, it is something that has begun to pervade the American and the world conscience.  It really took off in the 1990s with political correctness.  And frankly, one of the major faults in seeing so many Americans so dejected and Europeans so staunchly against American policies is the role of a largely leftist and even Marxist media complex.

Tony Blair went so far as to censure the BBC for being so incredibly anti-American, and it's very obvious that this is going on across the globe.  I was quite happy to see Le Monde, the ultra-left French paper of the elite, hemorraging jobs and money recently.  It's about time.  The ABC news service in Australia is also quite vile.  And these are just the ones I've been paying most attention to.

What you see coming out of the media is a distinctly Marxist, anti-Western, and anti-Christian message--particularly anti-Catholic.  Whereas in the First Two World Wars we referred to our enemies as "j**s" or worse, they're now called "freedom fighters" or "insurgents."  Those who wage war on the streets of Europe are known as "Asian youth."

In coverage of economic issues, our nation enjoyed a very prosperous 6.5 years, and yet the media allowed the message to sink through in 2004 that we were in "the worst economy since Herbert Hoover"--which was total nonsense.

This isn't just an American phenomenon.  A recent study showed that the Dutch have a terrible image as to where their nation is going, with 68% saying in the wrong direction.  Britons has an equally pessimistic outlook.  My guess is the French do, as well.

There is also a deal of envy involved in this.  The US, as the world's most powerful nation, does indeed weild great power, and while it has been the world's most benevolent superpower to date (sans un dout) to this point, it's weight is felt much more ostensibly around the world.

Yes, the Iraq war brought a lot of scorn from around the world.  This sentiment was fueled in part, again, by a world that has largely ceased believing it needs to defend itself and one strongly drawn towards peace and prosperity through peace.  There are two dynamics competing, and the strength of the US military puts it at odds with the rest of the world's demilitarization.  Without the Soviet boogeyman, the US suddenly seems much more threatening, despite all its past good.

Finally, note that opinion polls are NEVER taken to see what America's opinion of the world is.  Why is that, do you think?  Exactly why doesn't our media take interest in this?  I think it speaks very clearly about their intent, doesn't it?  

For instance, would the US be liked more in Germany if it was widely known most Americans like Germany?  I'd think so.  But our media remains all too silent....

(Of note: in the above arguments, the Middle-East is just as if not more dependent on US consumption of oil as the US is depedent upon them.  If consumption were to stop, these economies would dry up overnight.  Over 80% of Saudi Arabia's GNP is oil production)

Answer 6

They say appearance is everything.

Answer 7

Not at all.

It used to be that when a person called themselves American overseas, it meant something to be very proud of.

Now we represent two pre-emptive wars, Katrinaing of our people and a medical system that is the most expensive in the world where we, the richest country in the world, says we can't provide universal health care to every American.

That all comes back to what Americans think of America.

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Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated

Confucius

551 - 479 BC

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Peace

Jim

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