This post is on the reasons for hatred of the US.
1)
<< Another possibility is that there is a large group of people that are analogous to the Luddites. They do not want any change, they are afraid of change and will fight against any change to their culture and their way of life. The problem with that is their culture is tied to a book that was written for a different era. Many of the rules do not apply to a modern society yet they will fight and die and attack what they think threatens that culture even if that threat is not intentional or malevolent. >>
Here's an example of a much deeper level of the arrogance that has been discussed in this thread. It's basically a hard thing to get around, because to all of us, our "modern" society (with its technology, ideas, government, etc.) is the best that ever existed. But to many others around the world, it is not.
In the last 300 years or so, Europeans have basically forced their (our -- I should say, being a person of European ancestry) way of life, which had been developed over millennia into something that worked pretty well for Europeans, onto people who had different societies and different socio-evolutionary paths that had led them to where they stood before their conquest by the Europeans. Europeans, who naturally saw their own worldview as correct, essentially forced this view on the native populations, in both subtle and non-subtle ways. (Non-subtly: if you don't follow our laws, we'll kill you; subtly: if you act this way, that's 'civilized' and therefore raises you above the noncivilized masses.)
We continue this to this day, but it's become much more subtle. We now export our music all over the world, touting it as the "cool" thing to listen to. We bash people for not having women's rights and say "that's not civilized" when it took several centuries for womens' rights to develop in Europe in the first place. Imagine if someone had shown up in Europe in 1600 and said "Okay, you've got to let your women vote and they don't have to wear dresses any more and they have to be given the same level of education as the men" and so forth. You can bet that the Europeans of the time would rightfully want to kick the guy's ass! Who the hell does he think he is, trying to force his ways upon us? (This would occur even though Europe in 1600 was much closer to being "modern" in terms of womens' rights than most Arab nations of today.)
We talk, full of pride in our hearts, of the new 'globalized' world, but really it's just a 'Westernized' or even 'Americanized' world in which true diversity is lost to the overwhelmingly powerful forces of capitalism and materialism which we have unleashed upon the world.
BTW I'm not a Marxist, not even a Socialist. I think that capitalism and materialism can work well in the societies in which these forces/ideas have naturally developed, but I think that they can only wreak havoc in societies which are suddenly expected to change from subsistence farming or gathering societies into players in the global technology and information economy.
2)
Most of all, we sit on our asses in our heated and air conditioned homes while typing away on our computers and we talk about such things as justice and liberty, and bragging about how rich and powerful we are, while at the same time allowing monstrous acts of cruelty to go on all over the world. If people are mercilessly killing each other, we don't care. But if they threaten to withhold oil or otherwise damage our precious economy, we're ready to nuke 'em.
We don't really care about justice and liberty. All that we care about is the computer in front of our faces, the homes that surround us, the TV shows that entertain us, the comfortable beds that we sleep on. Justice? Bah, we can trust John Ashcroft to look after that for us. Liberty? Okay, well I guess I don't mind being strip-searched in the airport. Just as long as it's purportedly protecting me and my property, without which I just wouldn't know how to live.
And you know what? It's that attitude that really pisses people off. As Tyler Durden says in Fight Club, "You are not your fscking Khakis." But so many of us are caught up in it -- "What am I going to wear tomorrow?" "Oh, I really can't decide between the steak and the chicken." "Duron 1.1 or Athlon 900?" Cry me a fscking river, people. There are people right outside your doors, in your own cities and country that have to make a LOT worse decisions than you do. Some of them are probably even your own fscking relatives. (When's the last time you called your grandmother? When's the last time you made sure that she had enough to eat?) "Should I buy medicine or buy food?" "Will I be able to survive the cold tonight?" And it gets a LOT worse outside of the USA. It's right there, plain for everybody to see. And yet, we ignore it. We all just go on with our lives, not caring about other people, just about ourselves and our things.
Well I'm sorry to rant like that, but I thought that I could provide a bit of insight as to why people get so amazingly pissed off at us, when we talk about how powerful we are, we go in and topple governments halfway around the world with impunity, while we all do NOTHING to help the injustices within our own communities and especially in the rest of the world.
Finally, I'm not saying that I'm really any better than the people at whom I ranted in this little rant, but I'm sure as hell trying to be. Thanks for reading.
*pats self on back.*
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