No Matter What America Does The Rest Of The World Will Never
Like Us
Americans need to get used to the idea that, no matter what The
United States Of America does, the rest of the world will never
like us.
Ours is a unique society. We are made up of people from almost
every other nationality in the world. We were originaly formed
by immigrants seeking religious and other freedoms. Our ethics
and moral codes were formed mainly from Judeo-Christian ideals,
ie: The Old And New Testaments, The Ten Commandments and the
teachings of Jesus Christ. Our form of government is mainly
secular but our way of living, our body of law and our way of
thinking is, for the most part, Judeo-Christian.
Ours is not an insular society. All Americans, with the possible
exception of Native American Indians, are decended from
immigrants. These immigrants have come from all over the world.
These immigrants brought, with them, differing ideas, customs
and ways of doing things. Many of these ideas, customs and ways
of doing things have been melded into our way of life. The
foregoing has made us completely different than any other
country in the world and people, due to the nature of humans,
don't always like other people who are different.
Ours is a wealthy country, not only in resources and land but
also in our varied citizenry and our freedoms. This makes other
people jealous or envious. They don't have what we have, so they
say that they don't like us or that they hate us. Some of those
same people, however, can't wait to immigrate to this country,
in order to have what we have.
Our people, for the most part, are loving, caring and generous.
This may very well be one of our biggest problems. We want to
give to and help others. Many people think of our giving and
help as pure interference while others feel that no one would
give or help without expecting something in return. No other
country in the world is guided by Judeo-Christain principles so
no other country in the world thinks or believes as we do. We
can't understand how they think and they can't understand how we
think.
We deal with other countries and their people as we deal with
each other. We don't understand that, in most parts of the
world, fear and hatered are more powerful than love, greed and
envy are more powerful than kindness and generosity, wanting to
win is more powerful than a sense of fair play and that all of
the foregoing are considered by many people to be weaknesses.
When France helped us during the Revolutionary War, the facts
that the were already at war with England in the Caribbean, that
we had to pay them for their help and that they did not come to
our assistance untill they were sure that we had already won the
war, did not stop us from being grateful. When During the Civil
War and The War of 1812 a few French helped the Union, again for
pay and again after they believed that the Union had won or
would win the war, we were grateful. We we helped the French
during their Civil War and in the First and Second World Wars, a
few French were grateful but many more hated us. After all, we
had humiliated them by helping them. We had shown them that they
could not succeed with out our assistance. When the French
believed that, Saddam Hussein did have weapons of mass
destruction and was a threat to the world, they refused to help
us or to join with us because their profits were more important
than the live's of others. They believed that they were safe
because they were trading partners with Hussein. In addition,
they feel that we have too much power so, they oppose us every
chance they get (Don't tell me about Desert Storm, the French
did and contributed very little. The main thing they did was to
help talk us out of going into Bagdad and ending the problem in
Iraq, thereby saving their trading partner Saddam Hussein.). On
the other hand, they want our money from tourism and trade so
they invite our citizens to visit and to buy their goods. The
French do not do anything unless it is in their own best intrest
(By the way, I hate to admit this, but I have been told that,
much to my regret, I am part French.). I know that the foregoing
paragraph makes it sound as if I am a biggot. I am not a biggot,
I just do not like being used, abused and lied to and I feel
that that is what has been happening ever since the French
Indian War or as it is also called, The Seven Years War, which
took place before we were even a country.
Russia hates us for causing the breakup of the Soviet Union. The
governments of Russia, Mainland China, North Korea, most Moslim
countries, many African countries, some Central and South
American countries and certain other countries hate us because
they are afraid that their citizens might try to emulate us and
rise up and take away their power over those citizens.
Additionally, most Moslim countries hate us because our country
does not follow Islam, 'the one true religion'. According to
them we are Satanists for not following the 'one true God'.
Since all of these governments control, in large part, the
information sources in those countries, the majority of the
people of those countries believe the lies and propaganda that
are reported about us. Notice, however, how when many, not all,
of those citizens make it into this country, they learn about us
and they become, not only good citizens but, assets to our
country. Some of our most contributing citizens came from
countries that hated or fought against us at one time or
another.
People that can recieve or hear news about our country, listen
to our loudest and most strident voices. Voices from people like
Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Alec Baldwin, Susan
Sarandon, Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Al Sharpton, etc.. Since
many people, in other countries, don't understand the true
meaning of freedom of speech, they think that these people are
speaking for all of us. They think that all of us hate President
Bush, they think that our country is filled with prejudice and
hatred, they think that crime is out of controll and they think
that every one of us carries guns and shoot each other for no
reason, they think that we all feel that the war in Iraq is
immoral or already lost, they think that all Republicans and
most whites hate minorities and all non Jewish or Christian
religions.
These people in other countries don't understand that the voices
that they are hearing come from a very loud and vocal minority
of hard line left wing zealots and that those voices do not
speak for all of us. These people also hear from a few loud and
vocal far right wing zealots, however the right wing zealots are
not celebrities so these people don't pay as much attention to
them. What the people in other countries don't understand is
that the majority of people in this country are moderate to
slightly left or right wing and don't really agree with either
the far left or the far right. The majority of people in this
country are hard working, kind, caring and generous people.
However, moderate views are not exciting and therefore do not
sell a lot of newspapers or garner a lot of television viewers,
so moderate views do not get much coverage here or in any of the
free or fairly free foriegn press.
Finally, most of the people in the world don't like each other,
many Chinese consider anyone not Chinese to be a barbarian and
less than human, Indians and Pakastanis hate each other, Russia
and all of the old Soviet Union members fight or feud with each
other, many Muslims hate Jews and Christians, most Arab
countries seem to hate Isreal, Muslim sects hate and kill each
other, the French think that everyone else is beneath them, some
Irish hate the British, in Ireland Catholics and Protestants
fight each other, many Chinese and Koreans hate the Japanese and
many Japanese hate the Chinese and the Koreans, Africans hate
and kill other Africans, Argentines feel superior to citizens of
other South American contries, etc, etc.. If so many people in
the world hate or dislike each other, how can we expect them to
like or love us?
Isn't it about time that we quite worrying about being liked and
instead started worrying about being respected or even a little
feared. Fear usually generates a certain amount of respect. I'm
not suggesting that we become another Soviet Union or a China. I
am saying that perhaps we should stop worrying what the world
thinks of us and instead stand up for ourselves. Use our
financial clout, sacrifice a little, or a lot by not buying oil
and goods from our enemies, cancell free trade agreements with
our detractors, etc.. Sure many things will cost us more, but
aren't our way of life and our dignity worth something. And, if
we do need to use military force, maybe we should use it without
first trying to get everyone else's permission. Help from
countries like France, Germany, Russia and China would cost us
more than it would help us. Help from the United Nations always
seems to cost us more, in money and problems, than it helps us.
There are a few countries, Australia, England, Israel, Taipei
and a few others that usually stick by us, however, we may not
always be able to count on them. Even now many people in England
are trying to have Tony Blair removed from office and if we
don't start doing a better job of helping our friend and ally
Israel, they may, someday, cease to exist.