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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Why Do They Hate Us? |
| 2004-10-17 |
| Hating America is not new. Nor does it have much to do with the unpopularity of George Bush. Instead, primordial emotions like envy, resentment, and self-loathing explain why the world's elites damn Americans for who they are and what they represent rather than what they actually do. Criticism of American policies and culture is fair game, but not hysterical venom. Left unsaid is why millions flock to our shores and still more emulate our society if it is so abjectly awful as writers, artists, politicians, and journalists attest. ... Roger Kimball's insights into the detritus of the 1960s are many, but he reminds us that anti-Americanism flourishes because we choose neither to question it nor to defend our values—and thus it will start to disappear precisely when we do. Rest at link |
| Posted by:Bill |
| #3 This reminds me of my teenage daughter's "social problems": Okay, let's question our values: Question: Why do they hate me? Answer: Why do you care? You care too much, and it fuels their fires that you even listen. Ignore their taunting and it will fade away. Stop being a middle-schooler and get on with your own independence and identity. Then they can start to focus on thei independence and identity too. I think that about sums it up why the Arab middle east produces almost nothing except oil and hate: they have wrapped up their identity in us instead of getting a life of their own. That explains the adolescent behavior at every turn. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-10-17 12:15:43 PM |
| #2 i've been thinking the same thing for awhile now SPOD |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2004-10-17 10:48:59 AM |
| #1 My foul mood says We should start explaining it with the barrel of a gun. Trying to reason with these people is tedious, frustrating and generally useless. If they can't be reasonable and accept the failures of their own making and as not caused by the US. If they can't like the US screw them. Let them quake in fear of the US. WTF should we be nice to them anymore. I suggest we start by beating up every EUropean reporter (even if they are not europeans) we can lay hands on. Preferably starting with BBC employees. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-17 7:18:27 AM |