After reading THE OBLIVIOUS EMPIRE, by Mark Hertsgaard, we see that different parts of the world have different views on Americans in general. They don’t really seem to see that not all American citizens agree with the United States’ government. We see that other countries have resentment towards American Citizens, and like them, we also don’t pay much attention to what is going on in their home land.
Why do you think the rest of the world sees us the way they do? Do you believe that it is fair for American citizens to receive the same resentment as the US government? Is there something that can be done to reduce other countries’ resentment towards America?
6 comments:
I thought that the Oblivious Empire was very accurate. The rest of the world sees us the way that we are. The main reason is our interntaional policies. That is why most of the world dislikes us. I think that it is unfair for American citizens to receive resentment for the US government, but we do the same things. In Iraq, every Iraqui did not support Sadaam and his beliefs, yet we discriminated agains any Muslims in our on country. As mentioned in Hertsgaard's story, America is very hypocritical, and I believe that it is much too late to save the world's negative view on America, and Americans. We would need to drastically change our foreign policies, and elect a president who is respectful to the rest of the world.
I do not think it is fair that American citizens get treated the same way as the government. When i visited Mexico this summer most people didn't realize that there are many American Citizens who don't agree with our own government...if more countries realized that the citizens and the government are two separate entities;they might have more respect for citizens
I don't think that it's fair for other countries to judge Americans based on the Government, but once you think about it almost everyone does the same thing. Once Americans look at Stories about the middle east we assume that the people living there are wild and don't have order or laws. Or once we see a comercial on Africa we assume that the whole continent is unhealthy and poor. I don't believe that we can get upset about the way the rest of the world looks at us. Because most of the people that have negative views of Americans have been influenced by the media. I believe you can say it's sort of saying an eye for an eye, because the United States do the same thing by portrayng everyother country as poor snd in need of help.
After reading this eassy I agree with what Hertsgaard was saying. Because of our government and their foriegn policy we are not liked by many people. We are not perfect ourselves either. We stereotype and discriminate against other countries just as much. We especially discriminate against muslims because of the terrorist attacks and Iraq. I don't think their is anything we can do to change the way people view us. If the government changes their foriegn policies they are just going to anger a different country that likes things the way they are now.
I think that it is fair that the rest of the world has resentment towards us. Americans as a whole are probablly one of the most ignorant countries in the world. It gets to a point where we are not just ignorant any more, but we don't care at all about other countries affairs. Some people think that we should stop helping other countries and focus on ourself. This is ridiculous to me since we are one of the most wealthy countries and we should use our resources to better the world. After September 11 Bush had a 75% approval rating. This figure seems to show that we obviously supported Bush's cowboy style speech of "either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." Could you imagine if any other country posted this ultimatum to the U.S.A.? Nobody would have taken that kindly and a conflict with the country started. I also think that America obviously as a whole supported Bush if they decided to elect him for another term. I mean think about the mentality after September 11, a lot of people thought that we should just go in and bomb the shit out of Iraq. This let's get them before they get us mentality is exactlly a huge reason that America is not respected by the rest of the world. America controls the world by this mentality that we can hurt you a lot more then you can hurt us. America is never the perpetrator only the victim. At this point I think we have dug ourselves into too deep of a whole to gain other countries' respect.
I think that Americans are seen in such a bad light because to a certain degree our leaders are very cocky about our standing in the world. It would almost seem as if they feel that America is exempt from all rules. Also, the cowboy mentality that both Bush presidents said in the reading do not help much to make our country look compassionate and caring for the worlds affairs.
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