Roger L. Simon brings up a very good point about America’s relationship with the world:
Okay, I admit that’s a convoluted construct but bear with me. The assumption that we have drawn down upon ourselves the “scorn of the world” is based on the seemingly unlimited international media attacks against the USA and the myriad public opinion polls that often make us second only to Israel as the enemy of the human race. Sounds pretty conclusive, doesn’t it?
Not to me it doesn’t. In fact, it is all pretty much to be expected when one nation is vastly more powerful than all the others, in fact arguably more powerful than all the others combined. What do you expect them to say? We love you? Get serious–we’re talking about human beings here-not saints! … Meanwhile, however, they all know, deep down or not so deep down, what has happened. In less than a year since the invasion of Iraq, that formerly sadistic Middle Eastern dictatorship is actually turning into an embryonic (and of course fragile) democracy. Hardly anyone really thought it would be happening this fast–I certainly didn’t. Furthermore, Libya is giving up its nuclear weapons, the Pakistanis are… well, you all know the litany… all in one year.
Do they hate us for this? Well, a few do, obviously, but most I am sure either fear us or grudgingly respect us. So should we expect gratitude then? Of course not. The most important things we do in life rarely elicit that kind of response–no good deed goes unpunished, as they say–and our own quiet satisfaction for a job well done, not to say the safety of our children, should suffice. But are we scorned? Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll tell you how we’ll be scorned. Elect John Kerry and if he pulls back on the War on Terror while it is still half or a third finished, leaving most of the advances in place in tremendous jeopardy, probably to be rolled back, then we’ll really be scorned by history and by our adversaries. (What do you think that editorialist in Le Monde will really be thinking when he writes his column superficially praising America for her return to “sanity”?) Oh, and for those of you who think Kerry can be trusted to carry on that war, think of this… Think how the world will interpret a vote by America throwing Bush out of office. Think of the Kurdish people. Think of the students demonstrating today in Iran. Then think about whom you really have scorn for.
The people who make the argument that world opinion (at least as measured in anti-Americanism) matters are misreading the world as much as they misread al-Qaeda. America is resented because America is powerful. We have the largest economy, the best military in human history, and a sense of dynamism and opportunity unmatched in the world.
The only way we can stop being “hated” is to stop being powerful – to bow before the UN and chastise ourselves for having the unmitigated gall to liberate 50 million people, take away the UN’s lucrative blood money under the aegis of the “oil for food” program that was little more than another Ba’athist slush fund. We refuse to allow our Israeli friends and allies be slaughtered in a second Holocaust. We’re religious, we’re capitalist, we’re dynamic, and the best of Europe came here over two centuries of European war, oppression, and famine to find a permanent home – a home where more Europeans have found happiness and success than in their ancestral homes.
The “hatred” of Europe isn’t hatred in the true sense – it’s jealousy. The European intelligentsia want us to fail because we have proven them wrong. The European media from Le Monde to Der Spiegel desperately want the American economy to tank, the war in Iraq to become a “quagmire” and for Bush to be thrown out of office – despite the fact that if any of those happens it would hurt Europe as much as it would hurt us. Our model of capitalism has produced an economic downturn in which 6.0% unemployment is considered a major crisis – while the economies of France and Germany have 9.5% and 9.2% respectively. European’s gloat about Enron while the scandals at Crédit Lyonaise, ELF/Acquitaine, and Parmalat see former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe convicted of corruption – and he certainly isn’t alone. America’s GDP growth sets record levels, while Europe’s economy can barely keep up. It’s the resentment of the foolish against the wise, the weak against the strong, those who have earned their success and those who merely demand it. Furthermore, not all Europeans feel this way – despite the constant anti-Americanism of the European press, many Europeans still look up to America as a place of unbridled opportunity and promise. Many in Europe are realizing that the anti-Americanism of their governments were and are a smokescreen to hide their own failures – which is why the ruling parties of Germany and France are wildly unpopular among their own people.
In short, given the choice of bowing to Europe and keeping the status quo, any sensible American would have to tell Europe to va t’faire foutre and let them complain about how bad America is. I would rather endure the frosty glare of an effete Parisian waiter than realize that this country had a chance to radically alter the status quo for the better, but pissed away the chance in order to placate those who have failed to learn the lessons of history.
Who Cares What The World Thinks?
I hope you are proud of yourself. Think about it again, and …be proud of being such a great american. Land of freedom, home of the braves.
Hopeless.
“Our model of capitalism has produced an economic downturn in which 6.0% unemployment is considered a major crisis – while the economies of France and Germany have 9.5% and 9.2% respectively.”
I’ve heard it stated before that Europeans and Americans tally unemployment in a different way- and that if we tally our unemployed using the same methods as the Europeans, our levels come out closer to 8.5% at the moment, which doesn’t make our economy that much stronger. Anyway, this just means that they’re that much closer to Full Unemployment… a state that I’m looking forward to greatly. 🙂
Nope, Eurostat used the same methodology we do for calculating unemployement (basically you’re able to work, and you’ve looked for work.) There was a discussion of this in another thread this week where I pulled the figures, if you’re interested in my sources.
If you calculate total labor underutilization (you can work, you’ve looked for work, you’re working temporarily for economic reasons) the total labor underutilization in the US is 9.6% and the average labor underutilization in the Euro zone is over 25% – which is incredibly high for an industrialized nation.
Eventually Europe will have to face the music when GDP growth can no longer compensate for population growth and aging – and when that happens it will not be pretty…
Who cares what the world thinks?
I may be getting this all wrong, but I think here is a point that wants some explaining… The above quote seems to be headed this way: Who cares what the world thinks – America is independent of the world’s opinion – it’s America vs. the world – America can well stand on its own.
Fine.
But how does that kind of reasoning go together with the plea for globalization, i.e. with trying not to stand on its own?
Labor underutilization won’t be a serious problem, because once automation really gets going, labor won’t be needed anymore. The average number of hours worked in industrialized nations has fallen by half in the past 100 years (from 3000 hours per year in 1900 to 1500 per year in 2000), and is continuing to decrease…
Anyway, you want to know why we should care what the world thinks? Well, a number of reasons- Mark Hertsgaard, author of “The Eagle’s Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World” (who I just had a conversation with earlier this evening, after he gave me a copy of his book) put it quite simply- because everything we do affects the rest of the world, and the rest of the world does- that’s right- does have the power to pull the plug on us. If the Europeans and Japanese want to demand that we pay our debts to them, our economy would be ruined overnight. Our environmental impact? In every other country on earth, global warming isn’t up for debate- it’s the truth, and it’s going to happen in our lifetime, Jay. I could keep going, but I think you get the picture.
We’re just as arrogant- nay, more arrogant- than the Europeans, and it’s time we faced that, rather than dodging and alternating between the “superiority” and “victim” cards that we’re all to quick to play.
The problem that if Europe or Japan did that, their economy would collapse right after ours did. The economy is global now, and imagine what the Asian flu of 1995 would have been like if it was the dollar rather than the baht dropping like a stone.
Quite frankly, 30 years from now, global warming will be seen as being as asinine as global cooling is now, 30 years ago from when it was the big psuedoscientific bugaboo.
In the end, Europe is going to have to learn to be a lot more like us. The European welfare state is not sustainable, and unless they start reforming the European economy is going to go into 1970’s style stagflation. At the same time, Europe just got a slap in the face by al-Qaeda – either they take terrorism seriously or the next one will be even bigger.
No, America can’t go it alone (and we wouldn’t want to), but that doesn’t mean that if Old Europe asks us to jump we should respond “how high” as a certain botoxed Boston Brahmin would have us do…
“The problem that if Europe or Japan did that, their economy would collapse right after ours did. The economy is global now, and imagine what the Asian flu of 1995 would have been like if it was the dollar rather than the baht dropping like a stone.”
It’s economic MAD- but it doesn’t mean that they don’t have us by the balls, which will come back to bite us.
“In the end, Europe is going to have to learn to be a lot more like us. The European welfare state is not sustainable, and unless they start reforming the European economy is going to go into 1970’s style stagflation.”
Well, you are right about that. But ours isn’t sustainable either, and we’re already in a terrific debt.
You’re right on that, but we’re in a much better position than Europe is. We have an average of 4% growth in GDP – Europe can barely hold 1%. Our population is aging less rapidly, and we’re not giving the kinds of benefits that Europe is.
Eventually Europe will reform itself, but not before entering into a major economic crisis…