Preaching to the Converted
May be all I'm doing. I certainly hope some of my semi-political (no, actually, they are entirely political) rantings have made an impact on the apathetic masses, but when it comes down to it, I am fully aware that most people refuse to believe what is inconvenient, uncomfortable, or downright appalling. Especially about the practices of a government they are subject to, and the all-too-human leaders they blindly follow.
The problem is, too many people are incapable of differentiating between a country's government and its citizens. They (often unconsciously) assume that a government does and says things in accordance with the sentiments of its own people, and this is not always the case. I have to say, this is a big problem in the United States. Take, for instance, the casual phraseology of a history text book on WWII. It will say things like "we declared war against Nazi Germany", or "we dropped the bombs on Heroshima and Nagasaki", when it should make clear that these were acts of the US government. Not the people. This overly simplifies complicated conflicts, and obscures facts in order to present the "Disney version" of history as well as current foreign affairs. It creates ambiance comparable to a global "us against them" football game, our team colors being Red White and Blue.
Anyway, you've probably already guessed that this has something to do with 9/11, the unconstitutional "War on Terror", and conflicts in the Mideast. Honestly, I'm trying to get something through here, but there's just too much for me to organize into any kind of logical progression.
Remember right after the bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? They (when I say "they" I mean the Bush administration) were calling it as a "vicious" and "unprovoked" attack on "America" in general. Remember the all-encompassing wave of "patriotism"? And then the police action in Iraq suddenly became so unpopular. Why? Immediately after 9/11, the American people had the sympathy of the world behind them, and now we're perceived as some of the most arrogant idiots on the planet. Why?
To a large part, it's due to they way our government handled the "unprovoked act of war". The way they reacted instantly, instead of responding accurately. Did Bush and his team clearly differentiate between the Iraqi government and a group of militant religious fanatics? Did they even attempt to separate the uninvolved civilians before they started bombing? And don't even get me started on all the recently revealed false statements regarding WMD's.
But that was our government. Not us. How did we respond? Mostly, with utter confusion and a cry for revenge. Far from graceful. But hardly surprising from of nation of people who have been lied to about the details of every military conflict since WWII, without exception. 9/11 came as such a shock, and we honestly believed that the Iraqis hated us for no good reason, because we were (and still are) entirely ignorant of all the not-so-nice things our government has been doing for the past few decades to instigate such a violent act. And this is only half our fault. We trusted our government. 9/11 was essentially an instance of "blowback", the CIA's term for the unintended conciquences of covert opperations. The instance appears to be random and without cause only because the public was unaware of the secret operations that provoked it. Exactly.
Maybe the point I'm trying to make is, well, I'm aware that not all is what it seems to be, and I wish more people were too. I wish my fellow Americans valued freedom of information, more than feel-good sound-bites about "freedom" and "democracy". I wish the United States was a nation of concerned, informed citizens - not flag-waving zealots who accuse you of being "un-patriotic" for questioning anything the president says (which, by the way, we have the right to do thanks to the constitution). I wish we could elect a president we can trust to at least tell us the truth, and who would never do anything s/he feels the need to hide from we, the People. I wish, I wish, I wish.
In the meantime, thanks for conquering your human attention-span, and finishing this post (if you haven't wandered off already, or just skipped to the end to check if I actually have a meaningful conclusion). Let's all get over ourselves, and try to take an honest look at history for a change.
peace.
You should watch these documentaries, and read this book:
Comments
It's largely liberal politicians who believe in the separation of church and state that have been pushing for peace, and opposing the war in the first place, in fact.
I've taken some solace in the fact that China's kinda taken our place, for now.
Oh, and congrats on being featured! Always nice to see other vegans around!
So no, I don't find any comfort in the fact that someone else's government is more oppressive than ours. I'm just enjoying the fact that we're not taking all the credit for being the "worst country ever" to everyone on Earth anymore.
Part of the problem seems to me to be that the mainstream media inflate certain things and completely de-emphasize others. Most of my American friends are well aware of this, and shows like The Colbert Report make it pretty freakin clear. But people in other countries are less likely to see that than they are the Fox/CNN crap which emphasizes the standard government line and doesn't focus on war protests or really anything that gets far away from the press releases they get from government and Pentagon officials. If that's all you know about America, then your view of it is pretty well screwed. But that's what you get for trusting the news. Meh.
And I have to say to karlos that I find it absurd that you think America does not care about the existence of other countries and yet more absurd that you think American voters should care more about other countries than they do about themselves. First, America--both the government and its citizens individually--is involved in projects to help other countries all over the world (in the Middle East, granted, it's only Israel). Even some liberal commentators have acknowledged how much aid the Bush administration has given to Africa. American NGOs, too, such as Habitat for Humanity and the Peace Corps are also involved in other countries throughout the world. The CDC does huge amounts of disease prevention work overseas. So, I don't think you have any substantive case that America in general does not care about other countries in general.
And I know that a lot of foreigners think that when we vote, it should be with other countries foremost in our minds. But give me a break. What country's people do this? Certainly foreign policy is an important part of this election, and we all know it. But it is just stupid to suggest that we shouldn't care about our economy. For one thing, our economy, being so big and tied to so many others, matters to the rest of the world, less now than it used to, but it still matters--China needs someone to buy all that crap. For another thing, nobody--I don't care what nationality--is going to vote for something that hurts them personally, and a lot of Americans are being personally hurt by the current state of the economy. I'm having a hard time thinking of another nation so beneficent that when some sectors of its population had longstanding 20%+ unemployment, they would care more about their nation's reputation in other countries than about economic policy. Perhaps there is one, but nothing jumps out.
Of course, we don't necessarily have to choose. Ideally, a politician will step forward with a decent economic policy and a decent foreign policy. I doubt that person is John McCain from what I've seen so far; however, so far, the Democrats are not looking like the shoo-in party that they should be. This should have been a cakewalk for them, but it isn't going to be now, unless I am much mistaken.
C.Scholar
Well people do elect governments in a democracy.
Having said that I think most intelligent people are capable of differentiating between a government's policies and actions and those of individual citizens. I travelled with a really cool and well informed American woman in the Middle East not long after the first Gulf War (when most Americans were staying away in droves). She was fully expecting to get a hard time from at least some people but the exact opposite seemed to be true, ie, people were so impressed that she had come to visit their country despite the disagreements at a Government level. She had previously been in Vietnam and had a similar experience there (ie, even in areas where Americans were considered the enemy during the war).
As an Australian, I was also very keen to distance myself from the Australian Government when John Howard and his cronies in power. I did encounter people who would say things like "All Australians are racists" etc etc but usually those were people with some kind of axe to grind and not really interested in having a constructive dialogue on what steps could be taken to improve things.
Anyway, sorry for such a long rant. Was just interested in what you had to say.