The World's American Hypocrisy
By Cathryn Crawford (04/11/03)
In the midst of all the world’s turmoil – September 11, the subsequent war on terror, the standoff with North Korea, and the operation in Iraq – there are undercurrents, feelings, and behaviors, which lay beneath the surface of world events. Stories that are playing themselves out on our television screens today had their start decades ago, and relationships between countries are either helped or hindered by the deep-seated prejudices, biases, and preconceptions that each country holds for another.
The world’s perception of America has always been good conversation material, but never more so than now. Many countries see us as an international bully, as a big brother, or as an international policeman. They constantly second-guess America’s motives for everything we do. They see us this way no matter who our leaders may be or what events we are currently engaged in on the world’s stage.
Is that the truth?
America isn’t perfect. Although we will never stop striving for it, there is no war that we will engage in that will be perfectly free of errors and mistakes. There is no election that we will hold (and there has never been an election yet) that will be completely free of voter error and fraud. It may be on the smallest scale; still, there will always be mistakes.
On the other hand, America is not the great Satan. We really do have the best intentions for the world. We feel that the country that we live in is the greatest in the world, and that the rest of the world could benefit from democracy as much as we have. We know that there are evil people in the world; we also realize that there are evil people in our own country.
However, just because we aren’t perfect doesn’t mean that the world is correct in their assumptions about us. Although they accuse us of being arrogant, they encourage our arrogance by begging for our approval. If they really don’t like us, and they really want us to go away and leave them alone, there are a few things that they could do to show us their feelings.
First, don’t expect America to wash the world free of every evil dictator in the world. Most countries want, need, and beg for our help when confronted with any sort of problem; yet, invariably, when we do so, we are stabbed in the back or bashed behind closed doors by the other governments involved. So, it would be easier on everyone involved if you would just take care of your own problems, your own self-defense, and your own people.
Second, stop asking for and expecting our money. You want our funds for every possible use, yet when we offer it to you with the expectation of something in return, you act as though we have offended you, as though because we are the richest nation in the world means that we should just give you our money without a second glance. You think that we owe you something because we are so rich – when in reality, you owe us more than you could ever repay.
As a matter of fact, you owe us more than we would ever ask you to repay.
Third, stop expecting us to support everything that you do and then throwing a fit if we don’t. We don’t happen to like the Kyoto protocol, so we aren’t going to sign it. We didn’t tell you not to, we just said that we weren’t. We don’t like the International Criminal Court; therefore, we aren’t going to take part in it. We didn’t tell you not to, we just said that we will not. If you really think that we’re so evil, then stop craving and expecting our stamp of approval on everything that you do.
Now, all these things are just suggestions, and they are absolutely and completely impossible to actually implement, as everyone who is reading this knows. I write these things only to make a point, to show the truth.
The truth is this:
The rest of the world can’t live without us, because they need our economy, our exports, our money, our military, and, ultimately, our approval. We lend legitimacy to European endeavors – thus, when we do not join in their actions we are labeled as isolationists. They need us, much more than we need them.
It may sound horribly arrogant, and arrogant it may be, but it is the truth.
To deny it is hypocrisy.
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