>
>
> >Unfortunately, in my opinion, this discussion exposed a virulent
> >anti-Americanism on the part of several members of the List, as quite a few
> >attempted to debunk almost every reason Americans might have to take pride
> >in their country. When I attempted to argue that America was a net force
> >of good in the world, many of these same people repeatedly chose to duck
> >the question, rather than concede that America *was* a net force of good
> >(or admit that their anti-Americanism actually leads them to hold that
> >America *isn't* a net force of good.)
>
> John, when will you ever learn that you shouldn't see the world in only
> black and white? The fact that non-US Brinellers criticize the US doesn't
> mean they are anti-American; it only means that they do not always agree
> with the way America behaves. If we were anti-American, we either wouldn't
> be on this list, or we'd be sending flaming responses to every message in
> which US members sing the praise of the US.
>
*sigh* this list has taken such a turn to the right in the past year with
all the most vocal posters (JDG especially, but even Gautam and some
others) squarely on the conservative side, and yes, I think AMerican
conservatism does seem to be very US-centric (the conservative viewpoint
tends to take *pride* in emphasizing so called American values) when
AMerica has only five percent of the world's billions (Does that mean 95
percent of the planet is, well, Un-AMerican? Not necessarily undeomcratic,
but UN-AMERICAN! horrors!)
I like looking at things like the "Talking Point" discussion groups on the
BBC web site that cover international stories and issues like McVeigh,
whether Europe needs the US, etc. I was struck that posts are not sharply
divided along national lines (individual opinion is anything but
monolithic...altho I wish people would always make it clear whether they
are a citizen of the country they post from or an expatriate. Natural born
AMericans can and do listen to BBC World Service, and the US press *is*
awfuly isolationist on a lot of world issues.) So it's *not* black and
whiite, JDG, Jeroen. And I think we should be paying more attention to the
perspectives of people who come from other countries, and cultures.
Kristin
PS. I pity any European who moves to the US and has to put up with our
shitty incompatible cell phone infrastructure where your phone can't send
a text message to your friend's, that was Too Many Cooks in the Name of
the Free Market. But (I hear it was George Gilder in particular who said
this...) GSM would be Un American and Evil because having one technical
standard would lead us down thte SLIPPERY SLOPE TO WORLD
GOVERNMENT!!!! Yes, I have Euro-envy on this point, and I envy SIM cards
where you don't have to throw away your handset to change providers. And
yes I know it's migrating to CDMA, but it is differnet flavors for
TDMA/GSM and existing CDMA. And CDMA was/is technically superior...so
was Beta video. The whole thing sucks. Oh....you pATRIOTIC americans... is
there anything you secretly *don't* like about America?
