I've just spent a few days in Port Angeles, Washington. On the way back to Victoria yesterday I had a long talk with an American, a retired construction worker from Chehailis (Sp?) who had worked all over the US. >From what he said, he obviously loved his country. But then we got onto the speech Bush made at a military base the other night. I've never heard such a vituperative condemnation of anyone in my life - Bush is a puppet to the rich few, he started the war in Iraq so that his buddies in the arms industry could make a lot of money, etc. etc. I've thought at times that I was hard on Bush. This guy was something else!
The lesson I took out of it was that one has to recognize what one is pro or anti about. It's not really all that simple. Whenever I've travelled to the US, as in the past few days, I've found myself liking many things about the place and its people. The wall of the high school gym in Port Angeles has copies of many of the great documents that the modern US is founded on - The Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Declaration, etc. Some of the great battles of the 20th century were fought in the US - e.g. the civil rights movement. The US has produced some truly outstanding writers and thinkers. Etc. Etc. Like my friend on the ferry, I don't like the Bush administration and the damage it has done to world peace and order. I also abhor some other things, like the kinds of things the religious right is trying to pull. I'm hoping these things are aberrations and that the good sense and decency that are so much a part of America will ultimately prevail. I for one will keep hoping. Ed > > > >More on the sociopolitical homefrontÂ…KwC > >Who Are the Pro-Americans? >Commentary by Anne Applebaum, Washington Post, Wednesday, June 29, 2005; >A21 >So familiar are the numbers, and so often have we heard them analyzed, th>at >the release of a new poll on international anti-Americanism last week cau>sed >barely a ripple. Once again the Pew Global Attitudes Project showed that >most Frenchmen have a highly unfavorable view of the United States; that >the >Spanish prefer China to America; and that Canadian opinion of the United >States has sunk dramatically. And once again the polls told only half of >the >story. After all, even the most damning polls always show that some >percentage of even the most anti-American countries remains pro-American. >According to the new poll, some 43 percent of the French, 41 percent of >Germans, 42 percent of Chinese and 42 percent of Lebanese say they like u>s. >Maybe it's time to ask: Who are they? >In fact, when pro- and anti-American sentiments are broken down by age, >income and education -- I did so recently using polling data from the >Program on International Policy Attitudes, supplied by Foreign Policy >magazine -- patterns do emerge. It turns out, for example, that in Poland>, >which is generally pro-American, people between the ages of 30 and 44 are >even more likely to support America than their compatriots. This is the >group whose lives would have been most directly affected by the experienc>e >of the Solidarity movement and martial law -- events that occurred when t>hey >were in their teens and twenties -- and who have the clearest memories of >American support for the Polish underground. >It also turns out that in some more anti-American countries, such as Cana>da, >Britain, Italy and Australia, people older than 60 have far more positive >feelings about the United States than their children and grandchildren. T>his >was the generation, of course, that had positive experiences of U.S. >cooperation or occupation during World War II. And surely there's a lesso>n >here: Although anti-Americanism is often described as if it were mere >fashion, or some sort of contagious virus, America's behavior overseas, >whether support for anticommunist movements or allied cooperation, does >matter. To put it differently, people feel more positive about the United >States when their personal experience is positive. >But the polls also make clear that direct political experience is not the >only factor that shapes foreigners' perceptions of the United States. >Advertising executives understand very well the phenomenon of ordinary wo>men >who read magazines filled with photographs of clothes they could never >afford: They call such women "aspirational." Looking around the world, it> is >clear there are classes of people who might also be called aspirational. >They are upwardly mobile, or would like to be. They tend to be pro-Americ>an, >too. >In Britain, for example, 57.6 percent of those whose income are low belie>ve >that the United States has a mainly positive influence in the world, whil>e >only 37.1 percent of those whose income are high believe the same. Breaki>ng >down the answers by education, a similar pattern emerges. In South Korea, >69.2 percent of those with low education think the United States is a >positive influence, while only 45.8 percent of those with a high educatio>n >agree. That trend repeats itself not only across Europe but in many other >developed countries. Those on their way up are pro-American. Those who ha>ve >arrived, and perhaps feel threatened by those eager to do the same, are m>uch >less so. >In developing countries, by contrast, the pattern is sometimes reversed. >It >turns out, for example, that Indians are much more likely to be pro-Ameri>can >if they are not only younger but also wealthier and better educated, and >no >wonder. Because India has only recently been open to foreign investment, >younger Indians have had the experience of working with Americans, wherea>s >their parents have not. The poor in India are still untouched by >globalization, but the middle and upper-middle classes -- those who see f>or >themselves a role in the English-speaking, American-dominated internation>al >economy -- are aspirational, and therefore pro-American. Some 69 percent >of >Indians with high incomes think the United States is a mainly positive >influence in the world, and only 29 percent of those with low incomes agr>ee. >This same phenomenon may also account for the persistence of a surprising >degree of popular pro-Americanism in such places as Vietnam, Indonesia, >Brazil and the Philippines. They're getting wealthier -- like Americans ->- >but aren't yet so rich as to feel directly competitive. >True, these pro-Americans may not be a majority, either in the world or i>n >their own countries. But neither are they insignificant. Pro-Americans wi>ll >vote for pro-American politicians, who sometimes win, even in Europe. The>y >will also purchase American products, make deals with American companies, >vacation in the United States if we give them visas to do so. They are wo>rth >cultivating, with presidential speeches or diplomatic visits, because the>ir >numbers may even grow if their economies expand, if their markets grow >freer, if they begin to see the global economy as a promise and not a >threat. Before Americans brush off the opinion of the "foreigners" as >unworthy of attention, they should remember that whole chunks of the worl>d >have a natural affinity for them and, if they are diligent, always will. >Happy Fourth of July. >A longer version of this article appears in the July/August issue of Fore>ign >Policy magazine. >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/28/AR2005062> 801 >246.html?nav=hcmodule ><http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/28/AR200506> 280 >1246.html?nav=hcmodule> > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Futurework mailing list >[email protected] >http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > > > Sent using cyberus.ca WebMail - http://www.cyberus.ca/ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
