Truth and violence | U.N. report
undercuts cliches about America
The United Nations might not be the source one might expect for a new report that undermines the common global stereotype of Americans as violent cowboys, but U.N. crime researchers have produced just such evidence.
The report documented that not the United States but Scotland was the world's most violent developed nation. Scotland, England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand all had assault rates at least double America's. New Zealand is the developed world's sex-assault capital. Other data show street robberies are far more common in London than comparably sized New York.
Even America's traditional No. 1 ranking in developed nations' murder rates is no more. A study to be released later this year concludes that, yes, Scotland has passed the gun-slinging Yanks.
This news comes just as two more foreign films that depict Americans as culturally inclined toward sociopathic behavior have been released to critical applause.
In the Canadian film "A History of Violence," a saintly small- town paterfamilias is revealed to be a skilled killer. In the Danish film "Dear Wendy," a troubled young man achieves release and redemption only through what The New York Times describes as "apocalyptic violence." These characters are plainly meant to be fictional stand-ins for America.
How trite. How superficial. You will not be surprised to learn that the "Wendy" in the latter film's title is the name of a gun.
Now, it's easy to dismiss these movies and their ilk as the smug work of America haters, but to a depressing degree, they matter -- and they do real damage. The pop-culture depictions of the United States around the world help form the perceptions of hundreds of millions of people, many of whom think this purported violent streak explains our war in Iraq.
Alas, there's not much Americans can do about it except hope that with time, our foreign critics develop a more sophisticated view than assuming every U.S. president watches John Wayne movies for behavioral clues.
It's possible. Consider French writer Bernhard-Henri Levy, who reveres America as "a model of democracy" and shares the Bush administration's deep anxiety about Islamic extremism. That he is France's most popular intellectual is a startling confirmation that America isn't as despised around the world as we may assume -- and that just as Americans suffer from national stereotyping, we're also guilty of it.
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