Marc -
I congratulate you on an excellent self-analysis, and I do mean this as a
compliment.
Now, repent! :-)
Jon
Marc A. Schindler wrote:
I think it's time I correct an impression that I somehow have an anti-US
bias. I can see how that would come out, and those of you who know me
from LDS-Poll would see it even more there. The reasons, from *my*
perspective, for this are that I am by nature a bit of a contrarian, or
as I would put it, a force of balance. I'm the kind of person who
would join the Democrats if I moved to Utah (or the Republicans if I
moved to, well, wherever) What needs balancing, in my opinion?
1. The preponderance of USAmericans on the list (not the list's fault,
it's just the way it is).
2. A strong pedagogical streak -- my favourite church calling is
teaching, and this extends to political affairs. Since until recently I
had the opportunity to trave literally all over the world and see many
things firsthand, and consider myself well-read on international
affairs, I often have strong opinions which I'm not shy about sharing.
3. The fact that the US is the superpower de jour. A century ago I would
have been anti-English so to speak. Complaints from the elephant when
the mouse steps on its foot are taken by me with a grain of salt ;-)
Human nature is human nature, and there is nothing inherently different
about USAmericans per se. If Canada had the power you did, we'd do the
same thing you do. In fact, before I get to the actual point of my post,
which is to point out that we're just as capable of abusing others as
you are, let me point to another example of an interesting paradox;
namely, the more powerful a country is, when it follows its own
short-term best interests (which shouldn't surprise anyone that it would
want to do that), it usually ends up harming its own long-term
interests. That example is Saudi Arabia. Now all of a sudden we're
realizing that the Saudis aren't our buddies. But the Saudi royal family
has gone out of its way to cooperate with the US, as I think most of you
know. One of life's delicious ironies is that after fundamentalists
attacked US barracks in the Eastern Province (where Riyadh, Dhahran,
al-Khobar and Dammam are), a new base was built for them in the desert,
far from populated areas. The idea being that this wouldn't grate on the
nerves of locals who resent the presence of infidels in the land of
the two shrines. The irony? The base was built by a subsidiary of SGB --
Saudi Group Binladen, the construction firm founded by Osama bin Laden's
father, Mohammed. There's no link between SGB and Osama bin Laden per se
anymore, I just thought it was an interesting irony.
/
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