[ExI] America: Home of All Evil
Lee Corbin
lcorbin at rawbw.com
Tue Mar 25 17:32:03 UTC 2008
Kevin writes
> Stathis wrote
>
> > Contrast the world's attitude towards America with the world's
> > attitude towards the EU: just as rich (indeed, richer if GDP is the
> > measure of wealth, and the Euro may overtake the dollar as the world's
> > reserve currency), just as culturally dominant (even if you only
> > consider the extent to which American culture is transplanted European
> > culture), just as arrogant (ask a Frenchman or a Greek about the
> > significance of his country in the history of the world). And yet,
> > resentment of European countries around the world is often in
> > proportion to how easily those countries can be lumped together with
> > America, culturally or in the degree to which they support American
> > foreign policy decisions.
>
> Those with little power always resent those with more
> power. This is normal. If the US disappeared, someone
> else would become the "most" powerful nation and they
> would then become the object of disdain. Before the US
> it was Germany, and Russia, and the British and the
> French, and so it goes on. One day someone else will
> take the reigns - and they can be hated just the same.
Not to take away from your observation---which can still
be pursued separately---we ought to address the general
question of why the largest or most powerful tribe is
deeply resented or hated by many, even beyond (so the
hypothesis goes) what it has actually historically done
against a particular nation. (The U.S., for example, is widely
hated in France and Switzerland, even though France and
the U.S. have been allies for 60 years, and the U.S. and
Switzerland have never been enemies.)
Is there a genetic basis (probably even coupled to cultural
practice via cultur-gens (Lumsden and Wilson, 1981)) to
the resentment of the richest or most powerful other tribe?
What would be an EP explanation? Has it anything to do
with Pierre Trudeau's graphic economic characterization
of "being in bed with an elephant"? I really hate it when
people just ask questions, without making even the least
effort of an answer themselves---but here I'm doing it,
but only, because of lack of time and space.
Lee
More information about the extropy-chat
mailing list