[ExI] America: Home of All Evil

[Lee Corbin]

Stathis writes

> Dagon Gmail wrote:
> 
>> So when murrca is magically reduced to a wasteland of fine ashy
>> powder and all people, buildings, roads, everything in it is away to
>> oblivion, suddenly the world will be overrun by dictators?

I never heard anyone make such a claim, neither here nor anywhere.
But don't you think that the Japanese and the people around China's
southern borders might be just a tad more apprehensive about
China than they are now?

>> Laughable, delusional. I am personally convinced of precisely the
>> opposite. The institute of the US is an exploitative device that
>> SPREADS dictatorship, economic slavery and war as a
>> typhoid Mary spreads infection.
> 
> I wouldn't go that far, there have been worse imperial powers.

Well then, just how would you characterize Dagon's mindset, Stathis?

> But it's important to ask, why do so many people around the world feel
> this way, even those in wealthy countries not adversely affected by
> decisions in Washington?

Meanwhile, then, I'll take a swing at such a characterization(s) and
try to take a first pass at your excellent question.

Hatred of "murrca" has a number of sources. We can dispense
with a a few of the simplest right away. Some people hate the
United States for specific actions it has taken. Some survivors
of Hiroshima or Tokyo (1945 March 9,10) still hate the entity
that destroyed their property and killed their loved ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_in_World_War_II

Others in this same camp may hate America for no better reason than
that their immigration request was denied. It happens.

Beyond such personal grievances (which are totally irrelevant) are
more serious ones. Some people hate America because they theorize
that the world would be a much better and safer place if it had
suddenly ceased to exist around 1960, say. By now the world
economy would have recovered, and without that particular evil
aggressive nation, the rest of the world would be relatively at
peace:  no Vietnams, no Iraqs, etc.  The powers remaining, the
Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China may not be
perfect, but they would no threat to their neighbors the way that
the evil murrca is to all nations, not only of their own continent and
their own hemisphere, but to all other nations of the globe period.

I consider that view (Noam Chomsky's view, if I'm not mistaken)
to be merely delusional. But it can slide imperceptibly towards:

Much more serious---and the whole point---is the hatred or at least
rather bitter resentment felt by many around the world that at first
blush appears focused on annoyance at America's foreign policy,
or upon its economic "domination", or upon its "arrogance".

It is these three last things that must be discussed, but I'm out of
time at the moment.

Lee