Question for Askvillers that are not U.S. citizens: is it the consensus of people from other countries that America is?

Similar questions: Question Askvillers citizens consensus people countries America.

I'm not sure that anyone could speak about a 'consensus' about any nation. However, here's my observations: First, I’m pretty sure than the great majority of people in other countries really don’t know the huge diversity that there is in the USA; we tend to hear about the perimeter - especially the East and West coasts - but very little about the ’flyover states’ and the huge differences in attitude between (say) Nebraska and New York. Nor are we generally well-versed in American history - it might go back as far as World War II, but it’s often perceived as a series of incidents rather than as a play of forces.

I would mark myself pretty high as a creature curious about US history - two walls in my study are covered in it - but I’m still capable of being quite thoroughly surprised; for instance, I recently read a superb book on the formation of the Right in US politics (can’t give the reference, some son of a bachelor has borrowed it) and I was amazed at what I didn’t know. And I’m certain that you’d have to be a political scientist to realise what an absolute triumph is represented by the American Constitution (unless you’re an avid watcher of The West Wing, which many people were; the team deserve a medal for their contribution to international understanding). So I would imagine that the average incurious person who takes their view of the US from the mass media would understand very little - even though it would be fair to say that you won’t find the equivalent of Fox News on this side of the pond, and there is generally an attempt to be fair; the problem is that it’s also spare.

Having said that, there’s no doubt that - certainly since World War II - there’s been a faint current of wariness about America. You can still raise a wry smile by recalling the wartime phrase that ’the Yanks are overpaid, oversexed, and over here ...’ and in the late 50’s/early 60’s the French Minister of Culture, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, published Le Defi Americain (The American Challenge) as a protest against the inroads of American culture. (Mind you, any country that maintains an academy whose mission is to guard the purity of its language could be considered a little paranoid). Also, I doubt whether there’s any other country that understands why the US ties itself in such knots about abortion and creationism, which are simply non-issues just about everywhere else.

There’s a running degree of astonishment that when something like Enron happens - corruption on a huge scale - there are so many casualties and there doesn’t appear to be a way of addressing the wrongs. (Mind you, the first time I did business in Australia I remember thinking that if you changed the colour of the faces, this place would be like Lagos). Generalising from that, and from episodes like Katrina and the incident of the missing yellowcake - for which we Brits have to raise our hand - I think there’s an expectation that government in America would be, quite simply, better managed than it appears to be.So, given that you ask whether America is seen as gullible - which I would separate from idealistic - I’d venture to guess that the charge of ’gullibility’ would include: putting too much trust in people and institutions who are blatantly crooked and/or broken; believing Fox News and its cousins; making politicians pass a religious test before they can run for office (the easiest lie to tell); the prevalence of fundamentalist religions and their off-shoots such as creationism; and a belief in force rather than subtlety when the trumpet calls to war.

It’s also hard for others to understand why you can’t fix your health system, when so much money is spent on it yet millions of people live in dread of developing a critical illness, and why there is so much poverty in the midst of plenty and the poor are so often punished rather than helped. You did, after all, have a President who said that ’a society that cannot help the many who are poor cannot help the few who are rich,’ and I would guess that many people’s views of America are influenced by the leaders you can produce, and what you can achieve, when you are at your greatest. I think that in recent years the USA’s reputation has been pretty badly damaged, first by the Clinton impeachment - which was generally viewed here as using a sledge-hammer to crack a walnut, and also as a golden opportunity for the extreme right, whose hero Newt Gingrich had let them down, to have another go at bringing a basically good guy down.

Then the mess with the Florida re-count looked like an unashamed and illegitimate power grab, and it was pretty disturbing to observe how such a hugely important decision could be settled by something that certainly didn’t look like due process. We were all Americans on 9/11 - though it would have helped if Bush had responded to the messages of condolence - but there is great cynicism about the war in Iraq and the ’war on terror,’ and any commentator could probably get a cheap cheer by saying that if the Middle East grew carrots the US wouldn’t have gone to war there. Plus there’s pretty universal disgust with things like Guantanamo and ’special rendition’ and the avidity with which many people in the current Administration embrace them.

It might be fair to say that Western civilisation holds America to a higher standard than that - because it’s known that America has had higher standards than that in the past. George W Bush has very few admirers in Europe. Are you viewed as ’naively idealistic’ by getting involved in fixing the problems of other countries?

My guess is that the response to that question would be mixed. Taking a purely pragmatic view, the USA really doesn’t have much option to try to influence other countries; it’s not the only big kid on the block any more. China, for example, is spending money in the South Pacific like a drunken sailor; tiny islands whose name you wouldn’t recognise and that can be driven around in less than an hour are getting huge handouts - no strings apparently attached - because they happen to have stores of essential strategic minerals necessary to China’s development.

However, China doesn’t come in with an ideological agenda such as the spread of democracy; it’s plainly out for Number One. We (I’d include the UK and Commonwealth in this) also say that we’d like our clients to have democracy; the problem is that you can’t impose democracy to the point where it’s truly embedded.(The depletion of the CIA is a big problem here; often it doesn’t have anyone who even speaks the appropriate language, let alone has the necessary maturity of judgement). You guys invented your democracy because you had something to push back against - us - but it doesn’t come so easily to people who aren’t expressing a crying need.

So the USA has no choice other than to maintain - and create - allies; that’s the pragmatic aspect. I think that the charge of naivety does need an answer; for example, the US first armed Osama bin Laden before declaring him an enemy, they armed Saddam Hussein when he was fighting Iran before he became an enemy, and so on. Ed Murrow, in the programme where he got Senator McCarthy to impale himself on his own sword, had something important to say here: ’As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age ...’ and he also said ’We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.

We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

’ The key phrase is ’dig deep in our history. ’ I think that the charge of naivety is based on the US’s lack of a sense of history - of how long it takes for the tides of human affairs to change. When he was asked what he thought of the French Revolution, Chairman Mao made a quip that ’it’s too early to tell.

’ The British were in India for seven generations, and we have been charged with not doing a good job of granting its independence. Without that sense of how ideologies and alliances form and change, the temptation is to go for the quick fix; and when you have a huge military arsenal that enhances the temptation. The problem has been made worse by the ideological purges that have come close to destroying America’s ability to gather good intelligence about the rest of the world; for example, the State Department was purged of its ’old China hands’ just at the time when they were needed to pass on what they knew about the rise of Mao.

It continues today; Colin Powell, probably the most level-headed thinker in the present administration, was purged in a turf fight - and because he was saying things that the President’s close circle didn’t want to hear. ’You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.’ What happened to initiatives like the Peace Corps?

If the USA were seen to rely less on force as a first response, and if it presented to the world a vision of a society at peace with itself, it might increase the likelihood that the people of other countries would envy the Western way of life and choose it of their own free will. I hope so; you have an honourable inheritance, and there are plenty of people whose views of America, mixed though they may be, include that wonderful line given to Sam Seaborn in The West Wing: ’This country is an ideal, and one that has lit the world for two centuries ...’ I hope I’ve answered your question. EnglishLady's Recommendations Legacy of Ashes: The story of the CIA Amazon List Price: $27.95 Used from: $14.50 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 112 reviews) .

Just an observation about your country. G'day Nano, Yes, I would say you are very naive, very insular and very self indulgent. You are very religious to the point of irrationality.

But I like you! Here is a small snippet of an answer I gave about your issues. I was watching a documentary on the airplane bone yard in Arizona.

This yard revealed only a fraction of the ’left overs’ from massive spending on the military over the years by your government. They have spent trillions on useless military crap, that much off has never been used. I think it’s time Americans stood up and demanded that governments started looking at the society it has created.

With social decay, crime, poverty, lack of infrastructure, poor services, poor pay and conditions of many of its workers have your government got its priorities right? I don’t think so. You have a government that is obsessed with international interference in other countries.It has caused massive pain and cost to your economy.

Why is it so? It has been this way for years. Demand that your government ’fix’ your homeland, not someone else’s.

You need a proper medical system, like our Medicare. You need to reduce military spending and concentrate on important infrastructure. Tackle important issues like the environment, poverty, urban decay, crime and social issues.

Why Obama is called the first possible ’black’ president is strange. Isn’t he just another American? Who cares if he is black?

I am an outsider, I do like and have seen much of your country, but you have so much to fix, and not just roads and bridges. Yes, your taxes would be better spent on important infrastructure. Go to it!

Sources: My experience and rants. Sources: My experience/Extensive travel in the USA.Chowfan. Jexebellion's Recommendations The Imminent Downfall of the United States of America Amazon List Price: $12.95 Are We Rome?

: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America Amazon List Price: $14.95 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 32 reviews) .

1 From people I have spoken to, its more along the lines of "snotty" and "arrogant" .

From people I have spoken to, its more along the lines of "snotty" and "arrogant.

2 I'm American, but I've lived abroad for many years. The criticisms I hear most often when we get in to discussions regarding America's continued involvement in the affairs of other nations is "clueless", "self-centered" and "arrogant".

I'm American, but I've lived abroad for many years. The criticisms I hear most often when we get in to discussions regarding America's continued involvement in the affairs of other nations is "clueless", "self-centered" and "arrogant".

3 My daughter was going to school in Barcelona when 9/11 happened. She said that although her friends felt compassion for us, they were also scared of all our nationalism and flag waving. While they are working to bring their countries together with the Euro, our display of national pride made some of her friends think of the blind allegiance the Germans had to I'm not making a judgement her, please don't beat me up.

I am just telling you what her friends told her at the time.

My daughter was going to school in Barcelona when 9/11 happened. She said that although her friends felt compassion for us, they were also scared of all our nationalism and flag waving. While they are working to bring their countries together with the Euro, our display of national pride made some of her friends think of the blind allegiance the Germans had to I'm not making a judgement her, please don't beat me up.

I am just telling you what her friends told her at the time.

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This is a question ONLY for askvillers whom I've become good friends with.

A question regarding sending compliments to other Askvillers.......

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I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.