I've been asked this question or a question similar to this many times in Indonesia (most recently my civics teacher asked me this) and I thought I'd open up this question to all Americans as well as anyone else who has a thought (American or not).
Anyway, the question: Why does the United States get blamed for so many of the worlds problems?
So I've set it so anyone can comment on this even if you are not a member. I think maybe it would be cool if you stated which country(ies) you are from too.
a friend wanted me to be more specific, so here it goes: mostly people ask about why a lot of regions and people have antiamerican sentiments, including sentiments from Europe to the taliban, and just why people seem to blame the us for problems with the economy, war, intolerance/racism, call us imperialist and any anything else people see as bad and caused by the US.
ReplyDeleteI think many people blame the US for problems in the world, because we have alot of power and influence in the world. And I'm not saying that to be egotistical, it just is what it is, and actually that power is sometimes a good thing and sometimes gets us into trouble. For example, with our power, we can help countries like Haiti, after a natural disaster. That is a good use. Although, if we don't help fast enough we get chastised. Sometimes the US government feels like we're doing something good by "helping" the citizens of the Middle East while also protecting ourselves, but the world community does not see it that way. (I'm trying not to put whether I think any of this was right or wrong because I could definitely get into politics, so hopefully just an answer to the question is coming across). As with things like the economy, we do have so much influence that if we stop buying extra things, other producers around the world feel their purse strings tightening. If we have less money to spend that will be reflected in how much we travel, what we buy, and even just locally, buying things like houses. Not only does that give less money to other countries, it also scares the rest of the world. They see us having a hard time, and they realize it's probably coming to them soon as a result of us, so they start saving more. A major problem is stocks. When people are scared to spend money or hear of all the bank troubles, they tend not to invest in stocks or pull out of stocks, causing panic on Wall Street, and subsequently around the world. As my uncle in Canada was saying, "whatever happens to the US, will eventually come to Canada." He was saying we're so close and the US has so much influence that it's almost impossible to not be affected by things like our economy. With all of this, it's a double edged sword and is sometimes unfair, but alot of times, I think it keeps America on it's toes. If we become isolationist again, we'd be chewed out for not doing anything and pushing responsibility away from us. People feel we have a responsibility to help the world. But if we help too much, or not in the right way, or even with things like the economy going down, we get blamed. As my mom was putting it, everybody wants something from the US or expects a certain behavior from us, and it's all different, so we're bound to piss someone off.
ReplyDeleteAs with something like why we (meaning the people who are, not the whole US) intolerant and racist, I have no idea. That's something that pisses me off. Women still make less than men, gay people are treated like second class citizens, and the list goes on. The US is controlled mostly by white, heterosexual, males-- even though they only make up 20% of our population. And in this patriarchal society, civil rights for EVERYONE does not exist yet. Sure, we are ahead of many countries, but many countries are also ahead of us and I feel it's irresponsible and just plain stupid that we have not even given women equal pay to men, or other basic civil rights to many other groups. And that was definitely getting into my personal opinion on that one, but I honestly don't understand that part about the US.
I hope that helped a little bit, until the end I tried to stay fairly politically neutral for objectivity's sake. So if you have any questions on what I said, let me know. I know I can ramble sometimes.
--Jennie (USA, since you want the country)
Thanks Jenny, that was very eloquent. I've been saying stuff similar to you, although I'd like to add that I think that our economic power also causes people to feel that their culture is being replaced. Indonesia is one of the farthest countries geographically from the US, yet I see Mcdonalds, KFC, western clothing, and many other western and American imports. I also realized that its become almost nessecary to learn English, even for someone living in Indonesia all their life because the computers (made in the US) are all in English, the tags on clothing are in English, the movies are in English, etc. While people in Indonesia seem to really like the US, I can see how this would lead people to feel as if their own culture or language was starting to disappear, and why some (frankly crazy people) would end tractors through Mcdonalds (it happened in france), and it may be the reason we are targetted by the taliban.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree 100% on Jenny, my thoughts exactly.
ReplyDeleteIn short, we're involved the most, and we're responsible for the most. If somethign goes wrong, the most blatent scapegoat, although not always the right scapegoat, is the U.S.
There's a fine line between staying out of other people's lives and contributing to help out. Get too involved and we become "overbearing" and "intrusive". Don't get involved at all and we become "selfish" and "ignorant".
I don't see any other country contributing very often, so at least the U.S. is trying. It's a huge mistake to assume we'll do everything without fault. American's are humans, too.