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Title: Why Do People Hate America? by Ziauddin Sardar, Merryl Wyn Davies ISBN: 0-9713942-5-3 Publisher: The Disinformation Company Pub. Date: 15 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.41 (37 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent book
Comment: Notice that most of the poor ratings/reviews for this book have come from Americans (which is quite understandable I suppose), while the higher ratings have come from non-Americans.
If you don't live in America, it's probably likely you know most of the information contained in this book already. It is however interesting to see the analysis of 'why' the United States considers its culture as the best, the norm by which all others must strive for, and how and why it goes about marginalizing and destroying cultural identity in other areas of the world.
People in other reviews have criticized this book for not discussing terrorists or having some kind of lack of direction. But this book is not setting out to do that. As the title suggests, the book is about why people hate America, and it answers that question well. If you don't live in America, you probably already know why you hate it (destroying your economy and cultural identity etc), but this book clarifies why and how America accomplishes this in reasonable depth.
Definitely a book worth reading, especially for Americans. Nothing too relavatory for non-Americans here, but as another reviewer pointed out below... if every American read and understood the information contained in this book (and many others like it), the world would be a much better place.
Rating: 5
Summary: Where there is hatred
Comment: I expected this be another 'no holds barred' attack on the USA. Nobody really doubts that there are many people who hate America so why do we need another book to tell us. But I was glad to be proved wrong. This is a careful study of the cultural and historical events that have shaped America and in turn shaped the perspective of non Americans. Best of all it tackles why both sides struggle to understand the other. The authors explore the history of the Wild West and claiming of territory with its consequent violence. They look at the influence of TV and film in creating the understanding of American identity and the American way. So films like Rules of Engagement are seen as portraying Arabs as intrinsically violent and Americans as intrinsically good. They also reveal the danger of Americans seeing themselves as the world so that nothing else counts. Hence the re-making of films with American heroes and having a World Series in a sport only played in America.
Although the focus is on the USA it is also a timely challenge to all of us in the West. The aim is not to attack Americans but to try to encourage understanding. It is notable that the final words of the book are from the prayer St Francis of Assisis'. This is an interesting and provoking read which I would recommend.
Rating: 1
Summary: Very, Very Few Good Points
Comment: In "Why Do People Hate America?" Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies attempt to explain why, in their opinion, the United States is the most hated country in the world. They have come up with five reasons: 1) America presents a view of itself to the world via its cultural creations and political rhetoric that it fails to live up to, 2) by tilting the global trading system in its favor America has not only impoverished the world but it has actively sought to destroy other cultures and to starve the world's people to death, 3) the US uses a double standard when it comes to international conduct; one for itself and one for everyone else, 4) the American people do not know about the world outside their borders and, furthermore, they do not seem to care to know, and 5) American military intervention is unrestrained and devastates vast swaths of the globe.
You can tell from my one-star rating that I disagree with most of what the authors have said. Let me take each of the five items in turn.
The authors have done the inexplicable in using American movies to attempt to describe how America sees itself and how it presents itself to the rest of the world. They seem to particularly equate the film "Shane" with the United States. To anyone who would focus on a country's cultural outputs to try to find a description of that country I say, "Shame on you." American movies have nothing at all to do with how America sees itself or the world. In America, movies are explicitly a form of escapism. In other words, American movies are intended NOT to present reality as we see it. I would hope that the rest of the world would be informed well enough about America to understand that fact; but, I guess that street only goes one way though.
The idea that the global trading system is tilted in America's favor is simply laughable. No country imports more goods, and thereby creates jobs for other countries' citizens, than the United States. Furthermore, the institutions that the authors cite as being the global puppets of American corporations; the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, a persona non grata in the United States specifically because they continuously institute policies and promulgate rulings that are inimical to America's interests. The US Congress has for years been attempting to do to these agencies what they have done to the United Nations: cut them off financially.
Yes, the United States does at times use a double standard in its dealings with the world. I never believe that the "other people do it too" defense is legitimate. And so, I wish that our political leaders would not do it even though it is par for the course of international diplomacy. Dealing with different countries in differing ways is not hypocritical; it is smart and necessary. However, carping on about a country's lack of human rights while at the same time happily accepting their prisoner- and child-made products is nauseating to anyone with a sense of fairness.
If these authors are any indication of the rest of the world's knowledge about America, then non-Americans need to brush up on their facts about America. There were several mistakes that the authors made in their description of America, the most egregious of which was referring to the US Secretary of Defense as the Secretary of State for Defense. This is the type of minor error that, if made about a foreign country, an American gets castigated for and gets called a country bumpkin. I believe these types of mistakes are inevitable when dealing with unfamiliar political systems. But, those who live in glass houses...
The last issue that I mentioned above is the most important one and the one that cuts to the heart of matter. No fact like the one that the United States, and only the United States, can intervene militarily any where in the world it wants, at any time it wants, via any method it chooses, so effectively encapsulates why America is detested. American military might fosters an image of the United States that is as fake as the movies Hollywood produces. It fosters the image that America is omnipotent.
The world's citizens have obtained an image of America as an all-encompassing giant whose mere wishes become reality. The authors actually make one of their last (and better) points about this. First, second, and third world people all see the products of America's military industrial complex and wonder at, if we can launch satellites thousands of miles up to spy on other countries, then why can't we end poverty and hunger and disease and homelessness and... well, you get the point.
When people see these things continuing to exist in a world where the United States can make them go away, they begin to believe that we, the American people, must somehow want them to live in suffering. This is the bane of America's overactive military endeavors. By maintaining a constant presence in every corner of the globe, the US engenders the very hostility that its military is deployed to combat. It is the ultimate catch-22.
While the authors rely on existential navel-gazing by the American people as a way of ending hatred of the US, I believe a much better method would be the entire withdrawal of American troops from the rest of the world. Of course, the rest of the world would likely go up in flames without the American military around to guarantee the peace; but, I say, who cares. If all they'll do is spit on us while we are protecting them, then who needs it.
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