| G'day, this is my first post, im an 18 yr old male in western australia currently at uni studying engineering.
who is to say that america is right in what it does, i think this is the problem. its impossible for the whole world to agree on any course of action and so it is generally left up to the people making the changes to decide what these changes should be. inevitably this means that several nations will be outraged at the way values they hold as important are replaced by those of, in many cases america, though this also applies to the u.n. i believe because as a collective we have another, different, set of values altogether.
there seems to be a tendency (and i might be sailing a bit close to the america bashing wind here) for america to influence another nation in such a way as to make it more like itself. americans, in my experience, without exception love their country and what it stands for, though many may hate the way it is managed. principals like democacy, freedom and liberty form the basis of what many would call the right way to live, but this does not apply to everyone. it seems that america is not able to understand people not wanting to be like them and this means they sometimes impose unwanted ideals on a people honestly thinking they are liberating them.
america wields great influence but its not just military or political influence, its also cultural. the fact that they are so big often means they get stuck with the shittest jobs. if something is broken they have the most power to fix it and so it is left up to them. the rest of the world cannot complain too loudly when they just sit back and expect america to take care of it for them, then are unhappy with the results. what i find unacceptable is when the views of the rest of the world are actively ignored in a kind of "well, whadda ya gonna do about it if we do?" kind of attitude. if the global community wants more influence in how their world is run we need to take a more active stance.
america does much good for the world but in many cases i believe they need to consider "but what if were wrong?".
Mitch |