Who Hates America The World Stage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Who Hates America The World Stage - Essay Example On one side, the 'American is still the greatest country in the world' faces off with their opponents - the 'America is the home of political tyranny and capitalist imperialists' tribe. Each group comes to the table with a particular set of talking points. Each group seems to have an ax to grind, and regardless of the amount of angst burning between them, either group rarely hesitates to through a bit more gasoline on the fire. At times, it seems that the purpose is to create a larger fire, rather than promote honest communication and positive progress toward constructive goals. But such is the life of those who have power vs. those who want to accumulate power. Conflict seems to be the chosen path. Hating America has been a staple of the American cultural battle since the 1960's. Since a large number of students dissented over the Vietnam War, and took their voice to the streets, and newspaper headlines, political distress has become commonplace in the American culture. ... One group believes that democracy, or a democratic republic can best guide its own destiny with tools, information, and opportunity. The other seems to desperately create reality following the communist principle, that 'if you repeat something long enough, often enough and loud enough, people will eventually believe it, and follow you. However, from a global viewpoint, the picture changes. The world has its own views of the American experiment on freedom and self governance. These views flow from their own worldview, and their own experiences within the political subsystems in their own countries. So when discussing "who hates America" the question of 'why' must also have added to it the question of 'what is the person's own paradigm and experience" as well as "What does the speaker have to gain be winning listeners to his or her point of view. Often this last question is more revealing than the person's own words. This phenomenon has gained momentum and stature during the last half decade since the terrorist bombings of Sept 11, 2001. Being the first act of war on American soil, this incident galvanized the American peoples to action. The terrorist network had been growing for some time during the 1990's. The bombing of the marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon (cnn.com, 2003), the subterranean truck bomb attack on the World Trade Center buildings in 1993 (Wickens, 2000), the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 (Rodgers, and Frieden, 2000) . . . and the list goes on. After each of these terrorist attacks, the American political leaders rattled their sabers a bit, but generally subjugated their efforts to the opinion of the world stage. However, when a terrorist attack killed thousands of American civilians, and was carried out on American