james_krotov ([info]james_krotov) wrote,
@ 2006-10-06 08:59:00
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Levels of openness.
Andrew Cohut and Bruce Stokes in the newly published book "America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked" present the data of the Pew Research Center concerning American's image abroad. Hatred to Americans states that they lack interest to other countries, their cultures, to the common future of humanity.

I think this hatred is first of all illogical, because the same people blame Americans for their active foreign politics, for the meddling in the life of other people. But interference means interest. What is much more important, other people are much worse as concerns openness and interest to others. Only 3% of Americans are interested in Europe? But I don't think that at least 2% of Europeans are interested in States, or Africa, or China. Russians are much more secluded. There are many Americans--well, dozens-- who are interested in Russia and pay their own money for this interest. But there no Russians who are interested in MOngolia and pay their private money for this interest. (Certainly, there are many Russians who are interested in America, but this interest is very pragmatic.)

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[info]morsefan
2006-10-16 02:12 am UTC (link)
This should be a really good book. There are some projects the Pew Foundation is in that I don't like (abortion rights), but that's separate from their public opinion work, which would be excellent when done in a scholarly way and this is. I have heard about the book a lot and when I have a minute (laughs!) I want to look at it.

I have been in a lot of conversations on this issue of "who likes who" and who is justified in not liking the U.S., and honestly, I think your argument makes sense. I don't think Americans see how frightening it can be for peoples who feel powerless in the face of a world leader that does things over which they have no control and that they feel are way wrong. We need to learn that lesson. But similarly, there is a failure to appreciate what genuinely is our great concern about the common future of humanity and how much responsibility a lot of Americans sense we will have to bear for it, regardless of politics. Those, including U.S. citizens, who want the U.S. to follow what other countries want still expect us to pay for most of what will be done, and of course, "the buck," as we call it, always seems to stop with our military. Now, I think that over time as some of the scars of the 20th century heal and developing countries get more firmly on their feet, this will be less of a concern to many Americans (certainly this one), but in the meantime, it's there.

I want to take a look at some of the statistics you cite, too. I wonder how "interest" is measured. Where you go on vacation (holiday)? If so, Americans get very little vacation, and a lot less compared to Europeans. We simply lack the time for overseas trips. Plus, we tend to have more children. They want to go to Disney World, etc., and given how large our country is, visits to family in distant cities are often first on the list. Most of the time when people see a sort of conspiracy or set of nefarious motives, I don't think they are there. Life isn't that complex.

The "why we are different" part should be very intriguing. There have been lots of studies and opinion pieces on this issue recently. I will be extremely intrigued.

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projection
[info]james_krotov
2006-10-16 05:26 am UTC (link)
I didn't read the book, I had a very good review. I think "interest" is measured with the place given to international news in local media, first of all. Russian newspapers, I think, may be given more place to foreign news than American. But this is not because we are very open nation, but because we are very imperialistic nation. This is the remnant of Bolshevist interest to the world revolution.

Any hatred is projection. Russian do not dare to understand that their government is despotic, so they say that American government is despotic. Or, "we are bad but U.S. are worse, so we are fine" psychology. Hatred is usually a sort of topsy-turvy pride.

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