Benjamin Barber:

They don’t hate us. Nobody hates people as a whole. But Americans are sensitive imperialists and want to know. The real question is: Why don’t they love us as much as we want/deserve to be loved?

One reason is that we are the most powerful people in the world. Therefore, people look to the U.S. for solutions and blame us when they’re not forthcoming. It’s not that we have caused the problem, but rather that we are in a position to contribute to the solution. If we don’t, we are held responsible for not doing that.

The reasons America is not well liked, particularly after 9/11, can be summarized through 3 H’s: Humiliation. Hypocrisy. Homogenization.
 

Humiliation:

Violence is not just the result of poverty, not even when associated with globalization. Poverty is something the human race has dealt with for a long time, and in asceticism it can be a method for spiritual growth. It is not just poverty, but being humiliated, adding humiliation to lack of opportunity. All pride, all dignity, all human possibility being removed from a people and their children. Those attracted to violence see it as a way out of humiliation.

Israel regards its role as self-defense. However, the people closed out feel humiliated and struggle against that sense of being humiliated by another into feeling less than fully human. Then a few act less than human by slaughtering innocents.

There are ways in which American policy, as well as Israeli, may humiliate others. What can we do in

appropriate military response that does not engage us in humiliating Palestine?

Hypocrisy:

The US’s largest problem is the hypocrisy with which we pursue our foreign policy. Many people admire our history and what we offer. Our country was born in revolution and cultivated inclusive progress and full democracy, but it perpetrates policies that reflect none of that and make us look deeply hypocritical.

America is addicted to oil and opium. Because of these, we often support despotic regimes. Our economic interests are very narrowly defined. We even tried supporting the Taliban for a bit.

That sense of hypocrisy leads to great anger. Because we speak and voice high ideals, when we act like everybody else, we seem to be hypocrites.

For example, Hugo Chavez is an elected leader of a democratic country, Venezuela. When there was a military coup, the US looked the other way, in fact was in touch with the conspirators. The result was that when democratic government was restored, the US was once again in a compromising position. US actions appeared to be part of a vendetta against Castro since Chavez has connections with Cuba. That kind of narrow thinking is devastating to America.

Such actions are both immoral and ineffective policy. They makes us less able to forge good alliances. America should have said, we don’t like the guy, but he was elected. That’s it. But America didn’t.

When democracy is threatened in other countries and we do not support them, other nations think we are not serious about defending democracy against terrorism.

Our reputation of democracy is irrelevant to our actual policy. The U.S. has made no attempt to cultivate democracy in the Islamic world. To support democracy is not to choose leaders that we like. If we believe in democracy, we have to also accept elections and people who may not always side with our interests. We gather behind the winner and move on.

Homogenization:

It’s not America that is disliked, but its culture, its popular culture-McWorld. To many people, America’s culture, sent in the name of free markets, looks like a form of marketing colonialism. A materialist, secular, violent culture is being sent around the world to people who take religion and ethics seriously.

The internet is supposed to be educational. 95-96% of it is commercial, and one-third of it is pornographic. Before, the family, schools, and church were responsible for the education of our children. Today marketplace TV and the internet have kids 60-70 hours/week, 52 weeks/year. It is right to ask what is on those screens.

What comes on the back of news is materialism and violence. That comes to be the only game in town, displacing diversity. Domination replaces many sectored, pluralistic civics, politics, and religion. It is totalitarianism when the commercial-the propaganda of the market and big brands-takes over every realm. Commercialization. Secularization. Violence.

Open markets may mean a closing down of diversity rather than an opening up. Each brand has as its goal the total domination of the market. For example, Hindus drink tea so Coke says we have to make war on the Indian tea culture. Pluralism and democracy are about diversity, enhancing respect and tolerance. If the only meaningful identity for human beings is consumerism, then the only place of peace is a mall.

We still base our policies on the 18th century. In the 18th century, we banded together around religion. The separation of church and state was because people of various religions needed space to escape the domination of Christianity. In the 21st century, we maintain that same division as if we breathed the same air, but the ether today is provided by Madison Avenue and Hollywood. The question now is how to protect religion from a secularized society.

Nondenominational prayer in schools and the crèche in public places are not oppressive today as they were in the 18th and 19th centuries. Democracy depends on deep moral, ethical, and religious issues. If the only alternative to the radical mullahs is the mall, then people will say better the mullahs.

(c) 2002 janet j. jai

Pittsburgher janet j. jai is writing a book, "World Peace: A Beginner’s Guide." She can be reached via her Web site: www.poem-of-the-month.com.