In Other Words

Passive racism

Lets talk about America. Again. (Just a couple more weeks, people, then the elections will be over and I’ll have to find a new subject to rave and rant about. That is, of course, if Kerry wins. (Yet another reason to vote Kerry)).

Lets talk about the world’s good will towards America. Something that was never as high as after 9/11 and never so low as it is now. Lets consider that, lets see how that creeps up, unexpected, in all walks of life, everywhere.

It was my mother that got me thinking about this, yet again. She said that when she watches the Olympics and follows the sports, she notices an undercurrent of Schadenfruede in the commentators, when ever the American Athletes didn’t manage to make their way to gold. This wasn’t just the British or Aussies (who do a large amount of the commentating on cable sports channel), but even the Singaporean accented presenters had a subtle hint of secret joy in their reporting.

Now Sports Channel presenters are not exactly the model of unbiased reporting, yet they do have responsibility to maintain their objectivity as you never know who’s watching. So the fact that this slight tonal inflection was present spoke volumes about these people’s true opinions. These people are pleased at the failure of all Americans everywhere due to one man and his administration.

How much is the current Administration’s mishandling of world opinion costing the average American? A lot more than those average Americans realise, I imagine. Passive discrimination has crept into world opinion, everywhere. It’s not vocalised (often), but it is present and influencing matters against American business, American tourism and American objectives. All things being the same between two companies, one being American and the other being German or Japanese, which one would now be the preferred choice of most people?

Sixty years ago everybody hated the Germans and the Japanese. The amount of damage done is very difficult to measure, as it often works on a subconscious scale, but almost every American who lives abroad has felt it. That’s why Its become a pretty regular occurrence to meet Americans who greet you with the now almost cliché ‘I’m American and I’m sorry’ or ‘I’m American, but I hate Bush’ response.

The problem is that we can do so little about it, because those Americans that count (i.e. the ardent Bush supporters) see this as a good quality in their president. They love the fact that Bush is basically standing astride of the American Continent fists raised and flashing his middle fingers to the rest of the world. ‘Stick it to ‘em’ they shout, ‘Who’s the man!’ They don’t realise that its not just the rest of the world that is suffering, but it will be them in ten years, as their welfare takes a hit from the waves of anti Americanism that are rolling around the world, a wave that will only grow if Bush is re-elected. (If he gets re-elected it will no longer be possible for us to say ‘its alright, they just made a mistake’ then we have to accept that they want to be ruled be a religious extremist with the intelligence of doorknob, that they want to live under the thumb of a man who wants to limit choice and rule through the application of perpetual fear).

Why is the world’s future always in the hands of the least intelligent people?

Interesting fact: Only 13% of young Americans can find Iraq on a map. What’s more, only 38% can find Britain, their closest political ally, on a map. ‘War! The only way for American’s to learn Geography… sometimes’

posted by Symbol @ 19.8.04