Quote:
Originally Posted by Drolefille
If everyone hates you, at some point it's not everyone else.
However, I said clearly that we should NOT necessarily change our policies based on the whims of everyone else. I think we should change the course the country is on, but not because of Europe, because the population of this country is unhappy with our course and because I don't think it's in the best interest of our country. My complaint is with the disregarding of other countries' opinions simply because they're European and "liberal" or poor or whatever and only caring about the countries that agree with us. That's a stupid idea and leads to self-delusion in individuals and in nations.
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I think when a country is as powerful as the US is that we're going to be disliked by a lot of the international community for that reason alone.
Global popularity as an end in itself isn't really a worthwhile goal; we should concern ourselves with doing what's right while we look out for our own interests. Ideally, we would could do this in a cooperative spirit with others, but it's not essential.
And, I don't really mean you Drolefille, but a lot of the folks who concern themselves with the rest of the world hating us conveniently assume that they hate us for the same reasons that they are dissatisfied with our government or foreign policy.
A some of the world hates us because we pollute the world with porn and radical ideas about women's rights. Others hate us because we have protectionist trade policies and promote a much higher standard of living for our own citizens than we do for the rest of the world.
Our foreign policy may not be helping, but life isn't going to be rosy with the rest of the world because we elect Obama, unless of course, we're willing to change the way we live for the sake of making the international community happy. I'm not particularly interested.
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