h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's the thing. A lot of people whose views I respect, and a lot of people around the whole world are very enthusiastic about Barak Obama being inaugurated this week. It's rare to see much optimism and enthusiasm for a politician. The election is being talked of in historic, epoch-making terms and I've already heard people saying things like they'll always remember where they were, that their grandchildren might ask about this day and so on and so forth.

But I have to admit, the whole thing leaves me cold. I don't deny the historical significance of what's happened, nor that Obama is likely to be a much better President than Bush. The world will be a significantly better place with America pursuing a less unilateral foreign policy and perhaps even doing something about Climate Change.

However, although I don't wish America ill in any way, I just don't look to America or her President as the leader of the free world or for leadership or example. Some of America's founding principles are noble and admirable, but some are not - or perhaps it is fair to say, the way they are put into practice are not. I'm not a knee-jerk leftist-Spartist anti-American (or at least I don't think I am). I don't think something is bad just because America does it or supports it.

There is much to admire about America and American culture (entertainment, 'can do' attitude, openness etc etc) , and I have to say that I've never met an American in person that I didn't like. But for me, America is so far from a fair society in terms of distribution of wealth and fair equality of opportunity - further even than the UK - that I just don't see America as an example. However progressive Obama is in an American context, it seems to me that the American Democrats are well to the right of the British Tories.

If the new President means a more equal America, then that's great and I'm pleased for them. But I'm not sure it's worth quite this amount of hype and enthusiasm outside of the US. In the UK, we should be looking to the social democracies of Europe for an example, not just to the US. The extent to which America dominates our news media is frankly alarming - how much coverage does the French or German election get in comparison, even considering relative geo-political importance.

The extent to which the media and ordinary people in the UK are discussing American *domestic* policies is rather surprising - is it (a) any of our business (as non-Americans) and (b) should it really be of any interest? Aren't we too obsessed with America?

I had a slightly different perspective on the speech in my blog which also raised some questions about how this new administration could adequately address the challenges that face them.

America is a big fascination in this part of the world. Perhaps it's the cultural dominance, the military dominance and the business dominance that we now almost take for granted. So many countries around the world are utterly dependent on America for so much.