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

When the Israelis were seen as the underdogs, everybody approved of them. But the Israelis have proved that they can be just as cruel to the Palestinians as the Palestinians are to them. Now that the Israelis are well-armed by the Americans, while the Palestinians have little more than rocks, it is approaching an American-backed genocide.

Of course, if the Americans withdrew their support for the Israelis, all the Arab nations might gang up to oust the Israelis, who took their land from them. They might. But we hope that the Arab nations are actually a bit more reasonable than they are generally given credit.

"Is this seen as wrong/unfair/backing the wrong horse by the rest of the world?"

I belive it's seen as backing someone right or wrong and being hypocritical. When Israel does wrong it's slapped on the wrist with a soggy bus ticket and given more military backing.

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As for news. the first part of the news paper I head for is the world section. How can anyone find domestic news more interesting? It's there on TV or radio every half hour or hour.

Let me toss out another idea/question.
Two posts ago, it was mentioned that it was different when the U.S. was backing Israel when Israel was the underdog.

Americans (the people and culture, not just the government) seem to love rooting for the underdogs. The concept of the small, revolutionary force fighting against overwhelming odds pervades every nook and cranny of our culture from movies like The Matrix and The Mighty Ducks (never thought I'd use those two in the same sentence) to ranked-last sports teams that fight their way to the championship (this might also account for why everyone except New Yorkers hate the Yankees).
This tendency to back the small guy can probably be explained by the country's roots as a revolutionary nation - a relatively small band of colonialists fighting against the world-conquering might of the British armed forces.
And now, even though our nation is comparatively young, we're the biggest boy on the block.
Has this created a sort of schizophrenia in how Americans view their own country? And has America come into power too quickly? A little over two centuries and we're the world's last "superpower," while the Western European nations to which many Americans owe their heritage took a long time, a slow process, to get to where they are now.

I definitely seeing it as 'backing the wrong horse', Shotgun. In my perception, the Israelis invaded Palestine, and threw Palestininans off their productive farms and orchards. Whilst I can understand the need the Jews had for security, they inflicted on the Palestinians the kind of treatment they had just lately suffered themselves - and their treatment of Palestinians *now* is infinitely worse than it was then.
BTW, we were taught at school that what is now Israel was then infertile, unproductive and uninhabited. At least one Jewish website acknowledges that to be a lie!

I've always thought the U.S. has suffered from an inability to view itself how others view it (although lots of other countries if not most doubtless have the same flaw). Take their anti-colonialist stance towards the old European empires of Britain and France. Was it compatible with their own history (treatment of native Americans, war against Mexico, Pershings Mexican expedition, Puerto Rico, Phillipines etc)? What must Clemenceau and Lloyd George thought when Woodrow Wilson was preaching to them?

"Has this created a sort of schizophrenia in how Americans view their own country? And has America come into power too quickly?"

Yes, there's a schizophrenia. On the one hand the USA is a legit superpower (although China might have something to say about whether it's the ONLY superpower) but on the other hand some Americans seem to think that this gives the USA the right to go where it wants and do what it wants without worrying about how other nations might feel. It's like they get confused when other nations don't agree because the perception is that if America wants it it must be good for everyone.

Which it isn't.

The problem is that so much European resentment of the USA stems from the perception that America is heavy handed and unsubtle. It works like this: America is seen as a Cowboy; the method of choice in dealing with others is a bar fight or a high-noon showdown. Whereas Europe would rather lie about you to your friends, stop your credit and then poison you at dinner.

That last sentence is so true Gradient. When we were at school Della Mr Sinclair had just marketed the first pocket calculator. Anywhere in the world could be made productive IF the political will was there. In my view that means free market trade with rules.

Of course it's the rules bit that is always the problem. Your newspaper has rules Appy and so has this site. Some states like Sweden follow the rules to the letter. The US, most claim, make up the rules as they go along.

But isn't it always true that power corrupts. The Arab leaders are masters at evading democracy and the Israelis just love playing with the US military hardware. I believe you expect too much.

But there's no such thing as a free market. Somebody, somewhere has to lose in order for market forces to work and that generates inequality, hostility and hate. We know this because that's how it is today.

It's also not true that anywhere in the world can be made productive if there is the political will. Sure, if the government of a given nation wants to create a productive economy they can try...but eventually they have to deal with the entrenched business interests of developed nations who need to ensure profitability in order to remain viable. This means, at the bottom line, buying cheap raw materials and having access to cheap labour. It is in the interests of developed economies to keep the standards of living in less developed nations low. Manufacturing has moved to economies where they can get more productivity per buck than they can in the USA. Call centres have been relocated to India where the standard of living is so low that companies can pay call centre staff a wage that would horrify a European or American whilst still being higher and more attractive than any other source of income. The problem with this is that it bleeds low level infrastructure out of a nation and bumps up the economy of another in a non-sustainable way.

Political will is less important than the ability to have the nations who are already developed keep the playing field level...and as we have seen recently, that's just not going to happen.

Gradient.
Of course there is no such thing as a free market. It is an economic model.

Technology enables anywhere ON the planet to be productive. Might be economically unsound for the free market model but that isn't the point. Global fiscal intervention required here.

Yes I know about the global shifts in capital and human resources. Nothing to worry about here. Wealth is like water in the free market,it finds it's own level.

In this analogy (sorry to use the word) the lock-keepers are your villains. Sometimes they are nations, and sometimes corporations. Moreoften you'll find some nugget of an acedemic advising one or the other or both.

"Of course it's the rules bit that is always the problem. Your newspaper has rules Appy and so has this site. Some states like Sweden follow the rules to the letter. The US, most claim, make up the rules as they go along."

What has this paragraph got to do with having a preference for reading the world section?

Thought you stated that you "headed a newspaper" from that I deducted you were a journalist. As such you would be subject to all sorts of rules.

I'm an underpaid computer support tech

And I'm a frustrated househusband.

Back from the Halloween weekend and I see that this thread is rolling out nicely. Hope everyone had far too much candy and one too many beers.
Actually, what is Halloween like across the Atlantic?
That's a bit off-topic though.

Several people have referred to America as a sort of Cowboy, a Billy the Kid of the international circuit. How much of that is wrapped up in guns and the fact that just about any American can get their hands on one or several, barring any history of criminal violence or insanity?
The National Rifle Association (NRA), the very definition of "special interest group," equates owning guns with the spirit of America. Gun-control lobbyists, on the other hand, take every opportunity to point out that European countries with strict gun control laws have markedly fewer violent crimes/homicides per capita, per year.
How much of your view of America is colored by guns? For that matter, how has the U.S.'s laws/attitude regarding firearms colored the psychology of its citizens?
Discuss. I'm going off to see if I have any Twizzlers left. And antacid, definitely some antacid.

I LOVE NORTH AMERICA!

"How much of that is wrapped up in guns and the fact that just about any American can get their hands on one or several, barring any history of criminal violence or insanity?"


From my POV, none. The Cowboy image of the USA comes mostly from Westerns and the fact that Hollywood popularised cowboys as gun toting two fisted take no prisoners types who would shoot/punch first and forget to ask questions. How many Westerns have you seen in which issues are settled over a nice cup of tea?

I haven't seen any guns at all since moving to the USA, leastways not outside stores and the hands of the Police.

Let me tell you about a day to day fracas here in NE England.
I walk into my local Co-Op which is the nearest one of it's kind in 15/20mls. I do this at least 3/4 times a week.

I love the french bread and the orange juice and some of the limited deli goods they sell. There is a sales promotion with a large gondola as you enter the store. Buy 3 for 99p. Great I think.
But no, they are all different prices. The staff are confused.

I request management attention who looks at my work overall, discerns my local accent and then proceeds to claim that there is no deception.
He walks away. I demand to see another manager, delay and delay so I follow the crowd into the service area.

Enough time has now elapsed for the cause of my complaint to be communicate to the duty manger. He appears. He tells me to leave. I refuse. He calls the police. His undermanager hides the deceptive sales ticket. The police take me away.

Nothing unusual about that is there. Same would happen in the states surely? I want to know..are your retailers like this too. Or do I just expect too much?

"Several people have referred to America as a sort of Cowboy, a Billy the Kid of the international circuit. How much of that is wrapped up in guns and the fact that just about any American can get their hands on one or several, barring any history of criminal violence or insanity?"

Nope, it has to do with a 'cowboy' attitude to international affairs. "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" as if the US is 'the law' or somehow the world's great good.

My feelings: There are things that I think are right, and I can tell other people what they are, and I can hope that they'll agree, but I can't force them to believe what I believe.

The American Point Of View (as it seems to me): What we think is right is what is right, and everyone who thinks anything else is wrong, and it's up to us to make them think the same way as us.

I don't think enough of the US to want to be American. However, I can't help but feel that it is inevitable.

PP