The center of the universe?

Submitted by Fred Field (United States), Jan 15, 2003 at 12:29

Your article was interesting, but (IMHO) stops considerably short. Having lived in Europe and the Middle East, I've always found Americans very naive. We assume (with no basis) that Europeans are like us. We seem to have an innate drive to be loved and appreciated. Didn't we save Europe during the Big War? Most students of the Great War have noticed that the "winners" have been the apparent losers (e.g., the U.K. and the former British Empire after WWII), while the winners (W. Germany, Japan) have prospered with the help of the U.S. government. We glibly make pronouncements that we are the world's policeman, making sure that everyone plays nice, but we completely ignore the fact that people the world round simply do not think the way we do. With little over 200 years of history, we know best. It really is interesting, and it is alarming.

The United States is not the center of the earth. We are profoundly ignorant of world history and the issues that affect entire nations, even those that were involved in the populating of the so-called New World. We have little grasp of the issues surrounding the Renaissance, the Reformation, or even the Inquisition. It is truly sad. The worst is the profound ignorance of the Middle East. We simply cannot comprehend anyone such as Saddam Hussein calling us "the Great Satan." Yet, you point out that one of America's guiding principles is the "pursuit of happiness," almost to the point of hedonism. How is that perceived by the rest of the planet?
One question that one might ask is, "Can the situation change, particularly when our political leaders are so consumed with their own individual pursuit of happiness?"

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