Couldn't resist.
Thankyou for your pity. I'm sure that people throughout the world would agree, it's always a treat to have one's nationality pitied. Growing up in the 50's, a common mantra that mothers would often use w/ children that were being uncooperative in eating a food that they disliked was, "Think about the poor kids living in India, who have nothing on their plates to eat." I suppose that turnabout is fair play.
Americans, (I am one), are cited as being insensitive to the customs of others, self-centered, noisy and politically unaware. I agree. I know some Americans, (unfortunately, too many) that are like that. When I was travelling Italy a couple of years back, I remember turning and going in the opposite direction when I heard English or German being spoken. This response was due, mainly to my enjoyment of the musical quality of spoken Italian, but was, in no small part, also due to not wanting the embarassment by being associated w/ "that" kind of American.
That being said, I think Americans have just grown weary of the constant stream of criticism from non-Americans. Despite all of our faults, there are very few countries that surpass the US as a place where opinions and divergent ideaologies can be openly discussed, w/o governmental interference or socially imposed consequences. Because of this, we
are highly active in criticizing our government and institutions, and when in additon to our own bitching, we get dumped on by the rest of the world, it can get to be just too much, and we become defensive.
A prominently Greek audience, jeered three American athletes for several minutes today, before the running of the 200 meter finals. Their own, very popular champion in this event, (who was also supposed to carry the torch to light the fire at the opening ceremony), had failed to report for a drug test, and then later was involved in a mysterious motorcycle "accident", and, therefore, was both banned by the Olympics, and *perhaps* also unable to participate because of physical problems resulting from the accident. In a totally fabricated newspaper editorial, it was theorized that the Americans had plotted against their hero so that the Americans would gain a sweep in the event. The Greek people agreed, the Americans were the culprit, and the very unfair and misguided reaction followed. "It;s all the American's fault!"
This is a microcosm of what, for Americans, has become routine and tiresome. So, if we tend to get defensive and perhaps overreact to criticism from the outside, it is not because we think everything is right here. We see our defects which are also rather transparent to the rest of the world, it would appear. All is not well here. Is everything well in all of the other countries that are represented here, at the forum today? Certainly there is room for improvement. But these factors do not give the rest of the world the right to shirk it's own responsibilities, and to be in denial about it's own problems, by using the US as the scapegoat.
The misdirected criticism has become so tiresome, and is becoming so commonplace, that, unfortunately, American's are becoming enured to most "outsiders" criticism in general, and any effectiveness or usefulness that may have been derived from responsible criticism, is now being lost.
