Why has the US more committed enemies than friends despite admirable values that foster efficiency/enterprise?

Question

The whole world needs to learn these American values that foster efficiency and enterprise in a forthright no-nonsense manner...... but there would be no point in learning, if it can only end up in having enemies rather than friends. Is there some strange correlation between being efficient and enterprising and having more committed enemies than friends?

Answer 1

Pardon me for completely disagreeing with you...but I do.
American isn't efficient or enterprising. If it were, major corporations would be seeking to remain in the US instead of taking their manufacturing operations to foreign countries.
Read the reports...America has the most sedentary population....which accounts for the fact that our children are now the most overweight children, that our adults suffer more health problems due to being overweight. America is capitolism at its worst. Everything we see, read, watch is slanted towrds more, more, more. We are not content to live in a home, we must live in a bigger, better, newer home. We are not content with having a car, we must have two, or more. We are not content to be free, to excercise our freedoms in a way which fosters our own security, within our own borders. We must seek to force our freedoms on others...we are an overproud nation. We cannot simply live and let live, we must tell everyone who isn't living the way we do how wrong they are, and try to correct it. Which is why we have so many enemies.
Don't get me wrong...I am an American, born and bred...I am a patriot to my toes...but I also see the harm this country is doing among the peoples of the world. I see the harm we are doing to ourselves...our young people no longer want to vote, nor do our older generations. We don't get involved...we turn our back and sit in the dark and gnaw our bones, and moan and complain. Take a look at how other countries treat their aging populations...and then look around you. How many families do you know that have an aging parent living with them? How many nursing homes, retirement centers (an optimistic misnomer if ever there was one) do you see on a daily basis?
Sorry, Small, truly I am...but I disagree.

Answer 2

This answer is a bit long winded but I do not think that I could shorten it and keep the essence of it, so here goes.

The increasing amount of enemies that the US seems to be clocking up is linked to the attitude that everyone must be like the US and hold US style values.

I live in Australia and it seems that everyday our values are being replaced by the values of the US. It is sadly evident when children on the playground know who the US president is but can't name the Australian Prime Minister, more so when it becomes clear that they don't know anything about Australian laws and the Australian constitution. Australian history is rich and colourful, filled with both things to be proud of and things to be ashamed of. Our country was formed in peace and the closest things we have had to a civil war is the Eureka Stockade, we have mateship and a fair god attitude and while we have ion the past abused and persecuted and Aboriginal nation we are quickly learning and moving forward together.

Yet none of this is valued by majority of the younger generation. The rich and vibrant history is forgotten for and glitz and showiness of a country across the ocean. The younger generation, it is sad to say, know more about American lifestyle than they do about Australian values and way of life. For ones such as myself it can be a bitter pill to swallow that our heritage is being eroded by people who do not care for our past and present, and I can easily see how people can become bitter and violent because of it.

Do not get me wrong, the average man on the street in the US is a great person, caring and giving (as I found out when I visited). The problem comes from the perception of the rest of the world, the average American citizen is very sheltered from the rest of the world. The news and media display the rest of the world as either, in the case of the news, a place filled with trouble and strife or, in the case of general media, a caricatured cultural waste land that needs the assistance of America to become better. The truth is that almost all places of the world have a great and vast heritage for the people that live there, and many of the systems (cultural, social and economic) that run in these places are very well managed and work well for the people who live there. The problems come when disparate and alternate ways of life come and either persuade or blatantly bludgeon the locals into believing or having to co-operate with a new way of life, a new social order, a new value system.

It is the American 'we must bring order to the chaos' mindset that wins the US enemies and not friends. The manner in which it is undertaken is often in the style of an olden days missionary, the whole 'you must come to my way of being to be saved' message is what wins the US enemies.

I know it is not a popular viewpoint but that is the way that I see it. Please contact me by email should you wish to discuss this issue.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

I don't believe we do.

Enemies just tend to be more vocal.
And not only is the press more likely to cover vitriol, they are also hard at work helping the Democrats demagogue Bush.

So "Death to America" = Front Page (especially if they can somehow blame it on Bush)

France goes Conservative & Pro American = Barely mentioned.

War in Iraq going well = Stop complaining about casualities, Start complaining about cost.

There is an advantage to exporting American values, wealthy & prosperous nations tend to be our trading partners not our enimies. It is empoverished nations, ground into the dirt by incompetence and Socialism, that breed terrorists.

Sucess will always breed envy, envy breeds either resentment or imitation. The imitators will become our trading partners. The resenters our enemies.

There is strange good news here though. Hatred for America is pretty much it's own punishment, because it is a rejection of the fundamentals of success. The reward for Jihad will always remain in the alleged afterlife, and thus our enimies will tend to be naive children, instead wise men.

Answer 4

It is precisely for the attitude that the whole world needs to be like America that many people dislike America. During the cold war, when there was at least another superpower nation, America came across much better. Now it comes across as a sort of condescending bully who claims to know what is best for everyone and freely pushes its will on other countries. The efficiency/enterprise part of it doesn't have much to do with it. I'm not saying that the US necessarily is or intends to be a bully, but that is how it is perceived by other countries, and the US has not been successful in brightening up that image. In recent years, the country has been quite bad at projecting a positive image of itself.

Answer 5

The US today, at least under Bush Jr., has made more enemies than any other previous American presidents in history. While he was quite right in reasserting American might and superiority after 9/11 to get back at the terrorists responsible for it, he overreacted by invading other sovereign countries like Iraq (next possibly Iran) with nary any proof of its participation in 9/11 in defiance of the UN Charter, thereby getting itself into the quicksand of the most expensive war in terms of its economy and human lives lost, both American soldiers and innocent Iraqi (count Afghanistani and Pakistani) civilians caught in the crossfire.

And not only that. America's penchant love for Israel (I have nothing against Israel, the birthplace of my religion) has more than ever alienated Arab countries, including those that it has diplomatic relations with, so much so that peace in the middle east will always remain a pipe dream.

As if that's not enough, South American countries spearheaded by the Venezuelan President have started to distance themselves from American imperialism and arrogance and that mood is very much in evidence when you read the newspapers.

There's no doubt America means well. It's model of democracy and freedom is beyond question. And just because it is, doesn't mean American should stretch it too far that it can always impose that ideology like democracy on other countries such as the Middle East alien to that mode of thinking by virtue of their religious beliefs and traditions. (America always like to disturb a beehive instead of leaving them alone!)

In the aftermath of this wrong decision to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, not only unnecessary loss of human lives ensued but also the American economy is now in a tailspin. Just look at how the dollar has plunged compared to the Euro, not to mention the image of America with it!

Answer 6

Interesting question!

No question on th good American values but these world is full of envy and greed. America as the greatest superpower country cannot deny the rivalry against superpowers like Russia, China and Japan to mention a few. Fostering efficiency is a good thing but enterprise is another thing because it is in the latter where competition lies. When you are up many wants to pull you down. That's human nature and
no altruism could really be made among different nations.

Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 7

Give the respect what you want from others
All the time you can't talk business, you need relations
The present enemies are once their friends.
And all the enemy bullshit is just hoax everything is interested in business and Weapon dispatch.
There is Lot to be learn from Americans but not from America.

Answer 8

Everybody hates a winner. Thats what is comes down to for alot of the world. There are some nations in Latin America and the Middle East that have legit beefs with the US, but most just hate us because we're powerful.

Answer 9

No one likes a mirrored image of perfection. How can the world see differently than among their own children. The American family has been prosperous in such an image. The image from all families have shown their best and worst. So; you want your neighbors to meet you, and they scowl, and frown at Corporate America, they say in their hearts; What have you done for me, You are not the God you speak of. No; America is not God. America is the product of Faith in God.

Answer 10

I don't believe so. I think most of the problem for the US has to deal with our lack of treating others with respect. Somehow we have been appointed (or we just chose) to be the worlds police force. Plus we force people to act or be like us with no respect or tolerance for their way of life or beliefs. We are arrogant and thoughtless and we need to take care of our own more and the world less.