The Real Reason People Hate America...

Okay kiddies, it's late and I'm exhausted, but since this is the season we remember the tragedy of the 9/11 Terror attacks, and the ongoing conflict in Iraq, I've decided to let you in on a little theory I have.

It's a theory about the real reasons people hate America, Americans and everything they stand for.

It's not America's policies, or the actions, or even their beliefs.

It's quite simple really.

It's ethnic prejudice based on historical mythology.

Take a look at countries where anti-Americanism is the most prevalent and what do you think they all have in common. All, at different times, have tried to conquer the world, or at least their small part of it.This imperialism leads not to the everlasting glory their past rulers had promised, but to ever decreasing returns and eventual ruin. And yet, here is the good old USA, a nation built, not on some nationalist identity, but literally a melting pot with ingredients taken from all over the world.

These ingredients often clash, and often have troubled relationships, but they still ended up working together to create the world's first hyperpower. A hyperpower that can not only has both guns & butter, but maintains a standard of living that is the envy of the world.

What really sticks in the craw of the old crumbled empires is that this hyperpower is made up of the descendants of the people who were stomped down during their imperialist days. The ancestors of the USA were at different times conquered, subjugated, enslaved and exiled to a hostile and forbidding land.

What do these old world rejects do?

They build a nation unlike any other in history. A nation that makes the old world empires with their failed ambitions and self-destroyed institutions look at themselves with self-loathing.

But this self loathing is rationalized as anti-Americanism, because nations with such long and glorious histories could not possibly be dismal failures while the descendants of history's losers become the most powerful nation in the world. One the eve of America's entry into WW2, a famous British author (whose name escapes me) expressed doubt that they'd ever join in the effort against Hitler, because he honestly believed that American's were the descendants of 'indentured servants, slaves, convicts, and draft dodgers' from Europe's imperial conflicts.

This fellow was the classic example of someone raised on the mythology of the "glorious past of his nation." One where their ancestors acted horrendously in the name of imperial vanity. What all Americans want, deep down, is for everyone to have the good life that they enjoy. But the ancient imperial powers, ironically propped up with Yankee dollars either through trade or the Marshall Plan, consider this the insolence of a bastard puppy pretending to be a purebred champion like them.

Ask anyone in the world with Anti-American views and you can be assured of two things. First they will attribute qualities to the Americans, not based on actual historical facts, but interpretations based on how their own ancestors acted in history. Second, they will declare that Americans are somehow inferior creatures who could only have achieved their great lifestyle by forcibly extracting it from others, and not by any hard work, intelligence, or creativity on their part. (Which, ironically, is how the Anti-American's ancestors achieved their early success.)

Like I said, it's late where I am, I need sleep, and I'll probably talk more about this later.