Posted by Dan Ewert : 3/09/2003 09:19:00 PM (Archive Link)
Also, one of the things I always hear is that we should figure out why people in other countries dislike America so or why Muslim extremists hate Americans. I think this should be an academic exercise at best, but is otherwise absurd. My problem with it is that implies two things: America is doing something wrong and whatever is wrong needs to be fixed.

On the first point, the question of “Why do they hate us?” almost always entails that America is messing up somewhere and that we’re the ones who are messing up. The notion that it may be the other countries’ people who are mistaken is rarely considered. It’s this inner American guilt constantly perpetuated by the left that we’re causing hardship to the world and we must rectify our grevious errors. I’d rather start from the point of view that maybe there’s something wrong with the backward nations that have oppressive governments, extremist ideologies, poor educational systems, poor economies, and no native technological abilities. I don’t believe in cultural equivalence. Considering that so much is right with America and that so much is wrong with these other countries, I don’t think it’s wrong to ask “Why do they hate us?” and mean it in the sense that the problem is on their end.

Now on the second issue, once the question is asked and people have tried to identify something that inspires hate, it presupposes that it must then be fixed. This is equally silly. Many Muslim extremists hate us because of our support of Israel. Should we then stop supporting the Middle East’s only democracy because of this? These same extremists also hate us because of our Jewish population. Should we then put all Jews in cozy concentration camps? People hate us because of our political, economic and military power. Should we then cut our influence, outlaw companies, and pare down the army because of this? Others hate us because we hold certain values in our culture. Should we then eliminate all freedoms to accommodate them? Doubtful.