American Hatred

[DamnYankee]

I do not get the quantity of hate-filled posts aimed against Americans on here. Some are really quite offensive.

I understand that many do not agree with the current Administration's policies. Indeed, many of us Americans do not either. But painting "Americans" per se as the enemy is a bit myoptic and oversimplified a view of the global problem today. Painting all or most "Americans" as lard-filled, donut and fast-food, petro-addicted gluttons is truly a lame assesment to then conclude that most of the world's woes are due to America and its culture.

Think for a moment what real power Americans have. We are consumers but what real choice do we have? Go to a shopping mall and it is isles and isle of the same flashing things just packaged with flashier labels. There is the Gillette Ultra razor blade, then the Mach 5 blade, then the Super Glide. All promise you a superior quality, but they all due the same damn thing with negligible difference in effectively. People are inundated with a barrage of options that leave them all wondering if they made the best choice and if this guy or that person got a better product or deal or what have you. Less options is what I say we need.

At work, we work to get paid to keep working to work to simply get through another work week to live--not live to work. How many truly have exciting careers and free to do what they want. You basically live to pay an every increasing rent or home mortage and work to save what little you have left. We live our lives around the hands of time on the clock, having little time to even think or plan our next life move. Few live life so much as it lives it for them. We are of a culture that is fast paced and neurotic and if you asked the common man, he will say that he doesn't like it, but what real choice does he have to survive.

And this is a problem not only that Americans have to face now. Your own UK is now facing increase heart-attack rates, obesity, and diabetes. China, which is now gaining quickly economically has shown similar problems in its large cities. EVen in more traditional lands in Europe that resisted modernity that unquestionably has been lead by the US have this problem. The revelation of just how much modernity is to blame I find most striking in Greece. Thirty years ago, there were no such things as diabetes or stree in the main land as there is now, which today reflects the same status as the major cities of any nation. Yet just a few kilometers away on the isles, live is idyllic and people live well into their 90's (men as well as women) and so healthy that a 30 year old would envy a 60 year old in many cases. What happened? The mainland got "corporatized" and adopted the West's 9-to-5 work habit, including overtime and all the high-stess competition that goes with it. More people crowded in and rents went soring. Now men are dying often before 70 and cancers and heart disease have sky rocketed. The same thing is happening to Italy in some places now and even the French are getting a bit wider in the gut, though they have retain their more even-pace cultural lifestyle (kudos to them!).

The probelm isn't America but the corporate gobalization of the world. It enslaves us to workaholics without a choice in the matter, in which the quality of life is measuredly increase in terms of the medical and technolgical breakthroughs that such progess that modernity naturally brings, but a lowering of the quality of life in terms of the reduction in spiritual fulfillment and happiness and genuine variety.

You wait when those 1 billion plus china men start having what they already naturally want: what the rest of the west like the US has. Wait until they start mass producing a 50 million plus cars each year and those china men start lining up at the pumps. And China is not the only one. Russia, India. These are massive countries like the US in size and with larger populations. If you think that the problems we now face and which are growing are only limited to the US, then you have a poor understanding of human nature.

America might have gotten us started on this road, but it is a curious historical incident. Modernity would have come about eventually and perhaps in another system like fascism one far more regulated. Mass consumerism and the sense of entitlement without stopping to realize we all share one planet and its resources are limited and finite is the real enemy we must all collectively face. This will be the greatest challenge to humanity and one that will undoubtedly become more important in terms of increased wars and population and health effects if not addressed as a collective species--and not seen as one nation versus another or with an Them vs. US mentality.

[Guest]

I do not get the quantity of hate-filled posts aimed against Americans on here. Some are really quite offensive.

I understand that many do not agree with the current Administration's policies. Indeed, many of us Americans do not either. But painting "Americans" per se as the enemy is a bit myoptic and oversimplified a view of the global problem today. Painting all or most "Americans" as lard-filled, donut and fast-food, petro-addicted gluttons is truly a lame assesment to then conclude that most of the world's woes are due to America and its culture.

Think for a moment what real power Americans have. We are consumers but what real choice do we have? Go to a shopping mall and it is isles and isle of the same flashing things just packaged with flashier labels. There is the Gillette Ultra razor blade, then the Mach 5 blade, then the Super Glide. All promise you a superior quality, but they all due the same damn thing with negligible difference in effectively. People are inundated with a barrage of options that leave them all wondering if they made the best choice and if this guy or that person got a better product or deal or what have you. Less options is what I say we need.

At work, we work to get paid to keep working to work to simply get through another work week to live--not live to work. How many truly have exciting careers and free to do what they want. You basically live to pay an every increasing rent or home mortage and work to save what little you have left. We live our lives around the hands of time on the clock, having little time to even think or plan our next life move. Few live life so much as it lives it for them. We are of a culture that is fast paced and neurotic and if you asked the common man, he will say that he doesn't like it, but what real choice does he have to survive.

And this is a problem not only that Americans have to face now. Your own UK is now facing increase heart-attack rates, obesity, and diabetes. China, which is now gaining quickly economically has shown similar problems in its large cities. EVen in more traditional lands in Europe that resisted modernity that unquestionably has been lead by the US have this problem. The revelation of just how much modernity is to blame I find most striking in Greece. Thirty years ago, there were no such things as diabetes or stree in the main land as there is now, which today reflects the same status as the major cities of any nation. Yet just a few kilometers away on the isles, live is idyllic and people live well into their 90's (men as well as women) and so healthy that a 30 year old would envy a 60 year old in many cases. What happened? The mainland got "corporatized" and adopted the West's 9-to-5 work habit, including overtime and all the high-stess competition that goes with it. More people crowded in and rents went soring. Now men are dying often before 70 and cancers and heart disease have sky rocketed. The same thing is happening to Italy in some places now and even the French are getting a bit wider in the gut, though they have retain their more even-pace cultural lifestyle (kudos to them!).

The probelm isn't America but the corporate gobalization of the world. It enslaves us to workaholics without a choice in the matter, in which the quality of life is measuredly increase in terms of the medical and technolgical breakthroughs that such progess that modernity naturally brings, but a lowering of the quality of life in terms of the reduction in spiritual fulfillment and happiness and genuine variety.

You wait when those 1 billion plus china men start having what they already naturally want: what the rest of the west like the US has. Wait until they start mass producing a 50 million plus cars each year and those china men start lining up at the pumps. And China is not the only one. Russia, India. These are massive countries like the US in size and with larger populations. If you think that the problems we now face and which are growing are only limited to the US, then you have a poor understanding of human nature.

America might have gotten us started on this road, but it is a curious historical incident. Modernity would have come about eventually and perhaps in another system like fascism one far more regulated. Mass consumerism and the sense of entitlement without stopping to realize we all share one planet and its resources are limited and finite is the real enemy we must all collectively face. This will be the greatest challenge to humanity and one that will undoubtedly become more important in terms of increased wars and population and health effects if not addressed as a collective species--and not seen as one nation versus another or with an Them vs. US mentality.

Here! Here! Totally agree! Well said.

[one_irish_rover]

Yeah, I'm onboard with most of that, except the paragraph about globalisation, and some of your conclusions about modernity, where I completely disagree. All in all, good points.

[DamnYankee]

Yeah, I'm onboard with most of that, except the paragraph about globalisation, and some of your conclusions about modernity, where I completely disagree. All in all, good points.

Are you a fan of globalization then? I have many friends that greatly embrace it, but the way I see it today we are not being brought so much closer together as being turned into the same thing: to serve corporate interests.

How do you view globalization then. Curious to hear.

Thanks.

[one_irish_rover]

Overall, yes I embrace globalisation, although a I am staunch socialist. I see global capitalism as a road toward global socialism. As for the here and now, I think the positives of globalisation far outweigh the negatives.

This is a very interesting subject, I will come back and lay out a few points, and some in response to yours. It's late now and I'm not thinking clearly.

[DamnYankee]

Overall, yes I embrace globalisation, although a I am staunch socialist. I see global capitalism as a road toward global socialism. As for the here and now, I think the positives of globalisation far outweigh the negatives.

This is a very interesting subject, I will come back and lay out a few points, and some in response to yours. It's late now and I'm not thinking clearly.

Just like a commie pinko. Cut and run when the going gets tough!

j/k

Serious, have a good night.

[Guest]

Overall, yes I embrace globalisation, although a I am staunch socialist. I see global capitalism as a road toward global socialism. As for the here and now, I think the positives of globalisation far outweigh the negatives.

This is a very interesting subject, I will come back and lay out a few points, and some in response to yours. It's late now and I'm not thinking clearly.

A Socialist who assigns gender roles.

[Guest]

I do not get the quantity of hate-filled posts aimed against Americans on here. Some are really quite offensive.

And some posts slag women and some slag men. It's the Internet.

I understand that many do not agree with the current Administration's policies. Indeed, many of us Americans do not either. But painting "Americans" per se as the enemy is a bit myoptic and oversimplified a view of the global problem today. Painting all or most "Americans" as lard-filled, donut and fast-food, petro-addicted gluttons is truly a lame assesment to then conclude that most of the world's woes are due to America and its culture.

America (including Canada) isn't the problem, it's wanting what the other guy wants for yourself. Greed and lust are powerful drives in humans.

Think for a moment what real power Americans have. We are consumers but what real choice do we have? Go to a shopping mall and it is isles and isle of the same flashing things just packaged with flashier labels. There is the Gillette Ultra razor blade, then the Mach 5 blade, then the Super Glide. All promise you a superior quality, but they all due the same damn thing with negligible difference in effectively. People are inundated with a barrage of options that leave them all wondering if they made the best choice and if this guy or that person got a better product or deal or what have you. Less options is what I say we need.

Use a electric shaver. There are ways to simplify your life. I drive every car I own until it costs more to fix it than buy a brand new one, for instance. I also have managed to save quite a bit of money doing these things, for what's really important - retirement in comfort and travel anywhere and any time I want, doing what ever I want.

At work, we work to get paid to keep working to work to simply get through another work week to live--not live to work. How many truly have exciting careers and free to do what they want. You basically live to pay an every increasing rent or home mortage and work to save what little you have left. We live our lives around the hands of time on the clock, having little time to even think or plan our next life move. Few live life so much as it lives it for them. We are of a culture that is fast paced and neurotic and if you asked the common man, he will say that he doesn't like it, but what real choice does he have to survive.

Well that's just tough. You have to work for a living. I'm crying here.

And this is a problem not only that Americans have to face now. Your own UK is now facing increase heart-attack rates, obesity, and diabetes. China, which is now gaining quickly economically has shown similar problems in its large cities. EVen in more traditional lands in Europe that resisted modernity that unquestionably has been lead by the US have this problem. The revelation of just how much modernity is to blame I find most striking in Greece. Thirty years ago, there were no such things as diabetes or stree in the main land as there is now, which today reflects the same status as the major cities of any nation. Yet just a few kilometers away on the isles, live is idyllic and people live well into their 90's (men as well as women) and so healthy that a 30 year old would envy a 60 year old in many cases. What happened? The mainland got "corporatized" and adopted the West's 9-to-5 work habit, including overtime and all the high-stess competition that goes with it. More people crowded in and rents went soring. Now men are dying often before 70 and cancers and heart disease have sky rocketed. The same thing is happening to Italy in some places now and even the French are getting a bit wider in the gut, though they have retain their more even-pace cultural lifestyle (kudos to them!).

The French can't even make a decent wine anymore. You know who does? The Australians and do you know why? The soil is so bad, salty and mineral leached that the only crops they can grow cost efficently are those with high added value. This is darwinism at it's best.

Stress is what you make of it. You can either get over your whining and enjoy life, or wallow in your fear and anger of the big bad world and "The Man" "They" who make your life so terrible.

The probelm isn't America but the corporate gobalization of the world. It enslaves us to workaholics without a choice in the matter, in which the quality of life is measuredly increase in terms of the medical and technolgical breakthroughs that such progess that modernity naturally brings, but a lowering of the quality of life in terms of the reduction in spiritual fulfillment and happiness and genuine variety.

Globalism moves pollution from the consumer to the producer. The more globalism the more areas like China and India will suffer from pollution. Think Bhopal and Sand storms in China.

Amazingly those countries are also working actively and successfully to reverse the trends. They can afford to now!

It's places where food supplies grow from technology by 5% to 10%, but populations double that the real tragedy occurs. These places need more work, not longer freaking vacations.

You wait when those 1 billion plus china men start having what they already naturally want: what the rest of the west like the US has. Wait until they start mass producing a 50 million plus cars each year and those china men start lining up at the pumps. And China is not the only one. Russia, India. These are massive countries like the US in size and with larger populations. If you think that the problems we now face and which are growing are only limited to the US, then you have a poor understanding of human nature.

The world's pollution will increase 100 fold assuming China uses more efficent energy, like petrol and natural gas rather than coal. I'm not sure where they will stick all that pollution, but China is politically active in Africa. The non-renewable resources, such as iron and copper, will be exhausted 100% faster and be far more expensive.

We'll have to look elsewhere for both energy and materials. I vote for space. Nuclear energy will be made safer and more widespread first. Methane mining in the oceans and ethanol production on land too.

America might have gotten us started on this road, but it is a curious historical incident. Modernity would have come about eventually and perhaps in another system like fascism one far more regulated. Mass consumerism and the sense of entitlement without stopping to realize we all share one planet and its resources are limited and finite is the real enemy we must all collectively face. This will be the greatest challenge to humanity and one that will undoubtedly become more important in terms of increased wars and population and health effects if not addressed as a collective species--and not seen as one nation versus another or with an Them vs. US mentality.

England got us started on this road.

Wars are an effective way to reduce populations when no other choice becomes availiable. Africa teaches us this every few years.

The first world countries will have to find a solution won't they? Whining about a problem doesn't fix it.

[charlottesometimes]

i actually dont hate George Bush. I only hate those americans who are full of ego, overly patriotic.

[Guest]

You know everyone of us can sit hear and agrue about what's become of the world and who's to blame. But it's really a waste of time. Do something about it! What we drive our Hybrid cars now?? Recycle our paper goods... I agree American's do live in a Rat Race. And yes I hate it, but it doesn't do any good chatting about it _.

[mr bond]

i actually dont hate George Bush. I only hate those americans who are full of ego, overly patriotic.

The only reason you don't hate George Bush is because he isn't over there running YOUR country into the ground.

On a more serious note, he makes a lot of poor decisions and really is very questionable as the leader of a nation.

He should probably be on trial right next to saddam for some of the crap he's pulled. If there is going to be a 3rd anti-christ he is a good candidate for the job.

[CanadianMountainMan]

I do not get the quantity of hate-filled posts aimed against Americans on here. Some are really quite offensive.

And some posts slag women and some slag men. It's the Internet.

I understand that many do not agree with the current Administration's policies. Indeed, many of us Americans do not either. But painting "Americans" per se as the enemy is a bit myoptic and oversimplified a view of the global problem today. Painting all or most "Americans" as lard-filled, donut and fast-food, petro-addicted gluttons is truly a lame assesment to then conclude that most of the world's woes are due to America and its culture.

America (including Canada) isn't the problem, it's wanting what the other guy wants for yourself. Greed and lust are powerful drives in humans.

Think for a moment what real power Americans have. We are consumers but what real choice do we have? Go to a shopping mall and it is isles and isle of the same flashing things just packaged with flashier labels. There is the Gillette Ultra razor blade, then the Mach 5 blade, then the Super Glide. All promise you a superior quality, but they all due the same damn thing with negligible difference in effectively. People are inundated with a barrage of options that leave them all wondering if they made the best choice and if this guy or that person got a better product or deal or what have you. Less options is what I say we need.

Use a electric shaver. There are ways to simplify your life. I drive every car I own until it costs more to fix it than buy a brand new one, for instance. I also have managed to save quite a bit of money doing these things, for what's really important - retirement in comfort and travel anywhere and any time I want, doing what ever I want.

At work, we work to get paid to keep working to work to simply get through another work week to live--not live to work. How many truly have exciting careers and free to do what they want. You basically live to pay an every increasing rent or home mortage and work to save what little you have left. We live our lives around the hands of time on the clock, having little time to even think or plan our next life move. Few live life so much as it lives it for them. We are of a culture that is fast paced and neurotic and if you asked the common man, he will say that he doesn't like it, but what real choice does he have to survive.

Well that's just tough. You have to work for a living. I'm crying here.

And this is a problem not only that Americans have to face now. Your own UK is now facing increase heart-attack rates, obesity, and diabetes. China, which is now gaining quickly economically has shown similar problems in its large cities. EVen in more traditional lands in Europe that resisted modernity that unquestionably has been lead by the US have this problem. The revelation of just how much modernity is to blame I find most striking in Greece. Thirty years ago, there were no such things as diabetes or stree in the main land as there is now, which today reflects the same status as the major cities of any nation. Yet just a few kilometers away on the isles, live is idyllic and people live well into their 90's (men as well as women) and so healthy that a 30 year old would envy a 60 year old in many cases. What happened? The mainland got "corporatized" and adopted the West's 9-to-5 work habit, including overtime and all the high-stess competition that goes with it. More people crowded in and rents went soring. Now men are dying often before 70 and cancers and heart disease have sky rocketed. The same thing is happening to Italy in some places now and even the French are getting a bit wider in the gut, though they have retain their more even-pace cultural lifestyle (kudos to them!).

The French can't even make a decent wine anymore. You know who does? The Australians and do you know why? The soil is so bad, salty and mineral leached that the only crops they can grow cost efficently are those with high added value. This is darwinism at it's best.

Stress is what you make of it. You can either get over your whining and enjoy life, or wallow in your fear and anger of the big bad world and "The Man" "They" who make your life so terrible.

The probelm isn't America but the corporate gobalization of the world. It enslaves us to workaholics without a choice in the matter, in which the quality of life is measuredly increase in terms of the medical and technolgical breakthroughs that such progess that modernity naturally brings, but a lowering of the quality of life in terms of the reduction in spiritual fulfillment and happiness and genuine variety.

Globalism moves pollution from the consumer to the producer. The more globalism the more areas like China and India will suffer from pollution. Think Bhopal and Sand storms in China.

Amazingly those countries are also working actively and successfully to reverse the trends. They can afford to now!

It's places where food supplies grow from technology by 5% to 10%, but populations double that the real tragedy occurs. These places need more work, not longer freaking vacations.

You wait when those 1 billion plus china men start having what they already naturally want: what the rest of the west like the US has. Wait until they start mass producing a 50 million plus cars each year and those china men start lining up at the pumps. And China is not the only one. Russia, India. These are massive countries like the US in size and with larger populations. If you think that the problems we now face and which are growing are only limited to the US, then you have a poor understanding of human nature.

The world's pollution will increase 100 fold assuming China uses more efficent energy, like petrol and natural gas rather than coal. I'm not sure where they will stick all that pollution, but China is politically active in Africa. The non-renewable resources, such as iron and copper, will be exhausted 100% faster and be far more expensive.

We'll have to look elsewhere for both energy and materials. I vote for space. Nuclear energy will be made safer and more widespread first. Methane mining in the oceans and ethanol production on land too.

America might have gotten us started on this road, but it is a curious historical incident. Modernity would have come about eventually and perhaps in another system like fascism one far more regulated. Mass consumerism and the sense of entitlement without stopping to realize we all share one planet and its resources are limited and finite is the real enemy we must all collectively face. This will be the greatest challenge to humanity and one that will undoubtedly become more important in terms of increased wars and population and health effects if not addressed as a collective species--and not seen as one nation versus another or with an Them vs. US mentality.

England got us started on this road.

Wars are an effective way to reduce populations when no other choice becomes availiable. Africa teaches us this every few years.

The first world countries will have to find a solution won't they? Whining about a problem doesn't fix it.

You sure got a knack for the trite and obvious there son.

[CanadianMountainMan]

I see your points and agree with them. BTW I didn't think you were "whining." You have some very good points to ponder on, expecially with the rising Asian powers on the horizons. 2 billion people to add to the mix next with all those cars and all that petro demand, you know something is going to give.

What frustrates me is where is all the real high-tech end products for social progress? How many iPod variations does one need? Give us a safe fussion reactor already. Lets make more wind farms, switch to electric engines, and start to build a new up to date infrastructure.

I lived in this country now (the US) for almost eight years and do love it. It is not like any other nation. It seems like it shoudln't work! Every background and walk of life all mixed together, yet it does work and gives an added strength of diversity of culture. It is that welcomeness and the opportunities that I appreciate the most. Not even my native Canada, which unfortunately can be a bit xenophobic, can make this claim.

So as for this Canadian, I love America. Hell, Peter Jennings (a Canadian by the way) loved America too--so much in fact that just before be passed away he became a US citizen--a goal I am pursuing.

[DamnYankee]

i actually dont hate George Bush. I only hate those americans who are full of ego, overly patriotic.

The only reason you don't hate George Bush is because he isn't over there running YOUR country into the ground.

On a more serious note, he makes a lot of poor decisions and really is very questionable as the leader of a nation.

He should probably be on trial right next to saddam for some of the crap he's pulled. If there is going to be a 3rd anti-christ he is a good candidate for the job.

Well I wouldn't compare Bush to Saddam, who is quite evil and did genuinely sadistic things. But honestly I would love a no confidence vote against Bush and this administration.

By the way were is One_Irish_Rover? I like his style and still would like to here his views.

[DamnYankee]

I see your points and agree with them. BTW I didn't think you were "whining." You have some very good points to ponder on, expecially with the rising Asian powers on the horizons. 2 billion people to add to the mix next with all those cars and all that petro demand, you know something is going to give.

What frustrates me is where is all the real high-tech end products for social progress? How many iPod variations does one need? Give us a safe fussion reactor already. Lets make more wind farms, switch to electric engines, and start to build a new up to date infrastructure.

I lived in this country now (the US) for almost eight years and do love it. It is not like any other nation. It seems like it shoudln't work! Every background and walk of life all mixed together, yet it does work and gives an added strength of diversity of culture. It is that welcomeness and the opportunities that I appreciate the most. Not even my native Canada, which unfortunately can be a bit xenophobic, can make this claim.

So as for this Canadian, I love America. Hell, Peter Jennings (a Canadian by the way) loved America too--so much in fact that just before be passed away he became a US citizen--a goal I am pursuing.

Great man! I wish you the best in that.

I loved Jennings. Great journalist with soul and wit. NightLine went down the crapper after Jennings and Kopel left.

Totally agree about cultural diversity being a real strength here.

Be good.