“Why do they hate us?” It’s a question I am often asked.
I’m an Australian by birth, but an American by heart. I believe the world’s fortunes travel with America, and it is in the interest of everyone to keep America as strong as possible. It is for this reason, that over the last six years, I have been committed to promoting American exceptionalism and combating anti-Americanism around the globe. It’s my outsider perspective and love for America that elicits such enquiries.
The question is renewed with each anniversary of the fateful September morning that saw evil rock the cradle of liberty.
There is widespread genuine hostility for America. But, from where I sit, as an Australian, I believe the underlying cause of international animosity is simpler than what you might think.
It’s cultural.
Here’s the rub: America is a conservative idea in a world of socialism. It is the antithesis of the Leftist ideal.
As if this wasn’t enough to raise the ire of the chattering classes, then there’s also the fact that it just happens to be the most powerful, wealthiest, innovative, and successful country the world has ever seen.
Uh-oh. Houston, we have a problem.
Envy is corrosive, and leads to ingratitude, and a desertion of perspective.
On a recent trip to Europe, I was repeatedly informed that Americans are fat and stupid. With great relish, I reminded them of the week of the London Games in 2012, which saw America top the Olympics medal tally and land on Mars.
Had I been there in August, I would have loved to have heard their take on the three gallant young Americans who overpowered an Islamist gunman, and foiled a massive terror attack on a Paris train.
Go figure that one, you noodle-armed, surrender monkeys.
But back to culture, which is inextricably linked to politics. Put simply, America’s cultural conservatism is profoundly at odds with liberal or progressive agendas. Consider each and every major social or economic philosophy of Western nations (even English-speaking ones) and America, and contrast.
In England, Germany and elsewhere, they believe in a collectivist society; Americans in the individual.
They subscribe to radical multiculturalism; the American in E Pluribus Unum and patriotism.
They believe in more government and greater regulation; Americans in the least possible. They don’t like the concept of the nation-state; America is strident in its dislike of a supra-national body such as the UN. They seek intervention in markets; Americans are the purest of capitalists. They support Palestine; America supports Israel. They don’t like Christianity or religion; Americans are the most religious nation in the Western world. They consider only government employees worthy of being armed; America was founded on the opposite premise. You get the point.
Sure, there is paradox and inconsistency. If there wasn’t, President Obama wouldn’t be President. But the exception, no matter how stark, does not disprove the rule. Conservative values are American values.
And culture is everything. It shapes attitudes, lifestyles, and actions. America, fittingly, behaves as an individual on the world stage. It is a red-blooded alpha male (another demographic the chattering classes despise) in a room of full international betas.
Americans have uncompromising convictions that bring enormous discomfort to people of other societies. Tradition is still honored in America. It is why it’s said that a love of America runs in the DNA of every conservative in the world.
To the developed world, shaped by polls, unions, and an all-powerful, elite intelligentsia, the cultural conservatism and religiosity of America is incomprehensible and offends deeply. To them, it’s oafish, backward, discriminatory, simple, and awful. It’s politically correct intolerance.
Is America perfect? Of course it isn’t. But the anti-Americans, with an inexhaustible list of ills and sins at the ready, are like spoiled children. They confuse imperfection with malice, resent what belongs to others, and condemn as abuse any refusal to indulge them while petulantly demanding avoidance of consequences and continued enjoyment of unearned benefits.
This September 11th, America has got its hands pretty full. It must never forget the events of fourteen years ago. It should also remember that it is the human experiment of our lifetime, and God is on America’s side. Semper Fi.
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