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Topic: Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion? (Read 7760 times) previous topic - next topic
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Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

This is an honest question asked in earnest, so please do not flame or insult me for being a proud US American citizen.

Do you think USA as a country whole should care about world opinion? If so, why? If not, why not?

Do you think USA citizens should care about world opinion? If so, why? If not, why not?

When giving a response, I will challenge you to think and respond to some of these points:

* Controlling political parties (presidency, congress) change often in the USA.
* Not all USA citizens agree with their government (local/state/federal) but some do.
* What do your neighboring countries think about your country?
* What do international countries think about your country?
* What is your opinion of the EU? What does the EU as a whole think of the USA?
* What is your opinion of the UN? What does the UN as a whole think of the USA?

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #1 –
It's interesting that no one has replied. Maybe we're all too polite on this board?

One thing is certain (read any news outlet you like): "international opinion" has a lot more hope for the USA this morning than it did yesterday. I hope that this hope is at least partly justified, and that Obama's honeymoon period doesn't end too soon.

Cheers,
David.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #2 –
Responding to that in any kind of meaningful way takes a lot of time. More than I'm willing to give right now.

What I will say is that there are some ultimate limits as to how much the US needs to care, rooted in how much international political capital it has stockpiled. During the Cold War the US had virtually unlimited political capital to act with impunity (and not inconsiderable evil) to fight communism; most other world leaders had enough of a vested interest in anticommunism to play along. A similar thing happened after 9/11. To a certain degree, the US hasn't had to care what other countries thought until recently. It transitioned from a relatively isolationist power to a unilateral world power (and back and forth between the two) very quickly.

Due to all sorts of reasons, almost all of which are the current administration's fault, the US is close to squandering most/all of its political capital; after that point, we choose to ignore world opinion at our peril. If other countries choose to pass the US by in trade deals, travel agreements, academic research, cultural exports.... the US will absolutely not be a dominant world power in 40 years.

And yes, Obama goes a long, long way towards fixing that.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #3 –
In addition. People, please answer these questions for Bhutan and Papua New Guinea. Thanks in advance.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #4 –
Simple answer:

If a country gets involved in the issues of another country, then it should also care what that other country thinks about that.

If a country does not mess with others business, it does not need to care about what others think about it.

Mutual interaction or no interaction, but no half-assed job. Its that simple.

Since the US in the last century has constantly be the country most aggressive in getting involved in other countries business, it also has to deal with "replies" to such actions. You can listen to those and understand, or learn it the hard way. Either way, your involvement will have consequences for you - as is right now all too painfully obvious, isn't it?
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #5 –
pollution affects everyone.... for example (as well).
PANIC: CPU 1: Cache Error (unrecoverable - dcache data) Eframe = 0x90000000208cf3b8
NOTICE - cpu 0 didn't dump TLB, may be hung

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: smok3 on
pollution affects everyone.... for example (as well).

Correct :) Which is why on this planet, it is impossible to stay full autonomous. It is however possible to reduce one's affection of others to as low as possible.

With that said, i should probably clarify my mentality to: mutual interaction or mutual non-interaction, but no half-assed job (the mutual aspect is relevant).
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #7 –
I must completely agree Lyx & smok3. In my opinion US cares just for what is worth for them and in comparison to what Lyx have written I see a big deviation from balance.

I'm sorry to all the US here, I didn't ment it nasty. It's just an opinion of one insignificant person from one insignificant country...
Sorry for my poor English, I'm trying to get better... ;)
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #8 –
How is that different from any other competent world power? Do you seriously believe that France or China (say) really are looking out for the little guy? Or, for that matter, that everybody who signed Kyoto were actually going to try to implement it?

A better way of describing the situation is, while every country more or less looks out entirely for its own best interests, recent US foreign policy has been ludicrously shortsighted and incompetent on the matter.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Axon on
How is that different from any other competent world power?

Intensity.

My argument has never been about "X do it totally, Y totally dont do it at all". What is said i did not restrict to one specific country but ANY country - and i then pointed out that the US has one of the worst track records in that regard.

Also, it seems that you misinterpreted my mentioning of the term "mutual" as "altruistic". I do not support altruism. To simplify it, i proposed "Fair interaction or no interaction" - neither egoism nor altruism is "fair" as in mutually balanced.
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.
 

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: hellokeith on
This is an honest question asked in earnest, so please do not flame or insult me for being a proud US American citizen.

Do you think USA as a country whole should care about world opinion? If so, why? If not, why not?

Do you think USA citizens should care about world opinion? If so, why? If not, why not?

When giving a response, I will challenge you to think and respond to some of these points:

* Controlling political parties (presidency, congress) change often in the USA.
* Not all USA citizens agree with their government (local/state/federal) but some do.
* What do your neighboring countries think about your country?
* What do international countries think about your country?
* What is your opinion of the EU? What does the EU as a whole think of the USA?
* What is your opinion of the UN? What does the UN as a whole think of the USA?

Problem is that we all live on the same world, so any decision of any country can affect others.

More so with USA, who has a lot of "destructive" power.

So, my response is that everybody should care about the world as a whole.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #11 –
I am truly afraid that the status of USA as world power number 1 will decrease very fast in the near future. The sad thing about this is that not the US itself is to blame, but the monetary system based on debt based fiat money without a backup commodity standard (i.e. gold/silver) we accepted as a standard in the modern civilized world. The confidence in the stability of the US $ currency will decrease and finally lead to hyper inflation and worldwide geopolitical instability. The USA will pull back their military forces from overseas deployment in an effort to bring back stability in the homeland.

Halfway 2008 our governments here in Europe told us that the American Credit Crunch would only have minimal effects on our economies. A few months later it turned out to be much much worse. Bank failures were prevented by multi-billion (US billion = 109)-€ bailout infusions and our economy (here in the Netherlands) is expected to shrink by a vast 3.5% and unemployment numbers will reach the highest levels since decades in 2009. This numbers are the worst since the 1930's.

As a starter, and you are willing to spend some time on this issue visit:
Money as debt
Chris Martenson's Crash Course
Chris Hedges' Columns Bad News From America’s Top Spy
Why the End of America is Closer than You Think

Hope for the best.

Should USA / USA citizens care about world opinion?

Reply #12 –
Yeah, if a world power (economic or diplomatic or military or whatever) turns out to be unreliable, the obvious solution is to cut the risk and avoid relying on that party. I get that. Not a whole lot of Americans do. And a lot of people are very concerned about the national debt. But the majority tends not to be.

I'm still more concerned about a resurgence of protectionism and nationalism, which far more negatively impact world affairs than the reemergence of a multilateral world order.

The current administration is showing signs of being far more attuned to these sorts of things. He's not really walking the walk yet, but at least he shows signs of comprehending the situation.