I noticed this interesting article on the BBC’s website. Perhaps I shouldn’t joke about such a serious story, but imagine having to pretend you’re Canadian!!! 😉 (That one was for Mr. Spence)
I’ll leave it to my previously erudite readers to comment.
I noticed this interesting article on the BBC’s website. Perhaps I shouldn’t joke about such a serious story, but imagine having to pretend you’re Canadian!!! 😉 (That one was for Mr. Spence)
I’ll leave it to my previously erudite readers to comment.
Well, the world is full of fools who think that every foreigner is a personification of their nationality. If travel teaches you anything it’s that there are more diverse opinions within the people of each country then there are between any two national stereotypes.
Now having said that, I do find that Amercicans are by European standards excessively respectful of their leaders. Plenty of voters here will go with the incumbent just to be supportive of him (the “Don’t change horses midstream” theory of political science). It’s an interesting substitute for intelligent thought.
david aldridge said…..
It’s an interesting substitute for intelligent thought.
You’d think after having over 200 years of experience we’d be able to get it right by now ;-P. Sadly, people still think that just because the dolt is president we must support his every action or risk being seen as “unpatriotic”. Why they can’t realize that supporting ones country does not necessarily involve supporting said country’s leader is beyond me. I thank G-d daily that we have term limits here. But I am also quite surprised that British citizens would be talking out of both sides of their mouths – after all, how many of those making disparaging comments about Americans have been supporting Tony Blair? Not that I am faulting Mr. Blair for anything, I think alot has gone on behind closed doors in this whole Iraq fiasco. I can readily understand that you are judged by the company you keep. Still, something about glass houses and stones comes to mind……..
Bill,
There’s no doubt that his association with GWB has hurt Tony Blair … and I’ll tell you what he seems to have aged twenty years in the past five as well.
“I’ll leave it to my previously erudite readers to comment.”
See, I told you so 😉
Bill,
“how many of those making disparaging comments about Americans have been supporting Tony Blair? “
Probably not many, to be honest. Because of the current trend of anti-Americanism, it’s coloured public opinion of TB.
I must admit that I was surprised by a few Americans who I’ve met who could criticise the incumbent president (not just GWB) and yet hold the view that ‘He’s the president so you have to back him’. We almost seem to take the opposite view in the UK 😉 But then, perhaps we treat the Royal Family in the same way?
You’re right though, term limits are an aid to democracy, even if it sometimes results in a poorer replacement.
Dave,
“If travel teaches you anything it’s that there are more diverse opinions within the people of each country then there are between any two national stereotypes.”
I think travel is central, too. I don’t mind admitting that going to work in Saudi Arabia years ago and coming into close contact with a lot of Americans, Canadians, Aussies (and even some Saudis!) for the first time made me realise how redundant national stereotypes are when you dig beneath the surface. You’ll still hear me propagate them occasionally in fun, but I’ve met people I like and dislike from all sorts of countries.
As one of my old friends said (I was quite young and stupid at the time) ‘Doug, America is a *big* place, with all kinds of people’
Doug,
“I must admit that I was surprised by a few Americans who I’ve met who could criticise the incumbent president (not just GWB) and yet hold the view that ‘He’s the president so you have to back him’.”
Well, we surely don’t have to back him. IMHO, we should definitely back the troops that are sent overseas – they don’t have a real choice since the man is the CIC for the military (especially when he has congressional backing, which the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. had), but the man and the plan? Not me (didn’t vote for him either time). I had no problem with sending troops to Afghanistan (didn’t like the way the operations were handled but I’m not military so I couldn’t do better 😄). But Iraq? That just smacked of revenging papa to me (and of course helping out his buddies in the oil industry, can you say “price increase over $1 per gallon in less than a year”?). I was shocked that there were actually other countries willing to throw in with him on that one. A fiasco of epic proportions, and one that my grandchildren will have to deal with as well, I am sure. My current mantra: “Two more years” repeated whenever nausea sets in.
Ah, well the trick to manipulating the public is for the supporters of the president to equate him with the military and with the nation, and thus a criticism of GWB becomes a criticism of the troops and an anti-American activity. If you can convince people that he is guided by a higher being so much the better.
Alas people really fall for that stuff.
Personally I believe every country is as arrogant and wants as badly to impose its will on others as the Americans. The Americans are simply the only country truly capable of doing so.
I also think a lot of the criticism and support of Bush is done because of “labels.” That is, you MUST oppose/support his every action because he is (INSERT LABEL). (example label: conservative, Republican, etc). That is, if someone with a different label did the exact same thing, you’d change your mind about the action.
I agree with one thing, though. It’s very irritating when dissent is considered “unpatriotic” or “unAmerican.” We had that problem here in Canada. Our last prime minister labelled everyone with different views as not having “Canadian values.” Fortunately, he was defeated. Maybe that’s why Americans pretend to be Canadians – we’re smart enough to dispose of our corrupt, arrogant leaders (and replace them with new but equally corrupt, arrogant leaders. 🙂