>>>> The hostility of the "anti-war" protestors is not toward war, nor even toward war with Iraq, but toward America and its philosophy of individualism.
Absolute nonsense. Can't say it anymore clearly. I simply see no other reason for this kind of broadside than an attempt to delegitimize protest against the invasion of Iraq. Large portions of the global public opinion are against it. There is no one source for that, save it's very publicly stated reasons: against the invasion.
I believe that a large portion of this global public opinion is a venting of dislike against America's pre-eminent role in the world, and that the war is an ideal pretext for people to finally say what they really think, in the manner of some kind of safety valve releasing. Vastly more disgusting things have gone down in the world without the world's population descending to the street like this, such as the million dead in Rwanda. That's 1/6 the body count of the Shoah, can you get your mind around that ? How do you explain then the disparity between world response to an event of that magnitude and what is actually happening in Iraq ? "They all hate us" is the old cliché, but sometimes clichés are true.
Note precisely that I am referring to our perceived "hegemony", and not individualism per se. And I am not saying this invasion is a good idea.
As an aside, you should know that there is also a statistically significant current of fundamental dislike of American individualism as well, particularly in France and this stems partly from nostalgia for Communism. This may just be an isolated cultural European thing, I can't be certain. But among this class of people, there is a real mistrust of the average man in the street, who simply cannot be trusted to think for himself. The USA with our referendums etc, is a revolting idea to these people, whether they're from the left or right. |
