I agree with you- Americans, in general, are a kind people, when they meet face to face with another human in need, but Americans don't understand people who hate them. I think because we have such a high notion of ourselves (mostly undeserved at this point) we fail to understand the animosity other countries, and their citizens, may have for the imposition of our values upon them.
Our revolution was not imposed from outside the US. Our leaders were Americans. We cling to this notion of "brining" democracy to others, and yet, imo, it is generally a thing which cannot be "brought". Not to mention the fact that our revolutionary times were a time of intense instability- many Americans were anti-revolutionary, and the revolution could easily have failed, even with the high literacy rates in this country at the time.
Americans, who are a bit dim about their past, are nowhere near the same people they were- we are not our founding fathers, and, in fact, few people understand what our founding fathers were like. If we were asked for revolution now, against the federal government (which is much more oppressive than England ever was, and demands quite a bit more money from us, and gives us almost no representation) almost all Americans would say "No way". We are out of touch with revolution, because we are complacent- and, imo, we should be minding the store at home, and protecting our own republic, before we try to foist ideas we do not live by at home, onto a people unprepared to receive them. |
