What Others Think

I was haphazardly listening to NPR this morning. It was the same drill - "America is declining, people around the world don't approve of America, etc." I had to stop and think for a minute. Why, as an America, would I care what someone in Poland or Idonesia or any other country in the world thinks of me?
I have travelled enough outside the US to know that people have very funny notions of what Americans are, how they live, and how our government operates - and most of those notions are either completely false or based on outrageous stereotypes that are very far from the truth. And it's not like the people I encountered were uneducated or naive - nope, most of them pride themselves on "being in the know."
So yet again, I'm forced to ponder why should I care that people around the world, most of whom I probably don't respect anyway, think about the country I live in. Do the Chinese worry that most of the world thinks they have a ruthless and oppressive government? No they go about thinking they are superior to everyone else. Granted I don't wan the US to end up like China, but I'm tired of hearing how America has lost standing with the world. Look, it never really had standing with the world in the first place. So let it go. World politics are not about holding hands and patting everyone on the back, it's about doing what is best for once citizens, even if some guy in a bar in Peru thinks it's morally corrupt or any other kindergarten concept that people have taken to heart when reffering to the real world.
Haven't we been taught by our wonderful - self-esteem ecouraging school systems not to care what others think of us? So for once, I will heed the advice of teachers and not care!

Anyway, this is all a way for me to post a funnier take on the subject by MLICS, who is an American currently living Greece.

I happen to be the only American working on my floor, surrounded by Brits, Canadians and a few Greek mixes. For some reason, these foreigners claim to know more about American life and society than I do, without ever having stepped foot there.

Now, I’m not going to say I support the war or the Bush administration, but I’ll be damned when a bunch of rotten-toothed Brits or chip-on-their-shoulder carrying Canadians are going to tell me about life in the States. I don’t think so.