Merryl Wyn Davies

Charles Darwin evolutionized the western view of human development and inaugurated a paradigmatic shift that has reverberated throughout science ever since. His work and conclusions surrounding evolution, however, have been employed in areas utterly distinct from biology to become justifications for ideology across the politial spectrum. This rise of fundamentalism, both political and religious, has been a harrowing reminder that liberal democracy cannot hope to automatically succeed irrespective of cultural context. This book examines the use of Darwinist ideas in a plethora of regimes, and considers his legacy and reception outside the scientific community in which he ostensibly worked.… (más)

Why Do People Hate America? is an attempt by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies to explain to Americans why anti-Americanism exists in the world, especially in many places where you would expect the United States to be very popular.

Ultimately, Sardar and Davies's argument comes down to two things: pushiness and hypocrisy. Sardar and Davies state that many people around the world resent the United States because they feel like the U.S. uses its superior power to get what it wants regardless of the negative consequences for others and that the U.S. fails to live up to the lofty rhetoric of peace and liberty espoused by its political leaders.

While this is true in many respects, Sardar and Davies's argument suffers from two deficits. First, it is anything but new. Many people have been making this same argument for decades about the United States, especially in Europe and the former Communist bloc. Second, Sardar and Davies do not even consider two other large contributors to worldwide anti-Americanism: misinformation and the basic human tendency to blame their failures and problems on others, especially those they see as powerful, foreign actors.

In other words, a fairly high percentage of people who hate America do so simply because of the position that the United States occupies in the world system. If China ever manages to overtake the United States and starts exerting itself on the world stage, many of those same people will drop their negative feelings about the U.S. and switch them over to China. Also, many autocratic leaders in the world use anti-Americanism as a tool to prop up their own legitimacy. And when those rulers control the media (as they almost always do), it makes it very difficult for the U.S. to counter the misinformation that those rulers disseminate to their people.… (más)

This books contains little in terms of statistics on how many people or which kind of people "hate America". It also does not state how many people hate America, but would still want to move there if they had the opportunity.

It contains a mostly European argument, mixing serious points about US isolationism with outright cliches about McDonalds and John Wayne movies. It also tells little about the role other countries play in globalisation (e.g. Japanese and Korean pop culture in the Far East, European luxury brands), or any positive aspects like rising levels of wealth in many countries around the world.… (más)

Interesting points of discussion. One hopes the 'thinkers' of this world will make a difference before it's too late - or have we passed that point already?

cover:
American corporations and popular culture affect the lives and infect the indigenous cultures of millions around the world. The foreign policy of the US government, backed by its military strength, has unprecedented global influence now that the USA is the world's only superpower - its first 'hyperpower'. America also exports its value systems, defining what it means to be civilised, rational, developed and democratic - indeed, what it is to be human. Meanwhile, the US itself is impervious to outside influence, and if most Americans think of the rest of the world at all, it is in terms of deeply ingrained cultural stereotypes.

Many people do hate America, in the Middle East and the developing countries as well as in Europe. Sardar & Davies consider this hatred in the context of America's own perception of itself, and provide an important contribution to a debate which needs to be addressed by people of all nations, cultures, religions and political persuasions.… (más)