OPPapers.com

American Critisim

AMERICAN CRITISIM

There is abundance of cultural criticism of American habits and everyday life. Foreigners tend to look upon Americans as aggressive obnoxious individualist, but the question is where this negative view comes from. The common view of daily life as an American is a day where he is totally self-involved, and almost entirely oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the world. As being the worlds top superpower the US is often used as the scapegoat for everything wrong with the modern world. America presents the largest target for the world to vent their anger toward and therefore is the associated cause of global problems
Other Countries criticisms of America often include the use of its political power to project American policy on others. As a superpower the consequences of unpopular US policy choices are used as evidence of specifically American moral failure and are not what may be unavoidable failures of a foreign policy. The lack of subtly or restraint from the use of American power is stressed. This is why US dominance is viewed as overbearing. There is often a clear lack of balance of power between other countries in the world and the US. The void created by the absence of a rival to the United States leaves it open to be more critically scrutinized in its actions by everyone else. That is why when America acts in its own interest, as it sees fit, it tends to have a largely felt impact on other nations. This usually leaves those nations feeling powerless and exploited by the US. Negative views of America will set in where negative effects of its foreign policy are felt.
Another major criticism is the impression of America as the leading key to globalization and free trade. American materialism and industrialism is perceived as a real danger to other cultures. America is viewed as a uncaring institution that goes around disrupting or completely destroying other countries societies and traditional markets...

Please login to view the full essay...