Hope vs. Fear

I hope this is untrue, but fear it is.

UPDATE: The original article is well worth reading.

The departure of George Bush will change the mood music in America's relations with the world, but--here's the heartbreaker for our romantics--it won't change how most people see America. Because, for "anti" masses, it's not really about us; it's about them.

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What's puzzling is that we care this much what these people think. Like a teenage girl at a new school, Americans desperately want to be liked. Last year, on the eve of the 3/11 train attacks anniversary, former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar told me that power makes America, the Rome of our times, a target of so much criticism. His message: It comes with the territory; get over it. The other day in London, the historian Andrew Roberts remarked, "We didn't give a toss what anyone thought when we ran the world."

Fair points both, I think. Yet America is different from those past empires, and I find our thin skin winning--to a point. The place attracts the hatred of assorted masses from London fine-dining table to the caves around Tora Bora because it is attractive at so many levels and isn't self-consciously a global Empire (which enrages some people even more). Our iPods, Harvards and Stanfords, Tiger Woodses and Michael Phelpses, Beyoncés and Philip Roths all constitute American power along with the dollar and the military.

Well, one thing is for sure: Obama will test this theory and test it well. One of the reasons I supported his candidacy, actually. I am confused and puzzled about America's role in the world and what remains in store for the future. I HIGHLY suspect the above article is mostly right - that there exists a tremendous amount of resentment and irrational hatred of America - not for the things we do, but for who/what we are and represent to "this huge and diverse church that groups together the wacky nationalists from Turkey, China and Russia, Western Europe's racist xenophobes and neo-Marxists, the Islamists and other crazies, various stripes of Latin Americans, and everyone in between, America is a useful enemy to nurture. There's never been any good will there. Hence no one should hold their breaths for any forthcoming." And we will see how the world reacts because we aren't going to get a more friendly, internationalist, easy-to-like President. If they hate us despite our best efforts to be liked - then at least we'll know it is about them and not us - and be able to proceed accordingly.