Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray
I found the book Ugly American to be a very powerful book, which indicated the good that the US was doing and yet not getting credit for and the misunderstanding thereof of US intention.
It moved me immensely and I loved the book and it also helped to sift through the anti Americanism that was rife during that period, before I got judgemental. (You must remember those days there was a huge sympathy for the USSR since they were projected as pro people!)
|
[quote]
Quote:
|
Though there are great many achievements done by the US, but the problem is that the US overdoes the tomtoming in a very crass manner of these achievement over and over again. The lack of modesty is what gets other's back up and results in the others feeling that the Americans are boorish; which is not true, if you meet Americans individually. Individually, they are as good as any other nationality and what is more, they are so open, good and so deceptively harmless!
|
I know what you mean. I myself and other people I know are sometimes embarressed by the "tomtoming". Certain claims are true, but it would be just as well if they weren't trumpeted so often. Greatness applies to so many aspects of life, that to lay claim to being the greatest country without some diferentiation can be misleading. But at the same time, here in the US we get good doses of where we are lagging behind some other countries, notably in education and health care. So, our heads aren't as big as it may seem to people abroad.
By the way what I meant by great achievments was not national achievements like the Marshall Plan, but individual ones like, for example, a biography of George Washington, Churchill, Saladin, or Alexander the Great. Or, even the impact of a small group of citizen leaders, such as those who mobilized US industry for WWII, told about in the fascinating book
The Wise Men by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas. I am sure you have parallel examples in Indian literature.
Quote:
|
The first chapter is what grips you!
|
Yes, the portrait of the ambassador. I know we have fielded some ambassadors like that, but rarely. To less spohisticated minds, portraits like that can lead to a bias. Maybe, it's much ado about nothing on my part.
Quote:
|
Don't take my word for it, but the Americans appear a bit brash when they come as tourists. And that is the impression that one gets to have about the US.
|
I know. When I lived abroad and had fallen into the swing of daily life, I observed many such tourists. Very amusing. But I have to say that the Americans weren't alone. The Germans were a trip with their beer thermometers, at least in Spain where I was living.
Quote:
|
The book is a powerful instrument of Psy Ops wherein with some truth thrown in, a covert 'weapon' is released wherein the book indicates that the goodness that the US wants to project is ruined by some inept bureaucratic bungling. It in no way suggests that the US diplomats are chumps. What is more, it strikes a chord with the reader (of any nation) that bureaucrats the world over are the same and hence the US inspite of being good Samaritans, are derailed in projecting it so!
|
I made a similar point earlier, namely the good intentions of those who devise aid projects is often bungled due to inept or uncaring bureaucrats tasked with carrying them out. My point with respect to the book is that there are better ways to convey its premise to officers in training than this fictional account, actual case studies for example. But I had best climb dowm of my soapbox having not read the book.