On Anti-American Sentiment

According to recent newspaper accounts, anti-American sentiment is on the rise worldwide, even within the United States. While some of this sentiment is related to the war in Iraq and allegations of U.S. imperial ambition, this feeling has deep philosophical and empirical roots.

It is clear, or at least should be clear, that utopians apply a standard to American behavior that is neither realistic nor consistent with national achievements. Rather than apply a standard of "seeing is believing," the utopians rely on "believing is seeing," creating a Potemkin Village of the mind, a vast area of artificial conditions that invariably put the United States in a disadvantageous position and the country of choice, viz. Cuba or the former Soviet Union, in a favorable light.

Imagine There's No United States