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What do they think, what do they want,
what are they capable of? Written by Greet De Keyser and Miel
Dekeyser
First of all, I'd like to say that- whatever the title implies- it must be higly unlikely that all US citizens think alike.
I picked this book mainly because Greet
De Keyser was the Belgian on-the-spot-correspondent in the US for
many years. She always came across as being passionate about her job.
Everything you always feared to be true
about America, is in fact:
disturbingly true (at least according to this book)
So, to make this summary very terse:
what do Americans want, according to this book:
*they want to drive their SUV's
everywhere (though mostly within the US) without paying attention to
how much gasoline their tanks-without-cannon soak up, no they don't care about the environment
*they seem to evaluate everything on its size. The bigger the better. A large farm is necessarily better than a small farm, in there eyes. They decide this without even considering that the small farm might actually be producing a bigger crop than the larger one.
*they want to pay the lowest possible
price for their gasoline, sending off boys and girls to get blown up
by an IED somewhere in the sand, is not concern to them in this respect
*they actually believe in the American
dream, they are blind to the American nightmare, being poor in
America is your own damn fault
*the state doesn't regulate social
security, so most Americans are very much into charity and will try
to contribute something to orphanages, shelters for the homeless,
soup kitchens and so on. This has to compensate for the lack of a well-functioning social security system
*it's really hard to be well-informed
in America. Much harder than in Europe, because American news
focusses on American events and devotes very little attention to
foreign news. Most Americans are really not aware about what's going
on in the world.
*a lot of volunteers for the US Army,
only volunteer because the army pays for their education. For many
it's their only chance to get a decent education. They don't know the
real risks involved.
*the military academy at West Points
doesn't necessarily put out great officers, it mainly makes
highly effective business executives, graduates are sought out by
private companies as these men and women have an unwavering
discipline and are very loyal, they value their subordinates more
than they do themselves. West Points teaches them to lead by example.The book's message is, among other things, the US is a higly militarized society.
But apart from their officer corps, quality of the troops is low, due to low motivation and not being trained for the tasks they are burdened with
(e.g. policing the strees of Bagdad)
*it appears on the outside that the US
is a very free nation. But in fact, especially the middle classes,
are very unfree, shackled to a rigid social convention. They HAVE to
attend church, they have to get their children to softball, they have
to be involved in charity work, they have to work all they can, they
have to get ahead in life or suffer social penalties.
*they've kept the pioneer spirit alive
and want to have a gun near at hand
*they are very patriotic, are not prone
to criticize their government, not even when they are willing to
admit they have a weak president (something good might still come
out of it)
*they look down and look up to Europe
at the same time. Europe is a medieval backwoods in their minds,
whereas at the same time it's also the place of art, fashion and
'grand' style
*when they say they don't invade
countries to steal their oil and overflow them with American
products, but say they do it with the best intentions and to spread
democracy and higher values, they actually believe it (scariest part
in the book)
*they are very prude when it comes to
sex, lots of 'forbiddenness' which ironically leads to a sex-crazed
youth. Nipplegate is an emblematic affair of the American attitude
towards sex. Highly hypocritical.
*America does not have the ambition,
nor the willpower, nor even the capability of actually conquering the
world, their strategy when it comes to messing with countries is:
-
engagement
-
exhaustion
-
exit
*president Bush knew something like
9/11 was coming or at the very least CHOSE not to know
In short, interesing piece of journalism,
more nuanced than this brief summary, but still clear that America
might be the most powerful country in the world right now, but
certainly not the smartest.
The author did confuse the American revolution with the American civil war, in such an unforgiveable manner as to give rise to the fear they got other historic facts horriblly wrong.
Not a bad book, on the whole, but not a good one either. And as will always be the case with literature on a fast developping nation: 7 years after publication it's no longer up to date, so it's certainly not the best book to get some useful insight in the spirit of the US.
18-09-2011 om 00:00
geschreven door Tederdraads 
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