AMERICA'S COVERT IMPERIALISM - Reader comments at The New York Sun

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The Imperial Appetite

Submitted by Patrick D.Hazard, Feb 8, 2008 12:03

The Puritan rhetoric (our City on rhe Hill syndrome) which has kept median Americans from realizing how imperialistic we've covertly been , in the last century especially,makes our interface with the competing imperiums of the twenty-first century difficult to negotiate. I first notice this whistling in the dark that night in 1957 when I was celebrating getting my PhD in American Civilization. The metropolitan press was full of ad exec Fairfax Cone's reassurances that we need not fear an impending recession because America was still the All Time Hit on Humanities Hit Parade. As recently as last night, Mitt Romney sealed his abdication speech with the by now boilerplate assurance that America remains the greatest civilization in the history.

This infantile narcissism amuses thoughtful Europans no end, I've observed in my first decade as an exPat. I finally got. it. This is me protests too much reflex is a dangerous psychiatric tick.. The embarrassing disparities between our official ideals and our initial Amerind genocide and continuing corruption of black slavery persuaded us to assume this mask of the Greatest Ever. In what Studs Terkel has shrewdly called these United States of Amnesia, the yawning gaps between quotidien realities and our high fallutin' self image means that in a literal sense most Americans are schizophrenic.

Mark Twain and William Dean Howells railed against the first emergence of extra-continental American imperialism during the Spanish American War, but Hearst's sanctimoniously sanitized media version prevailed.Later our Marine's fronting for United Fruit anticipates the cruel ironies of today's Blackwater. Ask your average American how many military bases we have in the world, and they will be skeptical about those not immediately involved in an out and out war.Depending on how you define them, they approach a thousand!

If we are to stop stumbling into serial moral and economic disasters like Vietnam and the multiple Midlle East entanglements, the country is going to have to go through an intellectual makeover. Russia and China no longer tolerate our supremacist malarkey. It would be helpful if Hillary and Barack had the courage to begin to straighten us out in the impending election. Four centuries of deluding ourselves is a hard row to re-hoe. Patrick D.Hazard, Weimar, Germany.

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Other reader comments on this article

Comment	By	Date
The Puritan rhetoric (our City on rhe Hill syndrome) which has kept median Americans from realizing how imperialistic we've covertly...	Patrick D.Hazard	Feb 8, 2008 12:03
self-delusion on both an individual and collective basis is crucial for the human psyche. Russians remain proud of the might... [MORE]	Frankly Speaking	Feb 9, 2008 22:19
The imperial appetite of certain countries has never ended, indeed if anything it has grown. What has changed are the... [MORE]	Siddhartha S.Bhadrakumar	Feb 10, 2008 23:40
I wonder if Mr. Hazard would have the courage to spout the same if America hadn't saved him and his... [MORE]	Glenn Smith	Feb 12, 2008 18:15
I've just now had a chance to read "Frankly Speaking".It is a very thoughtful response for which I am grateful.... [MORE]	Patrick D.Hazard	Feb 13, 2008 10:26
Don't be so quick to assume America is about to elect either a woman or an African American man as... [MORE]	BklynGal305	Feb 14, 2008 17:38
Dear Mr.Smith: I came not to bury American Exceptionalism but to raise it:-- from Ideals to Realities. I used to... [MORE]	Patrick D.Hazard	Feb 21, 2008 03:00
Hey Sidd, what have you been smoking? Do you really think China is the victim of imperialism rather than the... [MORE]	ricardo maxwell	Feb 21, 2008 08:51
Upon reading Patrick Hazrads article I kept looking for substance, concrete unambiguous facts that would stand alone without the distraction... [MORE]	Michael Rodriguez	Mar 4, 2008 14:05
So, the burden of the intelligentsia is to show the poor masses the errors of their ways and to enlighten... [MORE]	Paul McCord	Mar 10, 2008 10:30
I'm not sure exactly what the poster said, but I am sure he said everything he knew about the subject. BTW... [MORE]	gxb	Mar 10, 2008 10:38
Mr. Hazard I know that you have the best intentions in your heart and it behoves me to respond. American... [MORE]	Gene Guffey	Mar 15, 2008 10:58
Besides the oft quoted rationale of 'opening new markets' abroad (with all the dubiety that it sometimes involved) was there... [MORE]	SD Goh	Feb 8, 2008 10:10
Perhaps, in the case of the Spanish, who in 1491 had just finished 700 years of expelling the Muslims who... [MORE]	D	Feb 8, 2008 15:03
I'd just like to point out that "arrogance" is hardly a Western monopoly. It is fundamental to the Chinese worldview;... [MORE]	D	Feb 8, 2008 09:24
I think D makes some very good points (see "This book is an attempt to frame..." above). To get close... [MORE]	Billy Smith	Feb 12, 2008 11:29
The European superiority over China was substantially due to technology and industry. Europe also became superior in science. Here are some... [MORE]	John McCarthy	Feb 8, 2008 04:29
Darwin's seeing the predominant ruling form for mankind throughout history as 'empire' no doubt takes a page out of the... [MORE]	Shalom Freedman	Feb 8, 2008 02:11
"The West" has made great strides in science, technology and economic achievement. Western Europe's recovery from the devestation of two... [MORE]	Karen Ways	Feb 8, 2008 21:58
In the long history of human civilization, lies a impulse to have war. Jane Goodell in her research of chimpanzee... [MORE]	C	Feb 9, 2008 21:19
I enjoyed all the comments regarding this subject. Varied and informative. Especially agreed with Karen Ways "Social and Spiritual Dismantling". I... [MORE]	Patrizia von Lutzow-Vorbeck	Mar 16, 2008 16:46