[lit-ideas] Re: The Guardian says Play Nice
- From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:13:10 -0700 (PDT)
Specifics, please. What literature? How is the SOL a desire to be loved? It
was a gift and was originally disdained. So, what literature? Julie's comment
hardly describes the U.S. in action. We don't comply with nonproliferation
treaties, with environmental protocols, etc. etc. And a preemptive,
unnecessary, offensive war qualifies as pretty big bullying.
--- On Thu, 9/11/08, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] The Guardian says Play Nice
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, September 11, 2008, 3:04 PM
>>Americans have a desire to be loved by
everybody? Since when?
At least since the late 19th century if not
earlier. Statue of Liberty and all that. It's a
leitmotif of our national literature.
Consider Julie's second option for the US future:
"Let's see if we can do our part to work together
toward a common goal of human well-being and care
of the planet that sustains us."
Maybe then everyone will like us? Surely the
Guardian piece, if anything, is an attempt to play
on the "if you don't do this, we won't like you"
mentality.
That the dreamy panacea of cooperation contests
the praxis of geopolitics -- amoral, ruthlessly
competing national and corporate interests -- does
not make it unattractive. We hope to get along
with others. We want people to love us.
We will be perpetually disappointed.
John's trope of the "playground bully" also fits
this need to be loved. Is Russia a playground
bully? Is China? Is Iran? Doesn't matter. As long
as we are not perceived as a playground bully,
it's possible that, to quote John again, we will
be viewed as, "someone that the rest of the world
likes and respects." They might love us. Ahhh.
Eric
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