Yes

by Walter Onubogu

Created on: May 30, 2010   Last Updated: May 31, 2010

Certainly, yes many foreigners see the United States as a "corrupt" and "decadent" consumerist empire, because its domestic and foreign polices are geared towards promoting growth at all costs possible, by that I mean growth of economic and political  power.

One ought to realize that in the US a consumerist culture grew in tandem with greater - rapid urbanization and industrialization since early 19th century. Bounds and leaps were made by US policy makers, inventors, capitalists to ensure that America fulfills its manifest destiny.  

However, historically speaking Americans  (unlike what most foreigners believe) never could agree on what the pursuit of " manifest destiny" really meant and struggles over it emerged, with various influential factions competing for determining  its course.

For Agrarian populists it mean really creating a regulated level economic playing field with government supporting trade unions, small farmers and small banks against Big corporations, big banks etc., while for urban based capitalists " Big Business" it meant operating with the least possible interference of the federal government.

Not to mention even regional differences  between the mainly urbanized Northeast, the  conservative bible Belt of the Deep South, the Mid West, and Western Frontier.

Capitalism also exists in Europe and for some odd reason nobody associates that with unrestrained "greedy" capitalist market economics, this only features in people's minds when it comes to US. Why is that, you probably ask?  

Let me explain. Europeans, given their own historical experiences of mayhem and destruction amid 2 world wars, in contrast to Americans fundamentally believe that  via tax and spend policies, that the central or federal government has a significant role to play in promoting the collective good of society (i.e restraining & controlling capitalism, implementing generous social and welfare state) and redistributing wealth.  

Whereas the majority of Americans really still do believe that economic liberty and an almost "biblically inspired" commitment to work, individualism and self- reliance are ultimately key to achieving manifest destiny.

To Americans Europeans must really seem like spend thrift peace loving lazy Socialists who love stifling capitalism for the fun of it, while in the eyes of Europeans Americans appear to be incredibly arrogant, idealistic, addicted to imperial expansion and world hegemony, and  followers of absolute consumerism.

Have you ever traveled abroad and noticed that some countries are really trying hard to copy the US mode of development and mass consumption, while others are are constraining it.  

Look at China, Thailand etc., and here you see good examples that US mall culture has spread across the seas to places where mega malls never existed. Certainly the US addiction to consumerism in perceived by many in the impoverished  

Developing world as a way to overcome poverty, yet many fail to realize that competitive consumerism in US is taking place as the most unsustainable way of capitalist development.  

Europeans frown upon Americans for having very little environmental awareness, and being hypocritical about global warming and the dangers of climate change.

One the hand California may boast the highest share of non-renewable energy sources used in the US, while at the same time, countless TV and newspaper and radio ads remain in effect that keep promoting the idea that driving gas guzzling cars is ok.

No one is willing to cut down on their lavish lifestyles. For a country so dependent on cars, the very idea of driving smaller (somewhat  more expensive) cars is hard to stomach.

This is compounded further by the mystical belief that the sky is the limit and things can only get better because technological innovation can change things.

Look at a different example, Europeans have far less obesity, why is that? Again in the US it is because fast food isn't expensive enough to deter people, whereas in Europe it is, and over there they haven't got plus size meals nor alot of ads.

Much has to do with habits. Europeans generally abhor American fast food culture as a form a degeneration and in their minds it is nothing more than an extension of the American consumerist empire.

Europeans are not the only ones who dislike America's addiction to consumption. South America is a good example where for decades on end the US tried to exert its hegemony over the region by installing friendly (dictatorships, ie  Pinochet, Somoza), and uninstalling unfriendly socialist, nationalist or communist ones.  

This has left a bitter legacy in the minds of Latin Americans, who on the one hand admire the US for its more or less political (democratic) stability, and yet on the other hate American promotion of Big Business (i.e United Fruit Company) that expands overseas at the expense of the local people and their countries sovereignty.  There have been many cases where the US used bribery intimidation to sway local politicians to support their cause.  

Look at what happened to Chile in 1973 with the CIA sponsoring a coup d'etat against a democratically elected Socialist government that installed a brutal pro-American military dictatorship in its place.

When former President Bush proposed the creation of a Hemispheric Free Trade Zone, only Mexico, Chile  were interested, while even pro Western Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and more socialist leaning places like Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, Daniel Ortega' s Nicaragua, Ecuador and Fidel Castro's Cuba were adamantly against it.

This really showed that it had little to do with ideological conflicts or differences, but more to with the persisting perception that the US for all times remains a selfish, corrupt hegemonic behemoth, that is hell bent on promoting its corporate and national interests at the expense of existing traditions and values, sovereignty of other countries.  

No Surprise that Bush's plan was quietly discarded in favour of promoting regional economic and political integration among "relative" equals, where consumerism and capitalism aren't the main goals to be pursued.

So these perceptions don't come out of the blue, or because people abroad hate Americans. Nothing could be more untrue. There are reasons for why people perceive the US as corrupt, hegemonic and driven by consumerism.

As a Canadian, I know about many Canadians who see the US in the same light, and it needn't be so.  If America adopted a progressive foreign policy, listened less to what corporate fatcats tell them, and decided once and far all to shed  illusions that "ultimate" growth can be achieved, ONLY then would the rest of the world respect them.

Until then America will continue to draw the ire from Europeans, Latin Americans and many more who are opposed to how things are going in this world.

If globalization is to be a win win solution, it ought to to come across as not a veiled attempt at westernizing all parts of the world. America can and must do better than that.

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