Europe hating America?

Todays’ question is directly derived from this blog. One of the comments on “tell me a story” hoped that the Europeans didn’t hate the Americans that much, because one of them (me) remembered a German soldier bringing food to his mother when he was a baby, thus maybe forgetting the food droppings carried out by the Americans during the famine winter in Holland in 1944-1945. My question in response to this comment is: how come that some American lady would react like that? Not all Germans were beasts and we in Holland remember every year at 5 May the liberation thanks to the lion’s courage of American soldiers. But isn’t that special, a German soldier risking his life by bringing food to a hungry mother with her child? I think that the Americans, at least an important, mainstream group among them, suffers a bit from blindness for other views on the world than the U.S. as the most important country with grateful helped countries around them. Of course, the USA did many good things in the world. But if you compare the brave things they did in World War 2 with war efforts after that, one sees ungrateful “liberated” countries and failures, despite so many American lives. Europeans are grateful for their liberation from Hitler c.s., but that’s not the case with Vietnamese, Somalians, Iraqi people, people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Venezuela, etc. How come? Let’s try to analyse a bit. I think the American “mainstream” culture consists of two more or less contradictory tendencies: one is a strong emphasis on democracy and freedom of press and speech (originated from the same roots as the French Revolution which owed much to Freemasonry), the other one is a very straightforward and orthodox Christian evangelism (which owes much to immigrant believers, the “founding fathers”and their clergymen). Sometimes these tendencies clash, e.g. in the discussion about homosexuality, about whether or not evolution theory must be brought forward in education, about whether or not America has a mission in the world, etc. The protestant roots of mainstream culture are also manifest in the phenomenon that in human sciences such as sociology, economics, business sciences etc. there is always a “scientific branch” which follows the rules of modern science, and an “evangelist branch”. There is so much American literature that “preaches” how to improve this-and-that, how to grow, how to be the best, etc. We Europeans then look for research-arguments and for discussion, but this is often lacking. If you ask me for examples, I can give them but it would need too much space here. I only mention one, and that’s the Covey-hype. Covey is a management and individual-growth guru whose activities resemble very much the activities of Billy Graham . Take also for instance Americans following training courses: U-formed tables, and within the U the trainer walks his rounds, in shirt (to stress his dynamic personality), and every now and then bowing over a trainee, his fists on the table. Europeans find this intimidating. Also talkshows and TV programs reflect this need for “doing things better” or making confessions about a “sinful” and failed past life. (Ophra, Doctor whatshisname again, etc.).
In short, mainstream American culture doesn’t seem to bother much about other cultures, because theirs is superior they think. The USA refuses to take part in worldwide environmental care agreements (Tokyo), they don’t acknowledge international courts, and even threaten publicly (Bush’s administration) to invade Holland when an American will be held prison for the The Hague War Criminal’s Court of Justic": Americans just can't commit war crimes. They accuse also Europe that the USA has to do the dirty work when it comes to military action, without asking why Europe is not so greedy for foreign wars (just see how they work out), and ignoring UN-resolutions.
All this jeopardizes America’s role as “Europe’s big brother”, let alone America’s role in the rest of the world. The USA regret the postponements of Turkey’s EC membership, but what if Mexico would apply for membership of the USA?
In Holland we have a former soccerplayer, Johan Cruyff, who enriched our language with a new proverb: “Every advantage has its disadvantage”. So American culture seems to be superior, just because during decades they were the “promised Land” for so many immigrants, and still they fulfil a benefiting role in many areas in the worldwide arena. They are the most democratic country next to Great Britain, just because they had to come to terms with the mentioned two contrasting tendencies. Go to an anti-American activist in an Islamic country and offer him a job and a house in the U.S. Provided that he can bring some family with him, he will most certainly forget his anti-American feelings immediately. All humans, whether Euopean, American, etc. want to belong to a culture which they prefer for themselves as most desirable. Conflicts arise when people want to impose their culture on others. And that’s what mainstream American culture doesn’t want to see. It is extremely difficult to return on this path because of the thousands of Americans who fell in the wars for a better “more American-looking” world. But, as said by Cruyff, the world also owes much the USA: a democratic example, economic wealth because of their buying power, their hospitality as an immigrant country in the past which saved e.g. so many hungry Irish, their will to spend great amounts in scientific research, their movie-culture, literature, arts, music, etc. They were also victims of the t-word (which I don’t want to mention in a text readable for the whole world), on which they over-reacted by starting a dangerous war, feeding the criticisms every day more and more.