What are Americans so scared of?

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zsawevv212

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In the last couple of days one can not help but notice the large number of U.S citizens who seem to be genuinely worried and in some cases seemingly scared of China. What is this fear? Is it a fear of China?
Or is it a fear of not knowing where Americas place will be in the comeing years ahead?
 
Probably that China will soon have more USD than the US has and with no debt so they could just buy the USA outright :)


Paul
 
The Americans have been afraid of China for years, since the Korean War, for example, and before that was the myth of "The Yellow Peril".

There used to be an old cold war joke to the effect that a team of scientists had invented a computer that could predict the future. They proudly announced this to the President who was delighted. He told them to ask it what the world would be like in 10 years time, and the answer came back printed in Chinese.

I could not find that one on the web, but there are a bunch of good ones here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-177261.html
 
I've worked with a few Americans. They have some very strange views of the world i can tell ya.
Average guy when you ask him where he's been in the world would probably say...wtf do i want to go anywhere for , we have everything we need right here at home !
There are some stats available i'm sure...basically along the lines of 98% of Americans have never been outside their own country. Quite scary when you think about that !
 
I'm not necessarily defending my home-bound countrymen here, but one must account for the fact that even just the continental US is a much vaster and more diverse territory than most other countries. That availability of all kinds of sites and cultural experiences without the need to deal with language differences (mostly), travel documentation, and currency exchange - as well as cost - tends to reduce the desirability of heading abroad. I live in Boston and I can get to anywhere in the "Lower 48" in about the same time it takes me to get to London.

On the China thing, it's very much similar to the psychology around Japan in the 80s.
 
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i think the USA is a bit like europe just not so different in languages and culture. lots of europeans have never been outside europe you know!

as for fear of china i don't know but maybe it is like being afraid from communism in the cold war and worry that the USA hegemony is coming to an end?
 
It's much much easier going up in the world than coming down.

Who is going to get the blame ?

Well the past shows that people rarely blame themselves so they may well find a scapegoat, like the Nazis blamed the Jews for losing WW1.
The US love affair with Israel may well get the blame. It has certainly dragged the US into debt fighting the Islamists. The fact that the whole situation in the Middle East has been badly mismanaged by the US for decades will likely escape their notice.

We shall see
 
they are losing their empire like we lost ours
but we had monty python to help us through it
 
Scared of the same things as everyone...losing the way of life they enjoy and losing the nations superiority. Americans love to feel they're the best at everything. Except this time, they're the best at getting in debt. Throw in a bit of communism fear, fear of the unknown, since I'd bet about 0.1% have ever been to China, and stories about how China so many million soldiers and now building stealth jets and it is a threat.
 
I bet the sale of anti-depressants in the US are going balistic

:)

1. senile economy
2. jobs disappearing
3. 200 year old political system that needs renovating

Apparently China is only 99th among the world's countries on per capita income. So if Hu & co. care about living standards they still have a fair way to go before they become as fat and idle as the developped world.
 
There are some stats available i'm sure...basically along the lines of 98% of Americans have never been outside their own country. Quite scary when you think about that !
Click to expand...

Yes, I have often heard it said that for many Americans, the ultimate goal is to visit all 50 States of America in their lifetime. They consider it to be a world cruise.

Dumba*sses.

On the China thing, they are afraid of China because somebody told them China is going to be bigger than them soon in all respects except maybe physical stature.

I reckon that they are afraid of the unknown - most of them don't even know where China is and so they don't actually know exactly where the threat is coming from.

In these cases paranoia sets in ....... but this leaves the average American confused because they don't know what paranoia means.

No wonder they're scared.

Better they climb up inside their own a*rseholes and stay in the dark.
 
Many rulers may have under estimated the power of the internet

as currently seen in N. Africa. It has given the multitude a common voice and attitude.

My old signture of " tyrants of the world watch out the internet is about " seems to have come true.

To think it can't happen in developed countries, would also be a mistake

:clap:
 
As long as human behaviour remains fundamentally unchanged, empires will fall and other empires will rise. Whether this is done geographically, geopolitically or using newer forms of territory won't make any different IMO Pat. All that's happened is the landscape has changed, not the motive and behaviours behind it.

I think the world has become tired of American Imperialism. They have been quite a benevolent dictator in historic terms but people of the world are looking for a change. Like any authority that is losing control, they try and tighten their grip but this seems to be backfiring. As most US citizens as I understand it have little comprehension of US foreign policy and goings on because of domestic focus, I sense that the people know something is going wrong but have little information to substantiate it because of their natural introspection and focus on home affairs. Their reaction is to be scared and/or lash out.

It's the start of the US identity crisis as they lose domination.

100 years on for the British, we are still struggling to figure out who we are and what our place in the world is.
 
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What a great opportunity for the N. Africans to re-shape their political/economic systems.

Throw out the crap and bring in new ideas. Could leap-frog the West's attempts at good governing.

Let's hope they don't throw out too many babies with the bath-water tho
 
It's easy to write off the mentality towards China as just like Japan in the 80's, however I don't think that is correct. China is aggressive and backwards (some say America is also). However China maintains that fraud should be a capital offence and that allowing it's citizens to have opinion is a step too far (sounds like Britain). Chinese economic hegemony would not be a pretty thing if such a regime were allowed to promote its abysmal social policy around the globe.
 
What is happening in N.Africa and Yemen will happen in China, sooner or later. The Chinese leadership is sitting on a time-bomb. I should say that it is doing a good job for the people, at present, but people will want more and are quick to blame the administration. These governments are fearful of internet communication with good reason.

We can all be thankful that we have a 4-5 year voting system that allows change, and to let off steam. If we discard democracy, even though it is not perfect, God help us. There are elements of governmental, big brother control, creeping into our governmental system- cameras, childcare etc.
There are, also, evil people out there so what are we to do? Evil to combat evil and we have to accept it. But we must know that all this must be carefully watched.

Those who watch us must be watched.
 
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