More thoughts on "Why Do People Hate America?", after finishing it:
The book makes the point that ordinary Americans have little influence on American domestic and foreign policy and decries this. However, what isn't said is that this is the case in I daresay all countries. With the advent of Indirect Representation, the electorate no longer has the influence on the polity's behavior as it did under Direct Representation, as practiced in Classical Athens. Having ordinary people debate and vote on policy regularly is simply not feasible anymore - people have neither the time nor the interest (witness the <50% turnout in American elections and the low turnouts elsewhere) to do so, which is why we have systems of indirect representation. Besides, opinion polls do have some effect on governmental decision making - it would be suicidal to defy the will of the people all the time.
Some of the ideas advanced in the book seem rather far fetched and take some degree of imagination to conceive of. In addition, it intimates that the USA and the US people are simplistic and shallow. I know that there are many dumb Americans, but it isn't really fair to condemn an entire country and people just like that.
The central assumption that the book makes - that people *do* hate America, does seem rather extreme and unsubstantiated. Indeed, the book concludes that EVERYONE hates America, which is an unfair and untrue assertion.
The USA is not unique in thinking that it is a paragon. All powers, when they were pre-eminent (and many when they weren't, or never were), though themselves special, paramount or chosen in some way, though that doesn't exonerate America. Paradoxes and contradictions exist in all societies, and not just in the USA.
To be fair, the book does make many good points. For example, that of Americans treating violence as a form of communication - Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City federal building to send a message, and people who passionately defend the right of the foetus to live can bomb abortion clinics and assassinate doctors who perform abortions in cold blood. However, I *am* critical by nature, and critics are supposed to criticise, so.