Has the United States of America been a positive or a negative influence on the world since 1776?

[11 Bravo]

I am honestly curious as to where my fellow DUers come down on this question.

[XemaSab]

1. What's with the non-yes-or-no questions

with yes-or-no answers?

Do you want chicken or fish for dinner? Yes. :P

[11 Bravo]

2. I fucked up. It's fixed.

[mix]

8. We made the same boo boo, nt

[XemaSab]

9. Thanks!

:D

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. What period of History?

And quite brutally honest this is the problem with this... you really should start with the Roanoake Colony and the issue of white and black slavery...

But that is just me.

Since history is my trade, I am far more nuanced than that.

[arcane1]

4. Yes n/t

[mix]

5. Ask a Cherokee or a Vietnamese.

Or any other victim of American imperialism.

Nice suit.

[proteus_lives]

11. Then go ask a Frenchman, British, Italian, Korean or a Jew.

[readmoreoften]

13. Yeah, go ask the "Frenchman" as you so quaintly put it.

The French just adore us. :eyes:

[proteus_lives]

15. Then did after we liberated their nation from the Germans.

But national memories are short.

[awoke_in_2003]

24. very short indeed...

if the French have to thank us for anything, it is providing them with the inspiration to have their own revolution in 1789. Of course, ours wouldn't have been successful without the French Navy blockading Charleston, cutting off British reinforcements and supplies. Vive la France

[mix]

18. self delete, a truce nt

[proteus_lives]

20. I see you didn't get it.

It's ok.

I'm not mitigating anything.

Just reminding people of some history they're intentionally ignoring.

[mix]

21. Let's agree to disagree and leave it at that. nt

[proteus_lives]

27. Cool with me.

[AsahinaKimi]

32. my people too..

[Warren Stupidity]

6. both

[bemildred]

7. Yes. nt

[Bluebear]

10. Samuel Barber...Judith Jamison...Maya Angelou...Georgia O'Keeffe YES!!

Our people, YES! Our government and institutions, quite a mixed bag.

[proteus_lives]

12. Positive.

[camila flor]

14. your country is the best and the worst, without doubt

we love you and you anger us.

[BolivarianHero]

16. Negative...

If the USA had stayed the fuck out of Latin America, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, the world would be a far better place.

[Antiderivative]

17. Native Americans loved the Manifest Destiny.

[Johnny Harpo]

19. The PROMISE Of The USA?..Yes...The REALITY?...

maybe not so much.

The United States in 1776 was not the United States of 1865 or 1917 or 1945 and so on.

The United States was...is...and continues to be a life experiment the likes of which was not seen prior to 1776.

Where the United States winds up will depend on whether or not we are willing to stop giving away what made us great...just to make a Buck.

[awoke_in_2003]

22. have to say positive...

we have only really been true dicks for the last 50 years or so.

[Amonester]

23. Good question. Dunno (yet).

Let's see.

Corporate fascism: no.
Climate change: no.
Plutocrat empire: no.

1% owning almost half of the wealth of the land: no.

For mega-profits health(non-)care: no.

There must be some good stuff, but I can't come up with it (yet).

[inna]

25. not sure if "influence on" is the right term here, "force" would be a better term.

The net effect is, without a doubt, negative, unless one looks at it from a strictly Americanocentric (is that a word?) perspective.

[hfojvt]

29. doesn't that depend

on a) whether you think any of these inventions have benefitted the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_inventions_(before_1890)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_inventions_(before_1890)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_inventions_(after_1991)

I sure got a laugh out of this one anyway.

"1903 Tea bag"



although there is no way, of course, to know how many of them would have been invented in other countries.

Then, you might also consider the defeat of Hitler and of Japan and containment of the USSR. What would have happened without the Berlin airlift? Or the Marshall plan? Or lend-lease? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

or the polio vaccine? http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/poliotimeline.htm

"1988 - With approximately 350, 000 cases of polio occurring worldwide, the World Health Organization passes a resolution to eradicate polio by the year 2000.

1993 - The total number of reported polio cases worldwide falls to about 100, 000. Most of these cases occur in Asia and Africa.

1994 - China launches its first National Immunization Days, immunizing 80 million children! The entire Western Hemisphere is certified as "polio free."

1995 - India follows China's lead and organizes its first National Immunization Days. More than 87 million children are immunized!

1997 - The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial opens on May 2.

1999 - More than 450 million children are vaccinated, including nearly 147 million in India. In the 11 years since the World Health Assembly Initiative, the number of reported cases worldwide has fallen to approximately 7 000."

[Amonester]

30. Thanks for these links! :o) n/T

[MrScorpio]

26. My answer is mixed

But no one should be operating on the delusion that a lot of the positive things that we've done in this world were not self serving at the core.

We should always ask, "Qui Bono?"

[NuclearDem]

28. It just depends on who you ask

You ask Castro immediately after the Cuban Revolution, he'll say yes...he first asked America for help after the Revolution because he believed in a cooperation between the American government and the Cuban people and in the rights and freedoms our Constitution and Revolution gave to the world.

You ask Ho Chi Minh as he was writing the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence...and he'll show you the similarities between his DoI and our document and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

You ask the French in the late 1700s...and they'll praise America for being an inspiration to revolt against oppressive regimes. In fact, you ask nearly ANY revolutionary group since the 1776, and they'll praise America for being an inspiration.

On the other hand...you ask anyone in Central or South America...or Iran...or Iraq...or Saudi Arabia...or Egypt...or Pakistan...and they'll tell you almost the EXACT opposite as what the others will tell you.

So in some cases, yes, we've had a very positive influence in the world because we inspired people to fight for their freedoms against oppressive regimes. In other cases, though, we've directly supported those oppressive regimes (Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, 1960s Vietnam, Batista's Cuba) and then ignored the cries for help from the revolutionaries who took inspiration from our Revolution and the promise our Constitution gave to the world in favor of our own self-interest.

I think America has lost sight of her true calling. Like KO said "Freedom", "Liberty" and "Justice" aren't brand names. We can't claim to support human rights and dignity throughout the world and support the people we support.

[LeftishBrit]

31. Like most countries with a significant global influence, both.

Positive:

Perhaps the first real democracy, and beacon to others in this respect

First to establish written constitution, with freedom of thought and speech enshrined in law

End of slavery

Leader in science and medicine

Leader in literature, cinema, the arts

Leader in many aspects of education, with some of world's best universities

Many important inventions used by other countries

Unlike many countries, not contaminated by totalitarian philosophies in 1930s and after

At best, an inspiring example of how huge numbers of different cultures can meet, mix and contribute

Intervention in WW2 helped to defeat Hitler and fascism

Bill Clinton and George Mitchell contributed positively to peace in Northern Ireland

Barack Obama, still greatly respected in the world at large





Negative:

Ethnic cleansing of Native Americans

Slavery, and Jim Crow

Excessive faith in free market capitalism, with negative influence on other countries' economic philosophies

McCarthyism, and other episodes of antidemocratic ideological 'scares'

Vietnam

Installing and propping up nasty dictators in Latin America and Middle East

Disastrous intervention in Iraq

In general, sometimes treating rest of world in accordance with interests of own 'military industrial complex'.

Most things done by Reagan, and everything done by GW Bush

Rise of 'religious right' which I think has had some negative 'copycat' effects in other countries such as UK and Australia


______________

So mixed - as with any country. Britain has similarly mixed history, with centuries of imperialism definitely on the debit side!

[wickerwoman]

34. +1

Excellent summary.

[TheKentuckian]

33. Hard to call that one because of so much best and worst issues

I'll say close to net neutral till Dubya and now probably slightly net negative with all the folks we are killing up and making poor for no reason.

The current wave of economic devastation should lower us considerably as well and when the pain and suffering is over may drag us into a more serious net negative.