Why Hate America?

I was invited (a few days ago) by one of the most important British political and strategic research centers (in London, where I live) to give a speech in which I try to answer the classic and popular question: Why do billions of people hate the United States of America. This text is my literal account of the words which I delivered, as I attempt to summarize decades of thinking about this question. I hope to have succeeded, in part, in my response to this question, which is one of great importance.

I have visited the United States about forty times since 1985. These visits covered about half of the states as well as most of its regions. I can say that the themes of my visits centered around the following six cities: New York and Washington D.C., Boston, Houston, Dallas, and San Francisco. In these visits, (during my presidency of one of the largest multinational oil companies), I dealt with many large oil leaders in the state of Texas. I visited and spoke in the largest research centers for political and economic studies in Washington D.C. and New York, as well as speaking at more than twenty universities including Princeton, Columbia, California Berkeley (and others). I was also received by the State Department, the National Security Council, and the Congressional Committee on Religious Freedom. Editions of some of my books were also issued in the United States (in Portland, Oregon). Throughout this time, I’ve thought carefully about one of the questions that I heard the most in my life, which is: Why do many people around the world hate the United States? Whenever I heard this, it raised many questions in my mind.  

Why do most young people in societies which hate the United States dream of immigrating to it and becoming Americans? Time spent in dialogue with those haters of America show that most of them are "extremely impressed" with the "American dream,” with “public freedoms in the United States,” with the adherence of all to its constitution and laws, and to the value of the American citizen who is treated “as a human being.” When I hear expressions of hatred and loathing for the United States from many in various parts of the world, including people representing all political, economic, social, educational, cognitive, and cultural spectrums, I am also reminded of two things. The first is that dimension of human nature which makes the inferior exaggerate its criticism for the more advanced and wealthier.  The second is the wellspring of "leftist hatred” of America. It is appropriate for me, in particular, to know the nature, raw material, sources, and goals of this "leftist hatred" as I wrote my first three books on the subject of Marxism!  And the truth is, none of the above succeeded in getting me to share the feelings of these haters of the United States, so that I hate it as they do. 

It is difficult for me not to see aspects of American superiority in dozens of fields, or to ignore the elements that make most of those who hate America dream of immigrating to it and becoming citizens of the United States themselves. 

It is also difficult for a man who knows the subtleties of the techniques of modern management science not to admire the mechanisms of work, creativity, and superiority of American economic entities, or to not admire what American universities are doing in terms of improving science and human lives. However, I cannot deny the presence, urgency, and strength of the important question: Why does the United States receive so much hate from most of humanity? 

During the years of the last decade (2001-2010), the real cause of this hatred began to appear clearly to me.  As I traced it, meditated on it, and examined it, my certainty increased that I discovered the real reason for this hatred, even if no one has yet expressed it clearly, which I hope to now provide in this article.

The source of this hatred is the inability of the leaders of American society to consider the “values of American society” as an integral and organic part of “American interests.” The United States, whose foreign policies serve “American interests,” did not realize, since the United States of America became the largest power on earth on the eve of Japan’s surrender in August 1945, that “the values of American society” must be among and even at the top of the list of “American interests.” The following factors contributed to the exacerbation of this schism between “American values” and “American interests”: 

(1) the pragmatism (purely practical nature and spirit) that characterizes the American mind. 

(2) the relative lack of the American mind in the sense of history and the sense of culture for historical and geographical reasons that do not need clarification. 

(3) The predominance of the financial motive within the American culture. 

As Voltaire said, “the more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it takes on the appearance of wisdom!”  The folly of American politics and politicians since August 1945 was that no one stood up and shouted: Gentlemen-- our values are our most important interests! The dichotomy between the values of American society and its interests is not only the source of this hatred but is also bringing harm to the American states in a way that American politicians still do not understand to this day! 

How do we explain to any human being the relationship of the American administrations for years with the rulers of the banana republics in Latin America? And how do we explain to any sane person the shameful American silence towards violations of human rights, women's rights, and the rights of minorities in the allied societies of the American administrations? How do we explain to any human being the knowledge of the American administrations about the terrifying stories of corruption of its partners around the world, and the silence of these administrations for decades about these amazing cases of corruption? In short: How do we justify to billions of people that what America accepts for non-American peoples, it would never tolerate for 1% of its own citizens!? 

From here stems the hatred, which is definitely justified. The strange thing is that the American political circles do not see this gap between what is accepted abroad and what cannot be accepted at home; that they do not see how this produces huge waves of hatred for the United States, and that they remain blind to the fact that the values of American society should be the cornerstone of American interests and policies.  Excluding the values of American society from the list of American interests will bring enormous harm and huge losses to American society.

London, January 10, 2013