I hate to snip and snipe, so let me say here I'm not trying to. However, it seems to me that if we are going to talk about global capitalism we have to be clear just how far out there on its own the US is--in oh so many ways.
I can find a lot of grounds to compare Japan with W. Europe's OECD countries. And I can liken Canada to a W. European country with an agressive, imperialist, Cuban-hating neighbor.
But I just find the US to be such a far out country. Do most European intellectuals know just how different the US is from their societies? I often doubt they do (with a few exceptions I've seen on this list).
They think the US is a new, young country when in fact it's government is as old or often older than many European countries. And how many Europeans know just how different their governments act in their economies compared to the US?
More than knee jerk anti-Americanism, what bugs me is just how little most people of the world really know about the US. Just a thought or two.
Charles Jannuzi