I have never read such a load of tripe in my life. Many things are just wrong, such as the comment about travellers cheques. I was there only six months ago, and everyone accepted travellers cheques, including restaurants, wine shops, train stations and so on, as the same as money. Can you imagine that happening here? Banks would cash them for free, and so everyone else regarded them as good as cash. Of course I am talking about US dollar travellers cheques. Taking anything else around the world is just stupid.

The other point this article raised is that Australia JUST DOESN'T MATTER. When people talk about global warming, they talk about a moral issue. Why? because what we do doesn't matter. It is what the US. europe, russia india and china do that does matter.

The author complains about lack of knowledge about Australia. What does he know about Venezuela, which is a country with slightly more people than us. Talk about provincial?

Of course the americans are provincial. Criticising their weights and measures omits mention of the UK, where all road signs are in miles and furlongs. Is the UK provincial too? What about the time there was fog in the channel and the papers said "continent cut off".

For heavens sake get real.

Interesting to see such different perspectives on the USA.
I've been there twice now and mostly enjoyed the experience and the people I dwelt with.

I was suprised last time by how many of the people I met had been Down Under and how much they knew about this country and how interested they were in learning more.

The welcome and willingness to socialise I experienced staying in camp grounds exceeded anything I've seen in Australia in similar circumstances. First night there on my last trip I was invited over to share a campfire, the second night I was invited over for dinner. Later during the trip people went out of their way to include me and make me feel welcome.

The authors comments all have truth to them but they tell only part of the story. There is another story which involves a warm and involved people who care about many of the same issues which concern most of us. Who mostly love their country (and show it in a way that would make most of us cringe) but are willing to learn from others.

Maybe the author needs to take some time and get away from the pressure pots. Get out and meet some people in places away from the cities.

Yes some things about the USA don't make much sense to us but then our next PM will probably be either be Howard or Rudd so who are we to criticise?

R0bert

I wish to apologise to “Joe in the U.S.”.
Though in my post I cited an example of what I saw at the time, and still see, as a lack of public awareness in America of the outside world when compared to other developed nations I in no way an ‘anti-American’. I met many Americans in many parts of the world. Most in fact were intelligent, aware and erudite, and I didn’t have to agree with everything they said to recognise them as such. However it’s the odd close-minded bigoted ‘American supremacist’ one that sticks in peoples mind, sadly. The example I wrote of I actually do not believe to be truly representative of all American people. I was wrong to allude to this in my post. Trust me when I say we have PLENTY of morons here.
Despite my opposition to much of US foreign policy I do not consider myself an anti-American. America still has so much to give the world. Despite recent events America was founded on an ideal that has reverberated though history. Its potential for good is still huge. I love Australia. But we will never be in a position to be a world leader. American is, and has been for at least 100 years. Struggling people everywhere actually do look to America as an example as a beacon of political freedom. It’s a lot to live up to. It means every American citizen is by some degree judged by that standard. Australians are not subject to such scrutiny, or judgement. Its easy for us to be the good guys.
So many people belive in the founding principles of America. But in order to convince the rest of the world that they still apply, and by so doing reclaim the moral high-ground that America has legitimately held for so long, America has to rediscover those principles itself. I hope it does, but then I, despite everything, am sure it will.

I always enjoy my trips to the States. Perhaps, a little more provincial than most countries, yet, I would suspect many Australians would find it hard to plot world capital cities on a blank map of the world. Myself included.

About six months ago, I attended a small, tight seminar with Gore Vidal. Gore felt that historially America's pioneers did not want a Democracy but a Republic: English successionists did not wish to be controlled by England. Perhaps, this independent/isolationist streak is evident in the Americans ignoring the British Proclamation of 1763, wherein new British settlers were "not" meant to expand agressively into the inlands occupied by indigenous peoples.

In 1776, when their Declaration of Independence was written, Jefferson, under the influence Locke, saw "dissolution" for the colonists to be not only the right to conduct revolution, but the right to be self-sustained and without connections. For Americans, the Union was the Western equivalent to the East's Middle Kingdom (China). This gave fuel to the Manifest Destiny and the notion, that, that which should beneficially flow,would flow from the US.

What is interesting, I suggest, is that if West III, with England as the centre state, has been incline since Victoria (d.1901), then; given an Interregnum typically takes two hunded years to pass, the US still merely a contender to top dog in the way Egypt, Greece or Rome once were. That situation might not be immediately obvious to us, because we live our short lives in today's history, having the US dominate today's world affairs.

oliver, you need an editor.

you don't need vidal to tell you the usa wasn't designed to be a democracy, the founding fathers were clearly aware of democracy, and didn't want it, and said so. as in australia, women, persons of color, and wage workers have forced their way onto the electoral role, but the federal government there (and here) remains an oligarchy.

of course they have been sharing the american way of life with their neighbors since 1776, initially with musket fire and small pox infected gifts, more recently with napalm, agent orange, and depleted uranium shell fire. astonishing how some people continue to resist 'democracy, american style'.

Having read the essay, I wasn't going to post but, then I began to read the post from you lot and had to laugh. I was down to Albany the other day and I think I met all those people your writing about along the Serpentine. Didn't cost me but the fuel I had to burn to get there and back. The unfortunate bit is I didn't get see much of America. :-)