The idea is to turn millions of Americans into ‘citizen diplomats’ who use personal meetings with foreigners to counter the ugly image of the United States shown in a series of international public opinion polls. They show widespread negative attitudes not only toward U.S. policies but also toward the American people and, increasingly, even American products.” (Yahoo! News)
This is a movement spurred by civic organizations mostly concerned with — shudder! — declining consumption of US goods and declining tourist revenue, it seems. Instead of diverting the rest of the world from their largely accurate perceptions of US policy — selfish, unilateral, swaggering and exploitive — and the behavior and values of the ‘ugly Americans’ — boorish, materialistic, ignorant and xenophobic — these civic groups should be expending their effort on regime change and culture change at home. Otherwise, it is more of the same — attempting to bully the rest of the world into doing it our way, to meet our selfish ends!
