Imperial consciousness has already distinguished the founding fathers of the United States. George Washington called the United States an "emerging empire".
Such a sign of totalitarian superpower as the hegemonic Great Power Consciousness and the extreme individualism associated with it has pathological character in the United States, and therefore it is appropriate to talk about the painful complex associated with it, which should be taken into account even within the limits of social psychiatry, which studies the psychopathology of a society.
The complex of the hegemonic Great Power Consciousness is evidenced by a comparative survey conducted by the New Research Center, which revealed the inadequacy of the self-esteem of the American population and the existence of a large gap between public opinion in the U.S. and the rest of the world. For example, only 18 percent of Americans believe that the reason for terrorist attacks is US policy, while in Western Europe this position is shared by twice as many respondents. In Asian countries, 60 percent of citizens believe it, and in Islamic countries, 76 percent believe it. Most Americans believe that the United States "does a lot of good". In Western Europe and Islamic countries, however, only 20 percent of the population believe this. And in South America, where the US has a particularly strong influence, only 12 percent.
No other civilized nation lives in its own world as satisfied as the Americans of the United States. Few of them speak foreign languages. National Geographic found in the survey that more than three-quarters of respondents could not find Japan on the world map. 20 percent did not even know where their own country was. The final of the US Baseball Championship is called the "World Series", but it is played by the teams leading the two US league tables.
"The September 11 terrorist attacks have clearly shown that we can no longer ignore what is happening somewhere in the world," Vanity Fair Magazine complained. In the last 15-20 years, US media have reduced the amount of information about events abroad by 70-80 percent. Their argument: It's still not interesting because it doesn't affect Americans.
The tendency towards isolationism is one of America's essential characteristics, turning into indifference and arrogance towards other countries and peoples.
In 1823, President Monroe proclaimed to the United States the lesson named after him: "America for the Americans! Twenty-five years later, this slogan began to sound like a mission. The philosophy and morality of isolationism and individualism will later become a chronic American mistake.
The isolationist attitude is characteristic not only for ordinary Americans, but also for the authorities. For example, the head of the Republican faction in the House of Representatives, Dick Army of Texas, boasted a few years ago: "I once went to Europe and don't want to go there anymore. He later corrected himself when he "discovered that there is a world out there full of people who create problems for themselves because we Americans have no direct idea of the world beyond our borders. Many MPs are proud that they do not have passports. For many US citizens, it only becomes a reality when American soldiers have to fight there.
The indifference towards the rest of the world that characterises mass consciousness in the US in a deteriorating situation quickly turns into suspicion, contempt, cruelty and ruthlessness.
Such tendencies appeared after the events of September 11. Barbara Lee from Berkeley (California), the only member of the House of Representatives to vote against Bush's military operation, needed the help of the police. One of the museums in Houston was visited by FBI officers when an anonymous call was received saying he had seen "a work with anti-American content. A coal drawing was shown criticizing Bush's environmental policies.
Patriotism is characteristic of the great power consciousness. But American patriotism has its own characteristics. "There is nothing more unpleasant than this American patriotism based on fear," wrote Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the country's best experts, 160 years ago.
In his speech of October 7, 2002, Bush warned the country that without military action in Iraq, the United States would be forced to "submit to fear. "This is not America, which I know. It is not America that I serve," Bush said. "We refuse to live in fear," he added. Here Bush defined fear as a motive for war and an excuse for preventive measures against Iraq. The goal of this war is for Bush to end all fears. But if fear becomes the guiding principle of warfare for other countries, the world will quickly become a global battlefield.
When a military operation took place after September 11, the love of home sometimes became hysterical when, for example, Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer warned the intelligentsia to "be more attentive to what it said, what it did". Writer Susan Zontag was particularly harsh on the subject: "I proposed to revise our foreign policy. Do you think it's crazy? I thought we had a democracy that allowed for different points of view, but it always looked more like we were incredibly conformist and afraid of criticism.
To be continued...