Michel's
Commentary
To See Ourselves as Others See Us
Michel's Commentary
To See Ourselves as Others See Us
by Michel Dresser, March 13, 2002
Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, is famous for verse in the Highland dialect that ends with this memorable couplet: Wad some power the gift to gie us To see ourselves as others see us!
We all have known people whose self perception obviously varies greatly from how others perceived them. The drunkard who thinks he is merely a social drinker, while everyone else knows him to be a staggering dipsomaniac. The old woman in the bright red wig, who merely looks ridiculous to others, but apparently imagines herself to be a femme fatale. To read the recent Gallup Poll, which asked 10,000 people in nine different Muslim countries how they feel about the United States, is to experience a very great shock. Are we like the drunkard or the old woman? Are we Americans self deluded?
Americans love taking polls about ourselves, we tell the pollsters that we believe that we are the most generous nation on earth. We are proud to be citizens of the oldest constitutional republic in modern history. We consider our country is the freest and most prosperous of nations; and we understand why most people would want to be Americans. We understand what brings other people to America--to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The 10,000 people polled in nine Islamic countries, by Mr. Gallup,s polling service, don,t agree with our self image. They agree in overwhelming majorities that Americans are treacherous and materialistic bullies. They claim that American foreign policy has tipped to far in Israel,s favor. Only one in four of those polled have a generally favorable impression of the United States. Only one in ten believe that America has reasons to be in Afghanistan. Even more startling, solid majorities in all Muslim countries firmly believe that Arabs had nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center. Apparently, they believe it was sinister forces in the United States as a pretext to make war upon Muslim Countries.
The poll indicates that the gap in understanding is too wide to bridge"especially, if we lay this poll along side of another one recently conducted among Americans. The polls are virtually mirror images of each other. Nine out of ten Americans stand convinced that Arabs were behind the World Trade Center attack; only one out of four Americans have a favorable opinion of Muslim countries.
The only area of agreement was the belief by large majorities of Muslims and Americans, alike, that neither are likely to get along with the other very well anytime in the foreseeable future.
Is America a treacherous bully? Are Muslim nations violent, superstitious and backward? That is what we believe about each other. Wad some power the gift to gie us To see ourselves as others see us
Yes, the gap between us is so wide that we may be on the verge of yet another Cold War"this time with Muslims instead of Communists. We may find ourselves in conflict with them across that gap for decades.
And those are my thoughts
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