Comment on Is the US crazy? Inquiring minds elsewhere want to know

In response to the article Is the US crazy? Inquiring minds elsewhere want to know, one of our editors posted this comment. It's unusual for us to toot our own horns, but I decided that Les's remarks were too cogent to ignore. So I've posted them here as a Choice Reader Comment.

- Paul Richard Harris, Editor
Axis of Logic

As an expatriate living in Venezuela, I can easily identify with Ann Jones' experience.

Over the last 8 years living here, I've had the same questions asked of me in one form or another by the people here and as the writer says, "It’s hard to know why we are the way we are, and -- believe me -- even harder to explain it to others."

One of the things that often strikes me is how politically aware and empowered people are here compared with most people in the United States. One would naturally expect that people with more years of education would better understand themselves and the world around them. That formula is inverted in Venezuela. It's the people with few years of education who seem to be more politically aware. This in large part has been the result of former President Hugo Chavez who educated the masses on subjects of national sovereignty and independence, U.S. imperialism, the country's new foreign policy and most importantly the participatory democracy enshrined in the 1999 constitution.

It's common for people here to carry the small pocket edition of their constitution with them and in political discussions read articles from it or to quote them from memory to support their views. About the only thing one sees U.S. citizens reference from their constitution if at all, are the first and second amendments on free speech or the right to own guns.

It's most impressive to live in a country where the people are informed and empowered after living among so many in the U.S. who are so very ignorant about international relations and the Washington regime(s)' domestic policies that control their lives. That might be changing as the good people of the United States increasingly see their country and the world through the eyes of "foreigners" who today more than ever are rejecting U.S. values, wars, corporate control of government and "the American Dream."

These changes are to a very large extent due to the internet. Imagine what the world would look like today if political awareness were limited to the propaganda of the corporate print and broadcast media!

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