A World Without America

18DoughtyStreet.com’s two minute World Without America campaign used mock news reports from five different decades to suggest that the world had benefited enormously from American prosperity, technology and foreign policy.

Comments

[todd]

Spot on. America is young but powerful. We like to believe we are a very generous people. When our enemies are struck down by natural disasters ( Iran and Earthquakes ) We still send their people food and blankets and medical supplies ) When a huge Tsunami claimed a staggering amount of lives, we sent our medical ships and our military and billions in aid to help the horrible tragedy. In WWII we sacrificed soo many of our children to save the world from the ruthless armies of Japan and Germany. We gave up so much for a free world and today we keep giving. We dont ever expect payback... all we would like is just a little recognition for all that we have done. Great Britain has been our steadfast brother in arms and in peace. You of the UK have stood by us on so many occasions and loved us when we needed to be loved, and comforted us on that horrific 9/11 morning. America thanks you and loves you for your unwavering support of us. Don't think that we have forgotten this.

[Joanna]

I agree completely.

[Paul Cadier]

Up to the fall of communism I was a big fan of the foreign policy of the USA. It was more or less symonymous with freedom. Naturally while the red army occupied half my continent I turned a blind eye to American rule in south America via ruthless right-wing dictatorships.At least they were better than communist dictatorships which would have otherwise filled the vacuum. For me Reagan's bloodless idealogical victory over the failed socialist ideaology was going to herald a new dawn of world-wide liberation from all dictatorships of all stripes. No longer would the CIA have to fill the power vacuum with a repugnant tyrant in order to keep out a worse Stalinist one. Sadly America has invented a new bogyman to replace communism. This has kept the military-industrial project of the 1950's intact, alas.
Across the globe we see uncle sam intervening against the wishes of the local people. How can the US government congratulate an undemocratic European Union on its 50th anniversary. Such was a banner I saw on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin recently? Bombing sovreign yugoslavia, invading Iraq, supporting the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine against a UN resolution, it goes on and on....

[volkan]

fast!!!

[Tony Hannon]

True - America has done some wonderful things for itself the world. I personally love America and Americans and had a great time when I was there (and look forward to going there again!).

Does America's past glory innoculate it from criticism today? Is it fair that heros of the past in science and politics are used as a shield by cowards and incompetents of the current US administration and the dilletants who speak up for it? Of course not.

When you cut out all the nonsense from both groups - those who'll criticise America for everything AND those who'll blindly defend current Americans actions - you're left with a reasoned debate among friends and about friends.

This video appears to take the current criticism of the US presidential administration and deal with it by saying "Well what if there was no USA nor ever had been?" is a inelegant lurch out of the way. It's a sidestep and it's pointless.

The reason I'm personally so disappointed with President Bush's record is that he was standing on the shoulders of giants when he took that sacred office, a country with a history of greatness whose reputation he has tarnished to its profound detriment.

How can people explain away Scooter Libby's effective pardon? The eye-stretching budget deficits? The pre-planning for the Iraq campaign? The u-turn on climate change? The suggestion that Iraq had connections to Al Qaeda?

I make these points because I'm so fond of America that I hate to see her under such poor management.

[angela]

"We gave up so much for a free world and today we keep giving. We dont ever expect payback."

But, Todd...most of America's monetary "aid" is not in the form of donations. It comes in the form of loans, usually with the condition that the borrowers must spend that money only on American goods, and they still have to pay that money back, plus interest. So America not only gets her aid back, she also receives a boost in her economy and gains interest.

[Ami]

America is a bit too far up itself looking at this, A world without america would be different yes, but nnot so different... Things discovered there would be descovered elsewhere instead, medical advances would still continue and we would not have to put up with the current tyrannical US administration and its warmongering

[S Baker]

Angela, you have to get over yourself. The world would be a lot worse off than it now is. Your retoric is silly, petty, and spitefull!

[cort]

Wow...Angela I agree. It takes alot of ego to say medical advances wouldn't be where they are. America has done alot over the past 50 years there is no denying that. And the wolrd would be different without it. But the belief that america is the only one who could have done it and the strong reaction of some of the responses says alot about where america sees itself in the world.

[American Interests]

I certainly don't need convincing.

http://americasinterests.blogspot.com/

[Edward Jones]

I love the site, I am an American of English and Welsh descent and love the UK (been there several times in the US Navy) I am an active member of the Republican Party and I have to make a few comments.

To Volkan " How can people explain away Scooter Libby's effective pardon?" Scooter Libby was pardoned because people with political agendas went after him. He was held to task for lying to congress when he was questioned about the leak of Valerie Plames name. It turns out that the Congressmen questioning him already knew that the leaker was one liberal darling named Richard Armitage in the US STate Department. This had already been established and admitted to by Mr Armitage. So the question was why was Mr Libby questioned when the investigation had already established the truth, the answer is politics. Mr. Libby was pardoned to prevent a huge miscarriage of justice caused by an unsuccessful political witch hunt to get Whiute House Adviser Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney

To Tony Hanon, You are correct for the most part but you neglect to mention that the US has forgiven the vast majority of it's third world loans and they ended up as grants, usually due to default... repeatedly. And anyway the same type of formula is followed by all first world nations and the third world seldom if ever pays back any loans they recieve, this was one of the reasons the World Bank came into being.

Angela I find myself agreeing with you, but there would certainly be some advancements that would not have occured surely. I do think that the advancements will no longer occur without us because as long as the rest of the First World follows socialist policies in the medical fields it will curtail thier ability to get medical researchers to risk the capital to spur development. The US still subsidizes the worlds developments in medicine.

[Sr Lyric]

I read all this Pro American Jargon about how the U.S. is so instrumental in the aid of other countries, but you all fail to see how bad it treats its own. As an African American citizen I find it unbelievable that not many of you recognize or even acknowledge that the U.S. ecconomic system and ability to help other countries was founded on the backs of African slaves and that all the credit that you give to this country is ill-routed. America still benefits from this past but refuses to grant equal spoils to us or to any other class that they don't consider "worthy" in this country. Wake up world, Al-Kieda exist for a reason!

[Texas_Blueblood]

Americans,

Remember that Europeans are guilty of every bad thing we've done plus a whole lot more.

Most of all remember that they're jealous and we should continue to ignore them.

Europeans,

Just do what we tell you to do and shut up..

[Simon R]

I think America rose to pre-eminence among the world powers perhaps a little too early in its development -after all, it did so via the decline/collapse of the colonial European powers, which occurred over an incredibly short period due to 2 cataclysmic world wars. America has many fine democratic traditions, but due to it's geography, history, and therefore it's economy, it has sometimes been too insular in it's approach to international affairs. This ceased to be the case after World War 2, but reverting is an ever-present temptation. America is the leader of the free world, and therefore the world's interests are America's interests. As long as its leaders know this, it can't go wrong.

[James Colvent]

Edward Jones, why are you stll living in the past? Isn't Obama Black, who's voting for him right now? White People! Is Oprah, Micheal Jordan,Puffy, all the professional Black athletes and performers still complaining about how they are treated? They're all super rich prospering in the US because they're not lazy kicking back waiting for a handout. Move on, every culture has been enslaved in some point in history, you guys are the only ones still crying over it. There are black only grants and loans and affirmative action, all of these help you with nothing like that for whites in our own country. But we still go to school working 3 jobs and make something of ourselves without a handout. Success is there for ANYON who wats it here, if you have the work ethic to make it happen....

[James Colvent]

Also, how can you give credit for America's economy to slaves, who couldn't even read and write? I'm sorry, but picking cotton and tending to wealthy white planatation owners kitchens' is not building the country. The people in charge were white, and this country really took off on th backs of European Immigrants since they came here to work and follow their dreams, not sit back and wait for a handout...

[James Colvent]

One last thing, if indeed blacks had the potential to build a great country and economy like in America, then wouldn't we see great economies in Africa then too? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't many of the African countries toting the worst economies in the world? The most unstable, dangerous, disease-ridden, poorest countries in the world? It's not racism, it's just the facts. One should be able to tell the truth and not be considered racist.

[Craig]

The last people that should be fighting is America and Britain. We are too good of friends. God bless both countries!

[Hespog]

Never paying back? Remember lend-lease?

[Tiombe Jama]

The problem is White Supremacy. Due to White Supremacy/Nationalism, you are miseducated. You choose to continue to be miseducated, because now, with the internet, original documents and data are available. There were no people taken away from their own land, re-named, brutally beaten, tortured and killed for attempting to keep their culture. (Culture - a way of life sustains one's humanity.) This was done by the wonderful founding fathers of America - FROM YOUR VIEW. The food that half-Black Obama eats "don't fill my stomach." As an educated African American woman, I still - every single day - have to fight for respect - from the grocery store where I am disregarded by immigrants to the nail salon, etc. You don't walk in my shoes. A white woman is still going to be respected in the "white supremacist way." And yes, just like the Germans, Japanese, Indians and others, we as descendents of slaves deserve reparations. You benefited from your ancestors - they hired your grandfather, when they discriminated and would not hire mine. You benefited from that and moved forward. When they would not hire me - at the top of my class - but they hired others in my class - they and their children benefited. Every immigrant from Cambodians, Vietnamese, Spanish takes on the white supremacy mantle embedded in this country. If you annihilate the indigenous people of a country, and take their land, if you slaugher a hundred thousand Africans and make them work for free, and discriminate against the Chinese and abuse their labor, perhaps in your leisure you could come up with some inventions and accumulate some money off of economic abuse of oil and other stolen commodities of other countries. But, then you are too lazy to read about abusing the coffee crop in Ghana, diamonds in South Africa, installing the Shaw in Iran, setting up other regimes to destroy countries.
I think it is honest to talk about the wonder achievements of America. America did achieve some great things. But, it is dishonest not to study or know about the genocide of the many peoples that were perpetrated via the travels of the white founding fathers of this country. Do your research and then explain away the brutality that went into making this country rich - and still goes on. I have only just begun to speak.

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The World Without Us is a non-fiction book about what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared, written by American journalist Alan Weisman and published by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books.It is a book-length expansion of Weisman's own February 2005 Discover article "Earth Without People". Written largely as a thought experiment, it outlines, for example, how cities and houses would deteriorate, how long man-made artifacts would last, and how remaining lifeforms would evolve. Weisman concludes that residential neighborhoods would become forests within 500 years, and that radioactive waste, bronze statues, plastics, and Mount Rushmore would be among the longest lasting evidence of human presence on Earth.

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Well, first of all Americans are former Europeans, therefore US land was kind of gift to Europeans, when it was discovered.

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Without the U.S. "Globo-cop," rivals India and Pakistan might well find cause to unleash the dogs of war in South Asia - undoubtedly leading to history's first nuclear (weapons) exchange. Talk about Fourth of July fireworks . . .

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For all the worldwide whining and bellyaching about the United States, today - America's 230th birthday - provides an opportune time for them to consider for just a moment what the world might be like without good ol' Uncle Sam.