September 11, 2001. The anchor woman for a New York television news show walks through the streets of Lower Manhattan, white dust billowing around her. A woman runs up to her, in emotional agony and bewilderment. "Why do they hate us?" she asks.
Many people do hate America. In the Middle East in particular and the third world as a whole The Land of Freedom is a common figure of loathing, while in Europe, America is often held in contempt for the shallowness of its culture but envied for its economic success.
America, it seems, defines what it is to be civilised, rational, developed: indeed what it is to be human. American outlook defines what we mean by science, nature, technology, rights, democracy; indeed, modernity itself. Everyone else has to follow in American footsteps.
