What are the reasons for many American's self loathing?

[1991A1]

I just don't understand the motivation for hating America. I look at being an American as one of my blessings.

How did we get to a place where people have made this country into the problem rather than the solution? I just can't get my head around it. It must be very deeply rooted in some psychological boogie man. What are your thoughts?

[Aaron]

[pop-psychology]It's projection. They know that they are worthless, potentially (or actually) violent parasites sucking at the public teat, so they just assume that everyone else must be the same. Especially those uneducated, unpredictable, dangerous rednecks like us and our high horses. [/pop-psychology]

Screw 'em, they've been indoctrinated by public education and academia to believe we're the problem and they drank down the self-hatred draught with abandon. It feels good to hate your country, because if you do, then everything and everyone around you is worthy of whatever you do to them.

[Scott Free]

May I suggest an essay of Ayn Rand's from her book, "The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution" (or its most recent publication as "Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution") named "The Age of Envy", where she gives the philosophical/psychological basis for the hatred that you describe that is most typically of the Left -- and in particular, the rabid, shrieking Left. You may not agree with her assessment but its worth a look. Here's a couple of excerpts:

Today, we live in the Age of Envy.

“Envy” is not the emotion I have in mind, but it is the clearest manifestation of an emotion that has remained nameless; it is the only element of a complex emotional sum that men have permitted themselves to identify.

Envy is regarded by most people as a petty, superficial emotion and, therefore, it serves as a semihuman cover for so inhuman an emotion that those who feel it seldom dare admit it even to themselves . . . . That emotion is: hatred of the good for being the good. (Emphasis mine.)

This hatred is not resentment against some prescribed view of the good with which one does not agree . . . . Hatred of the good for being the good means hatred of that which one regards as good by one’s own (conscious or subconscious) judgment. It means hatred of a person for possessing a value or virtue one regards as desirable.

If a child wants to get good grades in school, but is unable or unwilling to achieve them and begins to hate the children who do, that is hatred of the good. If a man regards intelligence as a value, but is troubled by self-doubt and begins to hate the men he judges to be intelligent, that is hatred of the good.

The nature of the particular values a man chooses to hold is not the primary factor in this issue (although irrational values may contribute a great deal to the formation of that emotion). The primary factor and distinguishing characteristic is an emotional mechanism set in reverse: a response of hatred, not toward human vices, but toward human virtues.

To be exact, the emotional mechanism is not set in reverse, but is set one way: its exponents do not experience love for evil men; their emotional range is limited to hatred or indifference. It is impossible to experience love, which is a response to values, when one’s automatized response to values is hatred.

...

Superficially, the motive of those who hate the good is taken to be envy. A dictionary definition of envy is: "1. a sense of discontent or jealousy with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc. 2. desire for an advantaged position possessed by another." (The Random House Dictionary, 1968.) The same dictionary adds the following elucidation: "To envy is to feel resentful because someone else possesses or has achieved what one wishes oneself to possess or to have achieved."

This covers a great many emotional responses, which come from different motives. In a certain sense, the second definition is the opposite of the first, and the more innocent of the two.

For example, if a poor man experiences a moment's envy of another man's wealth, the feeling may mean nothing more than a momentary concretization of his desire for wealth; the feeling is not directed against that particular rich person and is concerned with the wealth, not the person. The feeling, in effect, may amount to: "I wish I had an income or a house, or a car, or an overcoat) like his." The result of this feeling may be an added incentive for the man to improve his financial condition.

The feeling is less innocent, if it amounts to: "I want this man's car (or overcoat, or diamond shirt studs, or industrial establishment)." The result is a criminal.

But these are still human beings, in various stages of immorality, compared to the inhuman object whose feeling is: "I hate this man because he is wealthy and I am not."

Envy is part of this creature's feeling, but only the superficial, semirespectable part; it is the tip of an iceberg showing nothing worse than ice, but with the submerged part consisting of a compost of rotting living matter. The envy, in this case, is semirespectable because it seems to imply a desire for material possessions, which is a human being's desire. But, deep down, the creature has no such desire: it does not want to be rich, it wants the human being to be poor.

This is particularly clear in the much more virulent cases of hatred, masked as envy, for those who possess personal values or virtues: hatred of a man (or a woman) because he (or she) is beautiful or intelligent or successful or honest or happy. In these cases, the creature has no desire and makes no effort to improve its appearance, to develop or to use its intelligence, to struggle for success, to practice honesty, to be happy (nothing can make it happy). It knows that the disfigurement or the mental collapse or the failure or the immorality or the misery of its victim would not endow it with his or her value. It does not desire the value: it desires the value's destruction.

I submit that this is the psychological essence of the Leftists. It is obvious to anyone with a nose on their face that America is the most prosperous and most generous nation that has ever existed. Yet Leftists shriek with glee when the Trade Centers were hit because America -- somehow -- "deserved it".

Deserved it? Why?

For being "culturally arrogant" answers the Left. For thinking that we haughty Americans know what is best for everyone. To be insolent enough to believe that living by the principles of reason and individual rights and creating a civilization of material prosperity, skyscrapers and trips to the moon is better that a "civilization" of living in mud huts, unending petty tribal wars, and baying at the moon to beg for rain.

The Leftist mind hates achievement and hates values qua values. Period. They are completely shameless in their utter disconnect between reality and their own bizarre fantasies. Why else would they so enthusiastically embrace communism/socialism? There has never been a communist state that a) wasn't a dictatorship with the inevitable abrogation of its citizen's "human rights", b) that was prosperous in any sort of the word, and c) wasn't dependent upon the prosperity of non-communist states (i.e., the United States) to suckle off of, either directly or indirectly. That communism/socialism is a benefit to mankind in any way is a demonstrable falsehood yet the Left clings to this fantasy with the tenacity of a pitbull with lockjaw.

The cause for this "hatred of the good for being the good" is a flawed basis in philosophy, specifically, flawed metaphysics and (in particular) a flawed epistemology (a proper method for thinking). The destruction of latter, most especially, explains why the children being processed by the public school system come out with minds full of mush that are incapable of utilizing reason as a tool for cognition and yet who believe that "feeling" is a legitimate tool for understanding the world around them.

When millions of minds are systematically crippled over decades to embrace irrationalism -- and you couple that to the "one man, one vote" principle of our republic -- what else would you expect to happen, eventually?

[1991A1]

Thanks for the response guys.

My brother and I were discussing this subject last week, and I've ruminated upon it since then.
Scott, my thesis in an advanced placement class was on Ayn Rand and Rational Objectivism. I've read the essay and should go back and read her works again. I'm wondering where the irrationality interjected itself into people's idiom.

Aaron, I agree, but I'm striving to understand the root cause of that projection.

Why the self hate? My brother thinks that it is because of lefties inate sense that their facts are not facts at all and that they feel totally lost with no foundation. Hence, the anger and the need for a government savior.

[Factfind]

I believe that those who are America haters are the same left wing fringe element that have always been there. They cling to their positions that seek to reform or abolish the existing social order (traditional American values) in favor of a more equal outcome (sounds like..dear Leader Obama)

Unfortunately, they are more easily heard today because of media outlets. Their propensity for self hate is a danger since so many of them gravitate to academia and then end up spewing their Marxian class struggle theory to others as teachers and professors. I find these people intellectually lazy and morally corrupt.They would rather complain than seek a better life,or do the work inherent in that.

The problem is compounded by a tidal wave of illegal immigrants over the past 30 years who feel no personal or historical connection to the country.

We are in a fight for America's survival make no mistake about it.

[mekender]

in the 60's they bombed the capitol building, the pentagon and other places... in modern days, they run for president

[Aglifter]

I would think the cure would be an extended vacation in the "normal" parts of the ugly parts of the world -- heck, just live like a regular European, and realize how much lower their standard of life is, due to the tax burden. But some time spent in the rural Mexico, Belarus, or Cuba should certainly convince any rational person of the benefits of rule of law, and individual liberty... (Don't know about Cuba, personally, but the other two would certainly work...)

[FelixEstrella]

How did we get to a place where people have made this country into the problem rather than the solution? I just can't get my head around it. It must be very deeply rooted in some psychological boogie man. What are your thoughts?

Too much time, too much money, and not enough in the way of real problems. Parents more interested in offering their children more than they had, instead of raising them to be self-sufficient and self-reliant. Government that is involved in every aspect of life, allowing people to make irresponsible choices and expecting government to solve their problems.

All this sums up to: less focus on acting like adults and more focus on living like children.

Witness the surge in self-destructive and self-indulgent lifestyles and you begin to get an idea.

[308Mike]

All this sums up to: less focus on acting like adults and more focus on living like children.

Witness the surge in self-destructive and self-indulgent lifestyles and you begin to get an idea.

And with that also comes making your decisions based upon FEEEWINGS as opposed to rational thought and critical thinking/decision-making. They can't get over the fact that life isn't fair and feel it should be the government's job to make sure everybody has everything they need to enjoy life. They feel that evil doesn't operate without someone causing it, so as long as you don't make someone angry by giving them whatever they want, nothing will ever go wrong and everyone will be happy.

[The Quiet Man]

What are the reasons for many American's self loathing?

The quick simple answer is because they were taught to hate America. This has been building for generations...it didn't just happen overnight with the current generation of young folks. These seeds were planted many years ago and the trees are finally fully mature and are bearing a bumper crop of rotten fruit. And we, the American citizens, have actually paid for it.

The Marxists/Communists/Socialists knew that they could not bring America into their fold because it was contrary to who and what we are. Slowly over time they were able to influence and win over a small segment of our young people who were then kept in the teaching world. Grownups of earlier generations were much harder to influence, but kids were/are blank pages just waiting to be written upon. In the early years of this campaign the indoctrination had to be measured and subtle because it could be too easily spotted and stopped by parents. As years went by it could become a little more blatant because the kids this started with (who were now parents themselves) were used to hearing this stuff and it was no longer as shocking as before. Remember...this was done incrementally. Each group of kids were taught how unfair American society is...and has always been. America treated everybody badly...blacks, Indians, Mexicans, orientals, women...name your group. This stirred up racial and gender unrest which had the benefit of keeping attention focused away from what our children were being taught which was increasingly that America was an evil and amoral place and that we need to atone for our past behavior if we ever want to truly become great. Welcome the era of political correctness. This came up in the seventies or eighties (depending on where you were located) and was the real vehicle for change that the marxists needed to hasten our demise. And we, the American people, let it happen...we accepted it. Until we have what we have today...teachers and school administrations that no longer even bother to cover their actions. They are socialists and proud of it...more importantly, they have control of your children and you can do little about it. They have the full weight of government backing them up...they can teach your children anything they want and there ain't shit you can do about it. And today, our children have been taught that America is what is wrong with the world.

What is the endgame? I don't know, but I am sure I will see it in the span of my lifetime. How about the election of an unapologetic socialist as president of the United States for starters? If we could go back in time and transport Eugene McCarthy to the present day he would shake his head sadly and say "I told ya so".