The “Not-So-Ugly” American
Those who demonize Americans (in keeping with the personification in Graham Greene’s “The Ugly American”) for the ills of the entire world tend to forget that US government policies do not accurately reflect either the character and/or wishes of the American public. US citizens tend to go along with the policies of their incumbent government even when they do not agree with them, the international perception responds by taking Americans to be either indifferent or insensitive to the problems of the world in pursuing policies which may not be good for the rest of the world. The disconnect between the average US citizen and international geo-politics is not because the ordinary American does not care, he simply knows very little of the world-at-large, an ignorance tailor-made for vested interest to exploit.
