[Dean's World] Dave Schuler: How We See Ourselves vs. How We're Seen

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Posted by Dave Schuler:
How We See Ourselves vs. How We're Seen
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1160325842.shtml


   Last week in response to [1]this observation from an overseas blogger:

     Fear and hysteria are the two words often mentioned in the wake of
     9/11. To this I would add âinsecurityâ.

   I [2]asked a question of my readers at [3]The Glittering Eye:

     Did you, personally, react with fear, hysteria, or even insecurity
     to the events of 9/11?

   By and large my few readers had similar reactions to mine and they
   weren't "fear and hysteria"

   The partial and distorted views of Americans held by people overseas,
   Europeans in particular, is a topic I've returned to occasionally at
   The Glittering Eye. And been mocked for by my European readers. I
   suspect we've all seen the many complaints that Americans are too
   provincial and don't know much about the rest of the world. I've lived
   and worked in Europe and my experience there was that the Europeans
   with whom I came into contact knew very little about the United
   States. In particular, I thought they had very little notion of the
   real wealth, size, and diversity of the country or that hard-to-define
   quality called "national character"

   Although this might have been more appropriate a month ago, I'd like
   to open my question up to the larger audience here at Dean's World:
   did you, personally, react with fear, hysteria, or insecurity to the
   events of 9/11?

References

   1. http://www.themoderatevoice.com/posts/1160044518.shtml
   2. http://theglitteringeye.com/?p=2382
   3. http://www.theglitteringeye.com/