Matthew Traucht

I hate Americans. I am a thirty year old man who was raised in a small nuclear family in a rural area of mid-western America. I was brought up to be generally patriotic or at least respectful of those who are, but never really took those lessons to heart. I cannot remember any time though that I have been outwardly un-patriotic. I have always found the American people to be an interesting group and I have long pursued studies in anthropology and philosophy in attempts toward the better understanding of those around me. I have thought of Americans as disgusting sometimes and beautiful at others. We are at different times as disturbing, heroic, contradictory, peculiar, and complex as any other culture I can think of.

Yet I have the great and alarming potential of becoming a terrorist. I am prone to persuasion by the racist ideals of those who would want to bring harm upon the people and systems of the United States of America. This is because there is in place a feeling of negative beliefs toward the United States. I am another of the reasons why the American public can no longer feel comfortable and safe following the attacks on our military and economic philosophies on September 11, 2001. The danger I pose though is not based upon my ill feelings about the government, the military, the economy, or the diplomatic relations of the USA, but rather is a direct result of my negative attitudes about the American people based upon my beliefs about them (us).

As many Americans were horrified to learn in September 2001 that some citizens of other countries were celebratory of the attacks upon our nation, it would be beneficial for Americans to develop a means by which another’s belief system might be measured. What tragedies could be predicted and prevented if only my attitude about the American people could be revealed before I strike? Perhaps a five point scale could be enlisted to evaluate my attitude and, ergo, classify the threat my attitude poses. Well, such an evaluation has in fact been formulated and such a classification system has in fact been imposed upon almost thirteen hundred young people all across the world. The results are presented by the researchers in their report titled “The Next Generation’s Image of Americans: Attitudes and Beliefs Held by Teen-Agers in Twelve Countries.” The authors indicate that a general negative feeling exists among the upcoming generation of the world’s people. Most alarmingly, that project warns that the threat of terrorist activities is growing and that we, the American People, are only feeding the fire that will eventually consume us. The terrorists that will threaten us will be exactly those teen-agers who responded negatively to the questionnaire, those who express recusant attitudes toward the values and the culture of the American people.

This test and evaluation was conducted in March of 2002 by Dr. Margaret H. DeFleur and Dr. Melvin L. DeFleur, professors in the College of Communication at Boston University. Using a technical method of analysis called a “Likert attitude scale,” the researchers were both surprised and not so surprised by their results. The survey samples 1,259 high school students in twelve countries including Mexico, China, Saudi-Arabia, Bahrain, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Dominican Republic, Pakistan, Nigeria, Italy, and Argentina. The Preliminary Research Report can be viewed as a PDF file at the Boston University’s website: http://www.bu.edu/news/releases/2002/defleur/report.pdf

In the classically anthropologic system of participation/observation, I was curious about what might happen if I took the same test. Presently, I take tests nearly every week as an undergraduate student; I generally score pretty well on most tests, especially those that do not evaluate my retention of algebra and statistics. This particular test of my attitude was a rating scale wherein I assigned a value from zero to five indicating my agreement or disagreement with twelve statements.

The questionnaire asked for my rating on such subjects as to whether or not Americans are violent, generous, and sexually immoral. I also rated whether or not Americans had strong family values, are altruistic or selfish, and whether or not we like to break the law. My score demonstrates that I, like the majority of the respondents in the study, have negative views of the American People.

One of the major themes of the report reads “Negative views and attitudes toward the people and policies of the United States, then, provide a necessary condition, a sub-stratum of support, for motivating young people to commit overt instances of terror.” If the response variable is negative attitudes, the authors of the report find that the explanatory variable is media influences- especially television and motion pictures.

How would you score on this test?

I scored as having a negative view of American people, their values, and their propensity toward violence. These results lead one to believe, based upon the arguments presented by the authors of “The Next Generation’s Image of Americans,” that I am- regardless of whether or not I come from Bahrain or Taiwan or Ohio- as prone to participation in overt terrorist activities as any of the other 1,259 subjects of this questionnaire.

It is not my case to argue with either the methods used nor the results uncovered by the Doctors DeFleur. From my reading, the report appears well-laid out, strongly supported by facts and figures, and the statistics therein provide the researchers with what appears to be a fine example of scientific hypothesis testing, data-gathering, and conclusion methodology.

I find within this study two interesting tangents that I wish to follow in the second installment of this two-part series. First, how might the conclusion of this test differ had the participants been of American nationality, culture, and attitude? Second, and interrelated with the first, if the consequences of the American media produce a negative effect in the minds and behaviors of those people observing us, what is the effect of those systems upon we who are participating with us?