USA running out of bogeymen...

[Gob]

Hugo Chavez is the latest outspoken critic of the US to leave the world stage. Is the era of the anti-American bogeymen at an end?

He floridly lambasted "imperial" American policies, compared George W Bush to Hitler and even warned that exporting Halloween to Latin America amounted to "terrorism".

But now Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - variously portrayed as a six-times elected champion of the people or a constitution-fiddling demagogue - is dead.

His is not the only voice vociferously opposing the US to have fallen silent.

Recent years have seen the most prominent critics of American power exit the spotlight.

Fidel Castro - who outlasted nine US presidents - relinquished his position as Cuba's president and Washington's irritant-in-chief in 2008.

Osama Bin Laden, arguably the the most potent US bogeyman of all, was killed by US forces.

Saddam Hussein was toppled. Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown. Kim Jong-il succumbed to old age.

Even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - whose suspected nuclear weapons programme strikes panic in Washington - is due to hand over power in 2013, as he is limited to two terms of office.

These men may have represented a wide range of political ideologies, from socialism to secular Arab nationalism to Islamic fundamentalism.

But all were, in their own ways, icons of a tendency commonly referred to as "anti-Americanism".

The label "anti-American", though, divides opinion.

President George W Bush - who famously referred to Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union speech - saw anti-Americanism as a visceral opposition to what America stands for. America's enemies "hate our freedoms", as he put it.

But Max Paul Friedman, history professor at American University, dismisses it as "a term that's been used to characterise almost any disagreement with US policy of the day".

America's bogeymen have tended to be cast as "not only undemocratic, but also fierce defenders of their own nationalist narratives", he says. At the same time, he notes the "anti-American" label was widely applied to liberal democracies such as France when they opposed the war in Iraq.

Where Chavez belonged on this spectrum was, of course, hotly debated.

Russell Berman of Stanford University, meanwhile, says it is possible to "distinguish between the visceral anti-Americanism of explicit stereotypes and criticism that may be legitimate".

He argues that in much of the Arab world a "combination of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism" is open to exploitation by populist leaders, and points to the killing of US Ambassador Christopher Stephens in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 as one tragic outcome.

It's not immediately clear where the next generation of bogeymen will come from to take Chavez's place alongside Kim Jong-un and whoever is elected to replace Ahmadinejad.

The Arab Spring has left few leaders with the popular authority to act like traditional demagogues.

Cuba's communist regime remains intact, but under the presidency of Fidel Castro's brother Raul - a dour figure less given to incendiary rhetoric, who has announced he will retire in 2018.

Latin America has plenty of leaders still prepared to challenge US interests - Bolivia's Evo Morales, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Ecuador's Rafael Correa, for instance.

But none display quite the pantomime flamboyance of Chavez, who once told a UN General Assembly that George Bush was "the devil himself" and that he had left a "smell of sulphur" in the Assembly chamber.

Even the low-level anti-Americanism detected by US leaders among opponents of the Iraq war in Western Europe - "old" Europe in Donald Rumsfeld's phrase - is in full retreat.

A Pew survey released in December 2012 found support for the US had soared in Europe following Barack Obama's election as president - even though a significant "values gap" remained over attitudes towards cultural and religious issues.

Bush's "cowboy demeanour" made it easier to meld distaste for American culture and society with opposition to US foreign policy, says Brendon O'Connor of the University of Sydney and author of The Rise of Anti-Americanism.

Oddly, the most recent international figure to have been accused of anti-Americanism is the South Korean pop star Psy, best known for his global hit Gangnam Style.

The rapper apologised after it emerged that in 2004 he had performed a song that described killing "Yankees" who had tortured Iraqi prisoners and killing their families "slowly and painfully".

This may have been going too far even for Hugo Chavez.

[rubato]

We still have Iran, N. Korea, Communist China, Lesser Albania and you. And Chavez will be replaced by someone of unknown loyalties.

We're the biggest baddest motherfuckers on the block and the weakest pussies who bring the least to the table will always try to score points by talking shit about us in front of people who are even more pathetic.

Makes no difference.

We kick ass.

yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

Dear Gob,

rubato is not a spokesman for the U.S.

yours truly,

313,914,039 other people

[Gob]

If I ever believed he was, I would cease communication with anyone and everyone from the wretched place.

[oldr_n_wsr]

If I ever believed he was, I would cease communication with anyone and everyone from the wretched place.

The USA is a very nice country with a lot of very nice people in it. Truly, I am hurt. Really.

[rubato]

The John Birch Society nearly disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet union but discovered that they could just transfer their fear and terror from the illusionary "Communists are Taking Over The World" locus to a new invention "The Environmentalists are the New Communists and Taking Over the World".

Funny little group.

yrs,
Rubato

[rubato]

Dear Gob,

rubato is not a spokesman for the U.S.

yours truly,

313,914,039 other people

Dear Joe Guy;

It is generally noted that the period from 1991 to the present is known as the "Pax Americana".

yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

Pax Americana[1][2][3] (Latin for "American Peace") is a term applied to the historical concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later the Western world resulting from the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States beginning around the start of the 20th century. Although the term finds its primary utility in the later half of the 20th century, it has been used in various places and eras, such as the post-Civil War era in North America[4] and globally during the time between the World Wars.[2]

1991?

[Gob]

If I ever believed he was, I would cease communication with anyone and everyone from the wretched place.

The USA is a very nice country with a lot of very nice people in it. Truly, I am hurt. Really.

You have no reason to be O-n-W, as I did not refer to the USA. I refered to the mythical place which rubato stands as a spokesperson for.

[dales]

CA?

A beautiful place.

Gob, you have besmirched the Great State of California.

rubato does NOT speak for all of us here.

[Joe Guy]

Dear Gob,

rubato is not a spokesman for the U.S.

yours truly,

313,914,039 other people

Dear Joe Guy;

It is generally noted that the period from 1991 to the present is known as the "Pax Americana".

Dear rubato,

Generally speaking, you've managed to throw a curve ball outside of the strike zone.

[oldr_n_wsr]

If I ever believed he was, I would cease communication with anyone and everyone from the wretched place.

The USA is a very nice country with a lot of very nice people in it. Truly, I am hurt. Really.

You have no reason to be O-n-W, as I did not refer to the USA. I refered to the mythical place which rubato stands as a spokesperson for.

Sorry, my bad reading. Sometimes I get confused.
Sorry again.
No worries mate. If you ever make it to the USA (and NY in particular) we are going to hook up and I'll show you the REAL people and the REAL USA.
You will like us, I am sure.

[rubato]

If I ever believed he was, I would cease communication with anyone and everyone from the wretched place.

The USA is a very nice country with a lot of very nice people in it. Truly, I am hurt. Really.

You have no reason to be O-n-W, as I did not refer to the USA. I refered to the mythical place which rubato stands as a spokesperson for.

You should visit here sometime. Many of our inhabitants will make you feel quite adequate by comparison. Some are even on this board.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

You should visit here sometime. Many of our inhabitants will make you feel quite adequate by comparison. Some are even on this board.

Yes, and one will make you feel quite superior by comparison...

The author of the quote above....

[Gob]

I'd like to visit the US, but, as I assume most here know, our major holidays are spent visiting my elderly mother (and my family and mates,) in the UK. I committed to visiting her every two years following my emigrating, and I have kept that promise.
Should I have the opportunity to visit the USA, I woudl definitely like to see California, I have discussed this with Jim and others off board. I wonder if rubato woudl meet with me? He wouldn't have to travel nor put himself out, just give me a venue and I'll happily make time to shake his hand.

[Crackpot]

Don't miss the Great Lakes when you stop over

[dales]

I wonder if rubato woudl meet with me? He wouldn't have to travel nor put himself out, just give me a venue and I'll happily make time to shake his hand.

rubato lives in one of the nicer areas of NorCal, there's the beach and the nearby redwoods.

Hell, there's even an old time steam train, but that's another story.

Lord Jim, Joe Guy, Andrew, Kristina (did I leave anyone out?) and myself can throw a giant beer bust at Big Basin and descend upon rubato's humble abode for a "chemical cocktail" party.

[Lord Jim]

I wonder if rubato woudl meet with me? He wouldn't have to travel nor put himself out, just give me a venue and I'll happily make time to shake his hand.

Good luck with that...

Some may recall that at the CSB a few years ago, (2006, 2007, somewhere in there) I posted that we were going to be spending a few days in Santa Cruz for the 4th of July Holiday, and I issued an invitation to rube to meet me for a couple of convivial potables at a bar of his choosing on the boardwalk, on my dime....

I suggested that he could respond either on board or by PM, and offered to tell him where we were staying so we could work out the details...

Imagine my surprise when he chose not to respond....

[Lord Jim]

Dale, as I recall, we also tried to put together a NorCal FtF several years ago at The Beach Chalet, and it looked like it was actually going to come off...

But then for one reason or another people bailed right before it was supposed to happen, (rube didn't respond to the invitation for that one either) and it didn't go down...

As I've talked about before, there are times that I wish I could go back to the days when I could just jump on a plane (or in the case of the Sacramento FtF, a train) and take off for a FtF like I did back in the halcyon days of the Cafe Darte...(Dorothy and I used to have a friendly competition going to see who could meet more "Darties" FtF...we'd post our scores...)

But also as I've said before, as much as I enjoyed that sort of autonomy, I wouldn't trade it for what I have now...

[Sean]

Some like to keep their online and real lives separate... no big deal. It is rude not to respond to an invitation though...