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List of Chapters | Main Menu | Contact | About Futurepower ® The average American cannot be held responsible for the violence of the U.S. government. Americans have very little understanding of the secret violent activities of their government. Many of the activities are relatively secret because huge amounts of taxpayer money are spent to keep them secret. The public activities of the U.S. defense department are not reported accurately either, partly because weapons manufacturers also own TV stations and other news media companies. Americans generally have only one or two weeks of vacation each year. They work an average of about 44 hours per week. They often have long drives to and from work that add an extra hour or more to their workday. They simply don’t have time to understand complicated, misleading situations. It is often said that there is now a global economy. However, fewer than 1% of the people participate directly in that commerce. Most people in the U.S. have very little idea of what happens in other countries. In the past I have worked as a volunteer teaching English to educated foreigners. I met an Iranian woman who had come to the U.S. for the first time to marry an Iranian man. She and I and another American volunteer teacher were talking one day, and the other teacher asked if they had driver’s licenses in Iran. The other volunteer teacher had no idea that Tehran, Iran is a city of perhaps 8,000,000 people. A Saudi friend in Oregon, U.S.A., told me that there was a woman who worked in his favorite restaurant who was attracted to him. He is very sensitive about the ignorance of his country in the U.S., so he explained to her that Saudi Arabia is in Asia, near the northeastern tip of Africa. After they talked more, it became apparent that she did not know the location of Africa. He said, “It is painful to me when people have never heard of my country. But this woman didn’t know the location of an entire continent!” (I am quoting this, not perfectly, but as I remember it.) In situations like this, where there is clearly very, very little understanding, the people of the U.S. cannot be said to have agreed to the violence, or to the activities of their government. List of Chapters | Main Menu | Contact | About Futurepower ® | Go to top Futurepower
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