How to hate the government and love the people

There comes a point in every traveler’s journey when he or she has to make a distinction to keep going.

Before boarding a plane, it is necessary to part with your things—the distinction between the traveler and the souvenir. When climbing a mountain, it is necessary to let go of the camera—the distinction between getting a view and getting a shot. And after you start learning a foreign language, it is necessary to forget about ever sounding fluent—the distinction between communicating and connecting.

Here’s another distinction we all learn to live with: the difference between a country’s government and a country’s people.

That’s how people all around the world perceive America. In my travels, I have found that there is indeed a palpable force of resentment against the United States, which is felt to varying degrees by people in many places on Earth. But the term “Anti-Americanism” is not accurate.

Large groups of people resent the fact that America invaded Iraq without the permission of the UN Security Council. They resent the fact that America is the planet’s No. 1 polluter but still refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. And people really, really don’t like President Bush.

But what we in America often don’t realize—without traveling overseas that is—is that people in other countries, often those very people who harbor deep hatred for America’s foreign policy, love McDonald’s. They watch re-runs of “Growing Pains” and know the name of every Seaver. They would love to take a trip to America. And sometimes they will even show you extra hospitality simply because you’re from the country they think is coolest: America.

(For the purpose of this discussion, I’m excluding those individuals such as radical Islamic fundamentalist whose hate for America—based on ideological reasons—includes a hatred for its culture and people. However I believe this group of people, despite capturing a disproportionate amount of news coverage, represents a very small minority.)

So, can we (Americans or anyone talking about a country they don’t like) learn to love the people?

I’m certainly familiar with the politics-people split. There’s a lot of things in the People’s Republic of China that I’m not pleased with. To name a few: the government’s interpretation of “free” speech, the lack of real religious liberty and still not having Indian Jones in the theater! But the people—it took me a while to figure this out—they’re just like us (Americans, etc). There are good guys, bad guys and bad guys who are good sometimes and good guys who are bad sometimes—which includes me.

More than merely accepting people in China, I really love them and their culture. You’ve got to take a stroll along the street at night to appreciate Chinese people: old couples dancing on the sidewalk, young couples kissing on their bicycles. And you won’t see their crazy side come out until Chinese New Year when young and old alike turn out to transform the night sky into the world’s largest (and loudest) fireworks display, as if to proclaim, “We invented gun powder!”

It may seem strange with so many countries claiming to be representative democracies that we must face this fork in the road—the point where we allow our perception of politics and people to part ways. But I propose that it is the only way to understand the world; it is the only way to keep going.

The reason we tend to connect the government and the people in our minds is because regimes look for legitimacy through their people’s cultural heritage. Some governments are certainly worse than others (cough, Zimbabwe). They try to attach national pride to nationalism (two very different things). And they snatch up everything sacred to a society to decorate their unholy political pin-ups.

Of course the politics-people split is not even; it’s valuing human beings above their passports. In the words of one U2 song, it’s seeing “the world in green and blue,” instead of a patchwork of political colors. And there is at least some possibility that such a point of view is exactly what our countries, governments and politics are lacking.

Here are some examples that illustrate hating the government and loving the people:

You don’t have to like Mao to love Yao.

You don’t have to like a leader who has been around since the 50s to appreciate cars that have been around since the 50s.

You don’t have to agree with an anti-Semite to enjoy a good soccer game.

Finally, you don’t have to put up with a defeated leader in Zimbabwe who is acting like a child to buy a newspaper in Zimbabwe from a child.

Got any more examples?