S. companies, gain a better education abroad, and improve one's life. Even in China today, as a result of capitalist outreach, a new middle class has emerged. But whether Western values are 'better' or merely more dominant is questionable. Again, there was criticism of international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, for forcing nations to privatize and engage in economic reforms that were fundamentally Western in nature, not necessarily fundamentally better or keeping with the nation's interests and cultural orientation.
Western dominance has also brought rejection and resentment in many areas of the world, most notably the Islamic world that despises what it sees as the unhealthy secularism and decadence of the West. The attacks on the World Trade Towers, many political analysts believed, reflected years of frustration and a feeling of powerlessness in the face of Western cultural dominance....
America has been criticized for assuming that its values of 'freedom' and 'democracy' are superior to all other ways of life. Although the world sympathized with America's mourning over the 9/11 attacks, its single-minded determination to 'go it alone' in Iraq despite European reluctance caused a shift in the world power dynamic, a reluctance to support America at any cost, in all of its endeavors. The European Union and the European Economic Community stand as testimony to increasing strength of regional political and economic powers. Yet however deep the resentment of the U.S. And the desire to upset its status as superpower for all time, the current economic crisis that began in the American credit market acts as a reminder that the U.S., like it or not, cannot be ignored -- when America sneezes, economically, the world catches a recessionary cold, and American continues to speak softly and carry a big stick in much of its foreign policy.
