Ameriphobia

No, it's not how other countries hate us. It's how much we irrationally fear one another based on racial, cultural, social status, economic status. It's our differentness. Mostly our stark differences. We fear that which we do not understand. I'm not speaking comparatively. I just mean in the way in which we see ourselves devoid of the perceptions of other nations, peoples, extra-united states. They hate us from what I gather. We fear ourselves with creates a national fear of other nations who "surround" us.

Ameriphobia is a word... now. It's the internalized, US-centered, irrational fear of people among us who are too different from us. The 'us' is defined by the individual since like-minded individuals become the 'us'. Liberals fear conservatives and vice versa. Truly they both fear those who tread and linger in the purgatory of the undecided, unaffected middle.

Unfortunately, it's natural. What's more unfortunate is how unnaturally we have made Ameriphobic practices closer to being normative. It's our automatic reaction. It blinds us to the possibility of affecting the whole because all we see is the differentness.