Brian, I guess it is because the US has taken on the role.

The McKinley Doctrine was isolationist, and it took WWI and WWII to tune the USA's attention fully to the rest of the world.

Once it did, it began to lead the world, and in many admirable cases, helped avoid or mitigate disasters, both natural and man made.

One crux of the problem lies that in doing so, it also tried to export it's way of life and thinking and instill the USA as "the beacon of democracy". So, at least from that perspective, it is the USA that has created the role for itself.

That the rest of the world agrees or disagrees is not the issue. From a marketer's perspective, it is simply how the US has "positioned" itself.

I guess another is that, if you give out free fish, and are known for doing so, recipients come to depend on it, and there are those who will ask "why did I not get any fish?", or "why is my neighbour's fish larger than mine?"


If writing ever becomes work I think I'm going to have to stop