Not everyone wants to live like Americans

"The entire view of the world that supported the markets' faith in globalization has melted down. …Led by the United States, the world's richest states have acted on the assumption that people everywhere want to live as they do. As a result, they failed to recognize the deadly mixture of emotions -- cultural resentment, the sense of injustice and a genuine rejection of Western modernity -- that lies behind the attacks on New York and Washington. …The ideal of a universal civilization is a recipe for unending conflict, and it is time it was given up."
--John Gray, quoted in The Economist, September 29, 2001