Facebook's Foreign Disasters
Facebook's Foreign Disasters | by Eric Posner - Project Syndicate

                    
                    A long line of ugly Americans, mostly government officials, have believed that applying simple formulas based on idealized versions of US institutions could convert long-suffering places into Western-style consumer utopias. Today, the ugliest of all Americans is not a public official but a private citizen, Mark Zuckerberg.

                     CHICAGO – “The ugly American,” the title of a novel published in 1958 by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, entered the language to refer to boorish American officials abroad who sought to improve the lives of natives without taking the trouble to learn their language, culture, or needs. A long line of ugly Americans, mostly politicians and government officials from both parties, have believed that applying simple formulas based on idealized versions of US institutions – democracy, markets, and human rights – could convert long-suffering places like Afghanistan and Iraq into Western-style consumer utopias. Inevitably, these Americans caused more harm than good. 
                