Jean-François Revel, Anti-Americanism (2003), p. 35
“

America is the object of their loathing because, for a half-century or more, she has been the most prosperous and creative capitalist society on earth. Ultimately it is liberal democracy - or quite simply liberty itself - that they are eager to destroy, even though they are among its foremost beneficiaries, being free to travel anywhere, anytime in order to hatch their plots. If their diktats were carried out, if frontier barriers were reestablished everywhere, with passports and visas even for tourists, there could have been no Seattle and no Goteborg.

— Jean-François Revel on Anti-Americanism

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "America is the object of their loathing because, for a half-century or more, she has been the most prosperous and creative capitalist society on earth. Ultimately it is liberal democracy - or quite simply liberty itself - that they are eager to destroy, even though they are among its foremost beneficiaries, being free to travel anywhere, anytime in order to hatch their plots. If their diktats were carried out, if frontier barriers were reestablished everywhere, with passports and visas even for tourists, there could have been no Seattle and no Goteborg." in the context of "Jean-François Revel, Anti-Americanism (2003), p. 35" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Anti-Americanism" (Quotes, R) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jean-François Revel

About Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel (19 January 1924 – 30 April 2006) was a French philosopher.