the flip side to sdb

There is a flip side to self-destructive behavior (SDB). This time from the perspective of international politics...

Sometimes when attempting to act in one's own best interest, one's own best interest is undermined.

For instance, I was just reading in the San Francisco Chronicle that the US as a destination for foreign travelers is dropping and, obviously, so is that share of money that they spent here. We are being hurt as a collective nation (the nation is really a bigger version of one's identity...it's the next level up if you will) as a result of our choices as a nation which were made in what was thought to improve our standing.

I think this result, the fact that foreigners essentially have a distaste for us, is normal. It is the equivalent of an obnoxious individual in a room full of people declaring in a slightly drunken stupor on his own self-glorified success, "I'm going to get first in the buffet line, eat what I want and when I am done all you other pimps can eat what's left over!".

Who would want to sit at this guy's table? You? Me? I'll think i'll pass...