Wasting time the other day watching youtube videos, but came across this interesting quote from Christopher Hitchens from 1984.  Link Here



The quote starts from mark 18:30
I've written it down below:

"I'll state my vision if it's of any help to anyone.  I wasn't living in America at the time, but I believe that the American left, the American radicals, the American liberals, many of them, in starting the civil rights movement for black Americans, in combating an unjust war in Indochina, and in beginning the emancipation of women, the way we think about sex, changed the way everyone thinks, and the way everyone lives, far beyond the borders of the United States. It was a tremendous time and the whole world is in debt to the American Left, I'd rather call it, for those three enterprises.  Now it's true that there all now in rather low water, those movements, but I see no reason to sneer at them now, or to forget the grand contribution they made, unsurpassed by any conservative rival."

An interesting assessment--from an Englishman no less.
It caught my attention because, living abroad in an expatriate community, I'm constantly taking flack for being an American, and for America being the home of everything repressive and backwards about the world.  Most of this is good natured ribbing, but I still wanted to point out that Christopher Hitchens is crediting America with starting all these progressive movements, which later spread to the rest of the world.