Victor Davis Hanson: Why Do They Hate Us?

Since 1980, I have spent over six years in Korea, three years in Japan, four and one-half in The Netherlands & Belgium and am now in Israel. With the exception of Israel, I have found most people throughout the world love Americans, however: Europeans seem to marganilized into a sort of socialist people devoid of hope or salvation and they all seem to have "just enough" money, too much vacation time and no prospect of rising financially into afluence.

My experience is also that Japanese don't dislike Americans. I think that this fits in with that they aren't generally envious of us.

That isn't to say that everyone in Japan is happily cocooned in a second inward-looking Heian dream; indeed, I believe that many Japanese are interested in the wider world, and at least a portion feel some limitations within the confines of their social system.

Also, they're terrified that the hoi polloi in Europe, the common folk as it were, in their absorption and emulation of American culture and values, will demand the end of a class based society and will feel they're as good as those with titles and old money, new money, whatever. They see their culture and mores being swallowed up by the American colossus, and in some ways this is so, but more of a mingling. We try and bring out the best in our own citizens, and hopefully this will also translate abroad.

Europe where anti-Americanism is seen as the Trojan Horse that has the ability to undermine the unity of the West. Thus James Ceaser traces the philosophical assault on America as the crass soul-destroyer from Nietzsche to Heidegger, quoting Jean François Revel’s famous quip, “If you remove anti-Americanism nothing remains in French political thought today, either on the Left or Right.”
Anthony Daniels pursues that line in a more detailed analysis of the French, reminding us that we need not seek either deep explanations or concrete examples of their real grievance. It is simpler than all that: a once glorious culture has been saved by one deemed crass, and now finds its values steamrolled worldwide by its erstwhile liberator. And because America is both relatively self-absorbed and forgiving, the French simply go on hating America without repercussions, explaining why, for example, their complicity in the Rwandan holocaust draws no rebuke while America is blamed both for allowing and removing Milosevic.
In Britain and Germany the story is slightly different, if also similar in the shared fear of an all-oppressive and dominant American colossus. Both elite British Leftists and Tories, as Michael Mosbacher and Digby Anderson argue, deride American money-grubbing and hyper-individualism. The socialists think the United States is exploitive, the aristocrats find it in bad taste. Together they can focus their theoretical frustrations on us even as they grudgingly accept that their own country, to stay competitive and provide a decent living for its citizens, is becoming far more egalitarian, capitalistic, informal—and thus American—than ever before.

The Germans are again different. Expanding on Ceaser’s analysis, Michael Freund sees a once beaten country experiencing Schadenfreude, or amusement at our own present unpopularity. Whether that opportunism will continue with the withdrawal of American troops, and new responsibilities for a stagnant socialist economy, is another story.

Ping for your take.

I can not rule out that there are Germans who like the idea that America is unpopular. But most who despise America (and they always mean by that the countrys foreign policy) do that because of the "arrogance" how the US treats other nations. They see a lack of respect for other ways of life and other cultures, and I partially agree, especially when I read sentences saying that America is the best nation of the world. It reminds me of the misinterpretation of Deutschland, Deutschland über alles...

When I ask them what they think about the average American, those who have and who haven´t been there claim that Americans are plain stupid and misguided, but very friendly people with good hearts. While I for one can confirm the latter, I cannot say that Americans are more or less stupid than Germans - that´s what I add then.

Speaking from France, I have yet to read or hear accusations that the US "allowed" Milosevic, or that they should not have removed him. The only place where I heard negative comments about his removal is, well, right here on FR, by people sincerely thinking NATO should have sided with Milosevic against Bosnian and Kosovar Muslims.

As for VDH and his ilk (I mean political pundits and commentators on both sides of the Atlantic), I really think they live in a special bubble, feeding on each other's editorials and commentaries and books. And within this bubble, reality becomes extremely relative.

A few months ago, for example, VDH wrote a long piece explaining why France and Germany refused to go with the USA in Afghanistan and why they would never send troops to the country. Problem is, both countries had sent troops to Afghanistan from day one, and their contribution was (and still is) very easy to find by paying a visit to NATO or CENTCOM military websites.

Same thing with truly anti-American commentators and "experts" in Europe : why bother checking facts when you can just spin them ? Why bother checking what real people think when you can tell them WHAT to think and just mingle with your fellow political pundits ?

thanks for the article and synopsis. this article, however, is far from my perception of reality. i have traveled around the world and not in elite circles. it is true that in portions of western europe we are viewed as being obnoxious because of our lack of global etiquette as the article puts it. yet this same lack of global etiquette is perfectly acceptable in much of italy, spain and eastern europe. there clearly is envy in some areas, but curiosity in still more. while not prevalent, the business veneer of china asks a lot of questions about who we are, how we live and what we value. they are like sponges, wanting ever more information and seem to respect us.

in fact, i would agree with the overall premise that americans are not liked. rather, in a general sense, beneath the powers of socialist elites that run some of these socialist countries and multinational businesses, we are respected.

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