It’s not the Yanks who are dumb

Neil Clark is a fierce critic of US foreign policy, but he detests the ignorant anti-Americanism of left-liberals

‘I am 25, a graduate who has travelled extensively after university and a Labour voter. To people of my type, across Europe and the English-speaking world, Americans are a laughing-stock, known mainly for their vacuous culture and profound ignorance. We all have a “dumb Yank” story on our travels. This is why Americans are so hated by us on the Left, however much we condemn the outrages.’ Such were the thoughts of Thomas Smith of Bristol, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph not long after the events of 11 September.

I am 35 — ten years older than Smith. I am also a graduate, and I, too, have travelled ‘extensively’ — to more than 30 countries at the latest count. I, too, consider myself to be ‘on the Left’, although, unlike Thomas Smith, I actually stopped voting Labour when, in 1995, it ditched Clause Four and thereby ceased to be a party of the Left. Why, then, when our backgrounds and viewpoints appear so similar, did I feel such anger and indignation on reading Smith’s letter?

It would be nice to think that Smith’s views are just the unrepresentative opinions of a rather arrogant and puffed-up young man. Yet sadly, he is probably right when he talks about how people of his ‘type’ see Americans.

Although Smith’s assertions, thankfully, did not go unchallenged by American readers of the Telegraph, one can only wonder what greater commotion would have been caused had our young Bristolian used the term ‘dumb’ to describe, for example, Nigerians or Pakistanis instead of Americans. If he had done so, he would probably have been visited by officers of the Commission for Racial Equality, and all prospects of a glittering postgraduate career would have been nipped in the bud.

The ‘Left’ of Thomas Smith, though, while preaching equality and brotherly love between all races, conveniently does allow for exceptions. All men are equal; all men, that is, except Americans, Serbs, white Africans and Protestants from Northern Ireland. Those unfortunate enough to be members of these groups can be freely called all the names under the sun without fear of opprobrium.

This explains how Polly Toynbee, the grande dame of political correctness, can get away with calling Serbs ‘dysfunctional’ and in ‘need of re-education’, and how left-liberal commentators can routinely label Ulster Protestants as ‘bigoted’ and ‘narrow-minded’ with impunity. In Zimbabwe, Mugabe can yell ‘Africa is for the Africans’ without a single letter of protest in the Guardian. Were a ‘right-wing’ European politician to make similar comments about Europe, indignant readers would be sending in their emails within seconds.

After the events of 11 September, it has been the Americans’ turn to be on the receiving end of the particularly nasty form of racism of the Left. Much of this nastiness is, I believe, due to an insidious form of left-wing snobbery based on a complete misconception of many aspects of American life and society.

A good example of this condescension is the British Left’s knee-jerk opposition to the death penalty. How can any country or its citizens be regarded as civilised as long as it maintains capital punishment? America still has capital punishment, ergo, America isn’t civilised. A correspondent to my local newspaper made this very point the day after the WTC bombings: George Bush had no right to talk about the attacks as constituting an ‘attack on civilisation’ while ‘black men waited on death row’. The concept of individual responsibility, and that those on death row might actually be guilty of the crimes they are charged with, does not occur to the bleeding-heart left-liberal conscience. The fact that there is not a single credible example of a person wrongfully executed in America under the modern code also, it seems, counts for little.

Linked to prejudice against the death penalty is the general misunderstanding about crime in the US, with the image persisting of a land where life is cheap and arguments routinely settled down the barrel of a shotgun. Violent crime is undeniably a problem in most American inner cities; yet, away from them, the US suffers from significantly less crime than the UK. One is now twice as likely to be robbed, assaulted or have a vehicle stolen in New Labour Britain than in the wicked ‘Wild West’. New York, under the ‘zero tolerance’ policies of Mayor Giuliani (loudly criticised at the time by those on the Left as ‘unworkable’), was transformed in a remarkably short time into a city relatively free of crime, aggressive begging and other undesirable activities. London, by contrast, under the aegis of leftist-liberals, has gone in completely the opposite direction. You are now more likely to be mugged, raped or murdered in Hyde Park than in Central Park — something that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago, and an unpalatable fact for apologists for modern Britain.

Then there is the ‘vacuous culture’ argument, so beloved by intellectual snobs of the Left when discussing America. True, much of contemporary US culture is ‘vacuous’, particularly the pap emanating from the Hollywood conveyor-belt. Yet American culture is not just the Californian motion-picture industry. I wonder if Thomas Smith has ever heard of, or indeed read, Ernest Hemingway, Thornton Wilder and Paul Bowles, three of the finest writers of the 20th century? Or, if he prefers more modern literature: Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut and Philip Roth? Have those who denigrate American culture ever seen a play by Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller, or listened to a symphony by Copland or Bernstein? The greatest film of the 20th century, Citizen Kane, was American, as was the greatest pop album, Pet Sounds. Any nation that gives the world Sergeant Bilko, Burt Bacharach and the Beach Boys can surely be forgiven the occasional Eminem and Jerry Lewis.

As in the case of crime rates, it ill behoves any citizen of these Ali G-infested islands to berate the US for their ‘vacuous culture’ when we boast some of the worst tabloid newspapers in the Western world, and our TV listings abound with soap operas, game shows and bone-headed fly-on-the-wall documentaries. It was Britain that exported The Weakest Link and Anne Robinson to America, and not vice versa.

Another popular left-wing gripe about America is, of course, that all Americans are money-obsessed and commercialism permeates all aspects of society. It is undeniably true that a particularly aggressive form of capitalism does operate in America, and few of us, of whatever political persuasion, find the spectacle of ambulance-chasing lawyers particularly edifying. However, this is only one half of the picture.

Strict competition laws ensure, as Janet Daley has pointed out in the Daily Telegraph on several occasions, that consumers are immeasurably better off in the US than in Britain. Despite the US’s considerably higher wage levels, it is hard, if not impossible, to think of any item which can be bought at a lower price in Britain. Not only do Americans pay lower prices; they also receive better service. Vivien Leigh, exiled to America in the 1940s, may have loathed Hollywood, yet was still taken aback by ‘the politeness of men in garages’. Sixty years on, little has changed. In Britain, by contrast, ripping off the consumer seems part of the fun for all concerned, from our privatised utility companies through to the plumber who charges £400 for a Christmas Eve call-out. And unlike in the US, service rarely comes with a willing smile; more often than not with a snarl and a grossly inflated bill.

Moving on to the dreary ‘Dumb Yanks’ jibe, I write as one who has taught both American and British students for more than ten years. While it is true that knowledge of European geography is not usually the American student’s strong point, once again, one can’t really press this too hard when only 8 per cent of our own schoolchildren have heard of Winston Churchill and 12 per cent believe Tony Blair to be a football player. And while we castigate Americans for their ignorance of Europe, how many Britons can name the capital of Nebraska, or know which states border Iowa?

All in all, unthinking attacks by the Left on Americans are not only nasty but they don’t add up. Does that mean, then, that we all have to love Uncle Sam? Not a bit of it. I have written thousands of words condemning US foreign policy, most of which were considered too strong to be published in mainstream publications. I have organised petitions for the indictment of Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright as war criminals for their role in the illegal bombing of Yugoslavia, and have taken part in vigils and demonstrations outside US embassies at home and abroad. I have resolutely opposed President Bush’s never-ending ‘war against terrorism’ since day one, and am appalled at the prospect of forthcoming US military strikes against Iraq.

Yet I have never personalised the strong feelings I have regarding US foreign policy into attacks on individual Americans or Americans in general. Refraining from doing so does not constitute a cop out or appeasement of the enemy. Slobodan Milosevic, a man who has more cause than most to feel bitter about Uncle Sam, shows that he understands this nuance perfectly when, after a long, arduous day at his US-financed show trial, he unwinds each evening with his collection of Hemingway’s works and his Frank Sinatra CDs. Similarly, no more scathing critiques of American society have been written than Brave New World and After Many a Summer, yet their author, Aldous Huxley, liked America and Americans so much that he spent the last 30 years of his life living in California. By the same token, there have been few more devastating critics of US foreign policy than Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal and Ramsey Clark, American citizens all.

It is important for all of us who share that distinguished triumvirate’s world view to continue to break bread with individual Americans, for it is not with individual Americans, or indeed with America in general, that our argument lies. If we do otherwise, and start to label whole nationalities as ‘dumb’ and ‘ignorant’, we are already one small step away from the undeniably racist mindset of those who perpetrated the atrocities in Manhattan 12 months ago. By all means refer to US foreign policy as ‘dumb’, Mr Smith, but please not its people.

Neil Clark is a tutor in history and politics at Oxford Tutorial College.

While his comments about American-bashing are pleasant to hear, he is still a leftist, and his thinking is flawed when he makes this statement:

It is important for all of us who share that distinguished triumvirate’s world view to continue to break bread with individual Americans, for it is not with individual Americans, or indeed with America in general, that our argument lies.

This is little more than the same liberal 'don't hold people responsible' attitude we see when liberals insist that groups have a right to supress individuals to maintain 'group identity.' When a liberal supports the Mugabe in Zimbabwe, they do it because they see him as a legitimate representative of the black race because of his anticapitalist views. They do not care that he slaughters blacks with as much gusto as he does whites; murder to maintain the cohesiveness of communist ideology in a group is considered justice by the left. It is the group that matters, not the countless individuals who are executed for dissenting with the herd. We see the same thing with the palestinians; murder of 'collaborators' is merely the lynching of the individual for the sake of the greater palestinian cause; suicide bombing is merely a group asserting their right to oppress people who are considered, whether they want to be or not, members of the sacred group. At least that is the leftist worldview.

Leftists are herd animals. They easily sacrifice their individual rights to the group's edicts. They do so because they no longer want to be responsible for their role in society or for their own acts within that society. They feel guilty if they prosper while others do not; they feel guilty and so compensate by blaming inequality on the group, demanding that the group take responsibility to feed those in need, instead of first trying to help the needy on their own. They enjoy the protection of the group, but take no individual responsibility to defend themselves or their neighbors. And if the group makes an error, or the group is forced to act in self defense and innocents are killed, the leftist is quick to say "I have nothing to do with it- my government did it." But they are still responsible because governments do act by the consent of the governed. We are always responsible when we choose personal safety over the freedom and responsibilities of keeping government in check and the risk of becoming a labeled dissenters. We are as responsible if we allow ourselves to be intimidated as we are when we vote freely, or choose not to vote at all. And if there is no good candidate, we are responsible for that, too. When there are none to take the lead, it is our responsibility to seek to fill the role.

The fact is, individual Americans are responsible for what the US government does. If it does good, it has done so because we have willingly authorized it to do so through our representative form of government. If it does bad, it does so because we have authorized it to do so through our participation, or lack thereof, in representative government. There are no excuses. We are free to leave if our hearts are burdened and we no longer want to bear responsibility for being citizens of this great country.

Many in the rest of the world as well as in America labor under the belief that the author espouses, that the government- particularly if it is American- is to blame and the blame should never fall on the individuals who tolerate their governments. That misguided belief is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Millions upon millions of Chinese, Cambodians, Iraqis, you name it, have submitted to being oppressed by the fears generated by but a few. There is no real barrier barring them from revolution and from establishing a truly reprisentative government, other than the unwillingness of individuals to face their fear and seek others of the same mind and challenge the status quo. Courage has a way of multiplying once a little of it is exposed. It won't be easy, but the lack of courage is ultimately the consent to be enslaved.

It is true that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." It is fear which must be overcome. The thugs can be toppled by good men and women once they become determined to defy fear.

The world's history is not decided by groups. Groups have no rights, groups do not think, groups are not responsible. Groups are only led by individuals, willingly... or by fear. Why so many people perfer to identify with groups, rather than with individuals, is baffling and a bane to liberty. The course of history is a series of individual acts and individual decisions not to act. Americans have impacted the world largely because we advance the cause of individual liberty tempered with responsibility. But there is no way to advance individual liberty without simultaneously weakening a groups' ability to oppress the individual. And we are supposed to feel guilty for setting people free, for offering people choices denied them by their leaders or societal traditions? They can always return to their former ways, if they choose to do so. What Europeans object to is that people may choose change, and when their neighbors and friends adopt American ideas, they feel alienated. They want to deny people these choices.

I AM responsible for what my country does; I am a willing participant in my government and my society, surrounded by many other willing participants, and we have no recourse but to own up our roles in history. The only legitimate way to cast aside personal responsibility for what our nation does in our name is to deny the use of our names by leaving and accepting citizenship in another country. This right is a right belonging to all voters. So I don't mind if a European blames me for being an American; I don't mind if you blame me for what my country is doing and is about to do; I am part of the political process. I am part of 'the system.' I am pleased and honored to bear the name 'American,' even if Europeans speak the name with a sneer.

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