Posted on 09/13/2002 7:52:39 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
'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 London's Daily Telegraph not long after the events of September 11.
I am 35 – 10 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 Smith, I actually stopped voting Labour when, under Tony Blair, it 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 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. In Zimbabwe, Mugabe can yell "Africa is for the Africans" without a single letter of protest in the left-wing 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 September 11, 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 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 with which they are charged 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 Rudi 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.
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 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.
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.
If those of us who share that distinguished triumvirate's world view start to label whole nationalities as dumb and ignorant, we are already one small step away from the undeniably racist mind-set 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.
"The Atomic Bomb: designed and built by 'stupid', 'lazy' Americans...and tested in Japan."
I believe we still got more where that came from.
Stupid, vacuous and lazy...but eventually if you get us riled enough...
We kicked Brit butt once before I believe, then bailed them out. We can certainly demonstrate the "kick butt" part again, if they have forgotten.
--Boris
If "left" people begin to examine/judge issues on an individual basis, rather than a sweeping generalized "If it originates in the US, it must be bad", then this is great for these individuals and the rest of us.
Oh yes lets follow the brits "elite" about on holiday...and the elite of Europe... The same vacous pleasures of the same vacous culture...engaged in routinely by the so called elite... Perfume on pigs
In the words of that great American philosopher; Maxwell Smart":"And loving every minute of it"!
If these are the Americans this fellow admires, forgive me if I don't place him in the pro-American column.
Twice, Revolutionary War & War of 1812.
Even better, since the French were helping during the Revolutionary War, the Brits were partly beaten by the French. heh heh heh. That'll give'm gout.
Better than asking the French for help. Remember the word Frenchman is an oxymoron.
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