December 5, 2003
A WELL DESERVED HATRED:
Anti-Americanism Is Older Than You May Think (Andrew Ferguson, Nov. 25, 2003, Bloomberg)
Two centuries ago, right-wing European intellectuals believed the U.S. embodied the threats that Enlightenment rationality posed to tradition, custom and hierarchical social arrangements based on class and wealth. A century later, European racial theorists, who had briefly extolled the U.S. as the last great hope of Aryans, turned on the new country for its heedless race mixing.Anti-Americanism has continued to evolve with the times, though its essence remains unchanged. Nowadays, for European thinkers of both right and left, the U.S. stands for modernity -- and especially for modernity's terrifying spawn, global capitalism. Indeed, [James] Ceaser points out, "Americanization'' is a near-perfect synonym for "globalization.''
Though he doesn't say so explicitly, Ceaser tries to understand anti-Americanism in order to refute it -- exposing its unsavory intellectual pedigree as a way of calling into question its legitimacy. But this may be harder than it looks.
For one thing, the original theorists of anti-Americanism, the racists and the royalists, were right: The influence of the U.S. was, by their lights, disastrous, even fatal, as it eventually helped undo what they most prized. Today's European intellectuals may likewise be correct to see in Americanization a threat to their own cultural status as well.
More important, as Ceaser himself notes, anti-Americanism has become so deep-rooted that it now resembles a religious faith -- too well-developed to be a mere prejudice but too reflexive and slippery to be a testable theory.
Watching the statue of Bush pulled down in London last week, perhaps even Ceaser would agree: Anti-Americanism is no longer a proposition that will be susceptible to reasoned debate.
That's the reason that the neo-isolationism of both Left and Right would not secure us from attacks by terrorists nor damp down the hatred of us around the globe--we are the End of History and McWorld has won/will win the Clash of Civilizations. If you believe in any of the various isms--communism, socialism, Islamicism, etc.--we are your doom. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2003 10:23 PM
When I read this article and the Martin Jacques article you posted yesterday I can't help but think of Virginia Postrel's observations of "dynamists" versus "stasists". Western Europeans by and large are stasists (as are Islamacists), they want stability above all and are willing to sacrifice freedom and the chance of a greater future for current certainty. They are the intellectual cousins of both Buchanan and Jeremy Rifkin who long for a past that wasn't as good as they remember and rail against a future that they or their favorite technocrats (or Imams) can't contol. Stasists argue desired results.
Americans tend to be "dynamists" in both cultural and economic matters, sometimes for ill but on balance for good. They will sacrifice stability because they are confident in the results of the collective decision making of the general populace. Free choices for free men and women. Dynamists argue over the parameters within which free choice will be allowed.
Especially in the current technological environment, dynamists have a huge edge because their free choices and their flexibility can so easily undo the stasists' expected results. (As Keynes discovered with the velocity of money).
My observation has been that dynamists tend to view stasists with a combination of pity and mild disdain. Stasists tend to view dynamists with hysterical rage. It's like slow-footed Henry Cooper fighting Mohammed Ali in his prime. He did all the right things but after round one he didn't land many punches and Ali whacked him around. Henry did knock Ali down, but eventually he got knocked out. He couldn't deal with the speed and power.
Neither can Europe and it frustrates them terribly. They won't leave the stage quietly but they can't do any real long-term damage that we can't undo.
Here in fly-over country the general opinion of Europe is best summed up by the rallying cry of Millwall, the London football club's supporters. "No one likes us, we don't care." And perhaps that, more than anything, is what they hate.
Posted by: Jeff Mann at December 6, 2003 12:52 AMWell, if there were a country out there that proved you wrong over and over, wouldn't you hate it too?
Posted by: Peter B at December 6, 2003 6:51 AMBuy USA!
Posted by: genecis at December 6, 2003 1:45 PM