February 15, 2007
PLEASE, LORD, DON'T EVER LET THEM STOP HATING US:
Protector of the free world deserves better: Anti-Americanism has a long pedigree, but that only makes it more irrational (Janet Albrechtsen, February 14, 2007, The Australian)
[T]he problem with what Martin Amis calls the rodeo of anti-Americanism drawing crowds across the globe is that the antagonism is fuelled not just by what America does but also, in no small part, by what America is. It's here that rationality vanishes among even the most intelligent Westerners. British author Margaret Drabble summed it up thus: "My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me like a disease. It rises in my throat like acid reflux."Actually, it's more akin to reflex than reflux. And a new book on anti-Americanism in Europe offers an insight into the reflexive hatred of the US: a hatred that has travelled beyond its traditional home of European elites.
Andrei S. Markovits, author of Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America, is no neo-con Bush cheerleader. Markovits told The Australian he is a card-carrying progressive signing up to every seminal Left issue. But he cannot stomach the toxic anti-Americanism, a staple of his side of politics. [...]
Anti-Americanism has less to do with US politics and policies and more to do with what Markovits calls the "perfectly respectable human need to hate the big guy". Half a century ago, Hannah Arendt commented on the same psychology of mistrust aimed at the US. It was, she said, the inevitable plight of the big, rich guy to be alternately flattered and abused, remaining unpopular no matter how generous they were.
And so Norwegian Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun hated the US for being too big and too fast. Anti-Americanism has morphed into a desire to bring America to heel, something that coincides with the goal of Islamists.
Given that we're getting huger and they're all shrinking, bring the hate. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 15, 2007 5:10 PM
One hilarious, although at times tragic, aspect of anti-Americanism is that it almost never does any damage to America or its people.
Posted by: andrew at February 15, 2007 6:13 PMHmm, sounds like Europe = Redsawx Nation and US = Yankees.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at February 15, 2007 6:19 PMDoes anyone else want to give Margaret Drabble an industrial-sized glass of Mylanta?
Posted by: ratbert at February 15, 2007 6:29 PMAgree with your headline. Their hatred will ultimately destroy them. Confusion to our enemies, as someone keeps saying.
Posted by: jdkelly at February 15, 2007 7:58 PMConfusion to the enemy, to be sure, but also a great weakness.
Those who act out of blind reaction are setting themselves up to be manipulated, steered like radio-controled toys, actually. When the enemy responds irrationally, but predictably, to our actions, we have gained the initiative. We can now control the conflict: the battle is fought on our terms, on ground of our choosing.
This might be the key to our continuing success in gaming Boxer-Leninism in all its works. By defining themselves as not-America, and little more, they have become our playthings.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 15, 2007 8:48 PMDissent does not equal anti-american; to say it does is to borrow from a sinister playbook.
"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories."
There comes a time for many drug addicts when they can finally listen to the admonitions of everyone around them, and fully realize the folly of their ways. Hopefully, that kind of time will come when Americans will realize how much of a mistake it was to allow Bush to steal two presidential elections, and the necessity of purging the plutocrats from their stranglehold over our tax dollars and soldier's lives.
Posted by: NFB at February 16, 2007 1:50 AMThe belief that W is a tyrant is a sign of mental imbalance.
Posted by: oj at February 16, 2007 6:47 AMGeorge Bush is an evil fascist monster, but Saddam Hussein was a great guy who only wanted peace. No, I don't get it either.
On the plus side, you and NFB agree that Bush stole the 2000 election.
Posted by: Bryan at February 16, 2007 8:05 AMSteal elections? The miracle is that a Republican can win any election in an atmosphere of non-stop leftwing media propaganda, lies, spins, etc.
Posted by: erp at February 16, 2007 8:34 AMErp: yeah, those dang communists just won't stop buying media outlets. I wonder where they get all their money from?
Posted by: NFB at February 16, 2007 11:07 AMGet their money from? Your side owns everything. Dems are gazillionaires, to wit, Rockefeller, Kennedy, Heinz, Pelosi, Boxer, Feinstein, Howard Dean, Soros, many more too many to list.
You may not recognize media lies since that's all you've been feeding on.
Posted by: erp at February 16, 2007 3:46 PM