I have long wondered whether anti-Americanism can be regarded as the last acceptable form of racism among our chattering classes. Of course, “racism” might be stretching things a bit far but when it comes to reflexive bigotry, anti-Americanism fills the space once reserved for non-whites, Jews, Catholics, dissenters, atheists and others. Of course anti-Semitism is still around these days, as many bloggers have sadly had cause to state.
Michael Gove in the Times on Wednesday says the toughest challenge of Tony Blair’s rule would be to challenge and face down the anti-Americanism of the Left.
Because the Times’ website archive is a paid-for one, I will quote one of his most telling paragraphs here in full:
Why then do the myths of America the Hateful take such powerful hold? Because anti-Americanism provides a useful emotional function which goes beyond logic and reaches deep into the darker recesses of the European soul. In centuries past those on the Left who wished to personalise their hatred of capitalism, who sought to make it emotionally resonant by fastening an envious political passion on to a blameless scapegoat people, embraced anti-Semitism. It was the socialism of fools. Which is what anti-Americanism is now.
Gove makes a number of excellent points, although I would add that hatred of the U.S. is sadly not a monopoly of socialists, since there have sometimes been elements of knee-jerk dislike of Uncle Sam from the political Right. There is a generation of conservatives (either of the lower or upper case C variety), mostly in their middle age, who dislike America for its post-Englightenment secularism, entrepreneurial gusto, popular culture and challenge to the old British Empire. But in the main these days hatred of America is a left-wing phenomenon.
I am not sure how to attack this prejudice. But for my part I tend to adopt a deliberately reflexive support for the U.S. in most things, even to the point of giving the U.S. the benefit of the doubt in cases where a strictly dispassionate person might not. This can take trivial forms. I make a point of marking the Fourth of July, proudly tell my friends that I have American relatives serving in the U.S. Air Force, and will often stick up for George Bush in pub chats about the world at the slightest opportunity. (I once caused a lady at a dinner party to go very red in the face by saying how pleased I was that Dubya had stiffed the Kyoto Treaty).
The America has a lot of noisy enemies. No harm in making some noise on its behalf. And may God rot Harold Pinter and other opponents of Jefferson’s Republic.
Anti-Americanism, yes. And the prejudice – in the United Kingdom at any rate – against users of received pronounciation. Those stuck with a posh accent will know what I mean!
My wife is American so I get the best of both worlds…
But Jonathan, isn’t the problem with reflexive anti-anti-americanism that plenty of the foreign policy stuff that the U.S. does IS distinctly dubious from a libertarian perspective? If we’re not careful we’ll end up like Zionists who back anything Israel does (even though they may not agree with it) as a reaction to the fact that everybody else spends all their time slagging Israel off (and I’m speaking as a Zionist!).
Anti-Americanism isn’t the only “acceptable form of racism” among the Left. The widely-held view that 3rd world development is undesirable and that the little brown people of the world should do as the white European master tells them (as when buying air traffic control systems or weapons, for example) is a modern leftist-environmentalist position.
Anti-Americanism is a conflation of state and society. As an American, the United States means something quite distinct from America to me. I loathe one, but am quite fond of the other.
Very interesting comparison of Anti-Americanism to Anti-Semitism. That one comment has certainly given me a lot to think about. I never considered the underlying reasons for the two sentiments to be one and the same, but it makes sense now that I’ve heard it.
Anti-americanism and anti-semitism are manifestations of the same thing: a fundamental hatred of success and morality.
From an isolationist libertarian perspective, a lot of what the US does *is* dubious. However, such a perspective is false.
I agree that backing something Israel does that one thinks wrong would be a mistake. However, is it not possible the people you (cydonia) consider to consistently make this mistake in fact think Israel to be in the right on (nearly) every substantive issue?
I’ve read and heard a lot lately about anti-Americanism in Canada but I can’t say that I’ve encountered it much in my travels there. I do run across quite a bit of anti-Detroitism in Toronto and I enjoy every minute of it.
Re: Kyoto. I know you know this already, but, the Senate tanked Kyoto in 95 or 97 unanimously. Per the Constitution, all treaties must be approved by the Senate. He just made sure it stayed dead.
It’s those checks & balances again.
I made the point some time ago that anti-Americanism is akin to racism — on http://whatareleftists.blogspot.com
All people think best of their own group so do not mistake dislike of Americans for their difference — akin to how the English dislike the French or laugh at the Scots — for the real venom that Leftists have for America.
I suggest that the reason America is hated so much my the academic left is because, unlike the American “enlightenment” ideal of individual life , liberty, property and the pursuit of ones own happiness, the left naturally ally themselves with collectivist ideology which subordinates the individual to their “class”, “race”, “culture”, “state” or “god” etc.
Shockingly, the postmodernist academic left call their philosophy a “morality of love”!