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IP: A Taboo: American Anti-Americanism
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 03:56:25 -0500
I found this an eye opening note djf From: "victor fic" <vfic () hotmail com> To: fukuzawa () ucsd edu, vfic () hotmail com Dear Fukuzawans: I apologize for my clumsiness. I sent a version of this post earlier that leaves out a crucial last point. Please respond to this revised version. Thank you and sumimasen. Tom Flanigan's opinion on American lawyers siding with Japan interests me because for several years now, I have been collecting evidence on what I call the phenomenon of American anti-Americanism (readers should note that I am not an American). By this phrase, I mean the propensity of the American elite to criticize or even bash their country, its foreign policy means and ends, and its historical figures with an alacrity that to me suggests self-hatred. During our December discussion of Pearl Harbor commemorations, I gave specific examples of conversations and debates with Americans in Japan who had laughed at, sarcastically refered to, or cynically diminished the suffering of Americans at Pearl and after. I received some posts encouraging me to add additional thoughts, and so here they are, prompted by Tom. There is so much more evidence that I could cite; certainly, I will oblige those who write to me publicly or privately. I have long suspected that the American intellectual elite prides itself on exploding taboos in American society that favor the establishment -- but these elites have their own taboos. It is Europe envy, which is an attempt to seem sophisticated, and to a lesser extent it is Japan envy, a related attempt to seem liberal minded. My sense is that many American elites do not want to discuss the possibility that they feel inferior to European intellectuals. The evidence includes the obligatory Grand Tour of the Continent after graduation, and the worship of leftist European intellectuals after the war. I must add as well the remarkable stoicism that the American elite show in the face of European exploitation of US diplomacy: the "allies" have yet to pay their WW 1 debts, the American muted reaction to the calculated European failure in Bosnia, the bizarre notion that the Europeans are more far sighted, mature or wordly in their diplomacy. (I am proudly half European and I know something about the Old Continent's political history. I argue that Europea's diplomacy can be summarize thusly: Europe pisses its trousers, calls the US and says, "what are you planning to do about this", and then complains about American ignorance and domination). Then we must add the abuse and insults that Americans in Europe experience personally. One American girl in Belgium was almost raped and feared she had aids because she bit the hand of the rapist, who then bled into her mouth. Her host dad called her an "American bitch" when she used the family phone allegedly for too long when calling her mum, even though she was using her own calling card. Whenever I was mistaken for an American in Europe, I was surprised by the abuse directed my way -- even in brotherly Britain. Several American friends, pro-American Europeans and I have often commented that there is a level of crass, ugly anti-Americanism in Europe that would be condemned if it happend in America, directed at Europeans. One German man who knew that I am a Canadian told me in Tokyo that he was once in a bar in Belgium that refused to even serve Americans. He had studied at Stanford, and I called him a hypocrite for defending a we vs. them mentality, and a poor student who had failed to learn what is best about America; he had only come to scalp it for a degree. He was embarassed, and said to me that as a Canadian, he assumed I would enjoy his anecdote, and I am different from the Canadians he knew in Europe who hated America, and he just assumed, you know, that Europeans and Canadians sort of team up ... Intellectually, most Europeans I encounter are ardent about depicting the US as a failed society, a freak show, a wild frontier, a joke. European journalism on America is often incompetent. One French reporter I knew in Seoul kept insisting that Americans are sexual prudes. Also, because Lewinskygate made the cover of Time and Newsweek so often, this shows how mentally shallow Americans are. I had to tell him that most Americans don't care about the sex, but do care about the lying, and that in the 1960's, America underwent a sexual revolution. And most want the whole issue to just go away. I noted as a free lancer with CBS that the American media is often out of touch with the average American's wishes, and that 10 editors at Time, not the public, put the scandal on the cover. But the feeling I got from him was that he feels he -- and other French people -- understand America better than the Americans do, never mind the umpteen pro-Clinton polls, or the anti-media sentiment that has built up since Vietnam and Watergate. I also recall that in 1996, a British newspaper excerpted in the Japan Times managed to say that life in America is an unmitigated "hell" for millions. It gave little evidence for this hyperbole, and there was no attempt to view the stats showing ever growing optimism and prosperity. Whenever a person gets executed in some state, the European media covers it emotionally, high lighting the notion of barbarism. These reporters never seem to note that some states have never executed, some do not enforce the law, some only do it here and there. It is "America" that gets indicted. When that jet caused the gondola to crash in Aviano, the Italian press howled about the Rambo mentality of American society. Little attention was paid to the tradition of law and to how lawyers dominate society, to American diplomats showing sympathy and apology, to the criticism of the pilots in the US press and society. Nor was there any hint of irony given Italy's tradition of lawless and bloody rule breaking. No mention either of its own macho mentality that includes facists and the sexual denigration of women in ways that Americans would never tolerate. It is interesting to me how the American elite never really analyzes the phenomenon of European anti-Americanism: its roots, manifestationss, American errors, European failings, and the implications intellectually, personally and diplomatically. They should admit that they admire and envy British accents, and are prone to believing any nonsense expressed with such an accent, and that they feel better about themselves if a Brit. patronizingly tells them that they are ok (Canadians are even worse accent worshipers)! I once read a hugely indicative commentary in 1993 or so by Jim Hoagland in the Washington Post. He said that some French intellectual or whatever had called him to criticize the US's Bosnia policy. During the conversation, the term "American civilization" came up because I think the French guy billed himself as an expert thereof. Hoagland managed the self-hating statement, it is nice to know that they (the French) think we have a civilization. Any how, it seems to this highly sensitive writer, who does not even insult people who deserve it, that the American elite tries to appear international, sophisticated and cosmopolitan by being pro-European; this entails turning against Americans who are parochial. America's elites dislike steel workers because they cannot tell Brie from Camembert. And even if they could, they would still eat pizza cheese. Siding with Japan not only permits the elite to look wordly, but also liberal minded and anti-racist. Part of this entails knocking down American icons. I once lived in Chiba with an American housemate who was a liberal. I raised Lee Iacoca with him, and my friend immediately started to mock Iacoca's tv add in which he solicited donations to refurbish the Statue of Liberty. My friend went on to insult Iacoca. I wonder if the Japanese viewer would insult Morita if he did an ad calling for money to save Kinkakuji? Another American liberal friend in Tokyo was full of double standards and contradictions: a) if the Americans accuse the Japanese of protectionism, or of deceit and the exploitation of good will, the Americans are whining because, hey, business is war. But if there was evidence that the US was making excuses for poor performance, or if one proposed that the US mimick Japan and engage in knavery, that is immoral and dishonorable rather than good strategy. b) if the Japanese are playing rough while claiming to be an ally and friend, well, friendship does not mean being a wimp. That is life, grow up! But if the Americans play rough, that is bullying and Japan bashing. c) if the Japanese claim "culture" when they want to avoid modern standards, and then claim "democracy" when they want to be treated as an equal, we must recall that Japan is both traditional and modern. But an American could never be anti-Japanese on the grounds that American culture has usually been white. The US cannot have two standards, Japan can. d) if Japan is accused of racism, recall that there is racism in America too. But on crime, one must admit that it exits in Japan, but is less common and less extreme. Plus, social attitudes are different. How interesting that on crime, my American friend could note context and degree, but on race he insisted, well, it is everywhere. e) the Japanes can crow about their economic power during the bubble years, even issuing anti-black insults and statements about the power of a racially pure society. If the Americans feel put down, that is tough. The US must realize that the Japanese have pride and the US should not beg for crumbs at the table. But what if the US is up, and Clinton and Rubin are self-congratulatory and criticize Japan far more mildy than the Japanese did the US? This is triumphalism, provocative, excessive. Boy, the Japanese won't forget these slights because they are a really sensitive people and they will even the score one day. f) on the war, my American elite friends would never make excuses for Germany, such as the poverty of the Weimar Republic; the vindictiveness of the French; the threat of Bolshevism; the pro-Hitler views of English royals, Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford and others; the legitimacy of anti-semitism in most European countries etc. But these elites make alibis for Japan: the admitedly sorry history of anti-Japanese racism in the US; the oil and iron embargo; the scramble for Asian colonies, etc. Defending Germany is taboo, but seeing the Japanese point of view is a sign of open-mindedness even though the Japanese rallying cry for the war was, kill all, burn all, steal all. The common ideological thread in all of the above I term an attempt to "delegitimize the American experience." These self-bashing elites want to promote the idea that the American experience or position is somehow less valid intellectually, or less emotionally appealing, than the experience of the Other. Victor Fic Freelance broadcaster and writer Seoul ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
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- IP: A Taboo: American Anti-Americanism Dave Farber (Jan 24)