IP: A Taboo: American Anti-Americanism

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

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


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