Oh those pesky Americans
Imagine someone commenting on a philosophy blog, ‘Black people understand a good story and only get confused by the minutiae of history.’ Or for ‘black people’ substitute ‘Jews’ or ‘women’ or ‘foreigners.’ You’d blink, right? You’d be a little surprised, and a little repelled. But substitute ‘Americans’ – and apparently that’s no longer a gratuitous insult, it’s some kind of sophisticated bit of ‘irony.’
There’s this guy called Michael Reidy who comments regularly at Talking Philosophy, a blog run by the editors of The Philosophers’ Magazine; he seems very clever and well-informed, though often snide, but he also likes to amuse himself periodically with a random, magisterial announcement about the stupidity of Americans. That was the latest one – ‘Americans understand a good story and only get confused by the minutiae of history.’ It’s all the odder because it’s the last line of his comment and it has nothing to do with the rest.
What’s that about? Just the usual? I have American friends in the UK who are frequently driven to distraction by the breezy way people who would never disparage other groups will snicker at the stupidity, cluelessness, childishness and general hopelessness of ‘Americans.’ I suppose Michael Reidy is just one of those? It’s odd though – it just seems so…well, clueless and childish.
It is the privilege of the slave to think ill of his master, surely? I jest, naturally, but I think that some analogue of that response would serve as an ‘answer’ for most of those who harbour such views.
And then again, US public culture has only just given us Sarah Palin…
Considering what we in the UK have given the world of late – Big Brother and any other reality TV show you care to name, The Sun/Daily Mail/Daily Express, what is fast becoming an obesity epidemic and some of the worst (if not the worst – I haven’t checked) education in Europe you’d think maybe we’d be a little more polite about our American cousins. However, when you’ve had Bush running the show for 8 years and telling us what to do (which we of course obediently obey) you might understand a little bitterness now and again.
It’s that old chestnut: prejudice against the disadvantaged is bigotry, prejudice against the advantaged is a jolly good chuckle.
It’s the reason that ‘all men are bastards’ meets far fewer raised eyebrows (not to mention less righteous fury) than ‘all women are bitches’. It’s why, when an Indian kid at school once said to me after I’d cracked a joke ‘You’re pretty funny for a white guy’, I wasn’t outraged. And it’s why, all over the world, anti-Americanism is the most acceptable form of xenophobia.
America’s a big place. I think anti-Americans should be more explicit about the fact that they’re generally talking about white Americans who don’t live on one of the coasts.
But it wasn’t ‘US public culture’ that gave us Sarah Palin – it was John McCain’s advisors and McCain himself, not US public culture and certainly not ‘Americans’ in general. And I’m not sure Michael Reidy qualifies as one of the downtrodden.
I’m deeply bitter about Bush and the gulls who voted for him myself, but I still manage to hang on to the awareness that it wasn’t 100% of the populace who did vote for him.
Furthermore…it has a sinister edge, this kind of thing. The Nazis talked about ‘the Jews’ in much the same way – the Germans were the slaves and ‘the Jews’ were the masters, etc. State policy is one thing and populations are another. The fact that Bush fits Michael Reidy’s description doesn’t mean that all Americans do. Similarly, the fact that lots of people of any nationality fit Michael Reidy’s description also doesn’t mean that all Americans do.
I know this is all blindingly obvious, but that’s just it – Reidy is obviously clever, so the stupidity of these jibes is surprising to me.
Since it’s inception America has been as much myth as reality to the rest of the world, perhaps even to its own citizens. It was the youthful epitomy of vigour and vision, throwing off the dead hand of medievalism, or it was an upstart nation of simplistic vulgarians. It was the home of unprecedented generosity and hospitality, or it was a nightmare of uncontrolled greed. It was the last best hope of freedom, or it was a ruthless super-power crushing any who stood in its way.
Nobody ever felt that way about Austria or Paraguay or Sweden. The USA has always been a bellwether for much of the rest of the world and I guess many people feel the need to define it, pin it down and make it fit whatever they hope or fear for the future.
That’s probably inevitable, and not entirely due to current US global dominance. However, if the discussion is in a philosophical context, you do need a rap on the knuckles for slipping into that kind of wild generalisation which does not match the concrete reality.
(Graham, the reality show epidemic is mainly derived from Holland.)
Bull and Turkey
“A turkey is chatting with a bull.
“I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighs the turkey, “but I just haven’t got the energy.”
“Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?” replies the bull. “They’re packed with nutrients.” The turkey pecks at a lump of dung and finds that it actually gives him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reaches the second branch. Finally after a week, there he is proudly perched at the top of the tree. Unfortunately he is spotted by a farmer, who shoots him out of the tree.
Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.”
“Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit” Happy New Year to all at B&W.
“But it wasn’t ‘US public culture’ that gave us Sarah Palin”
Really? I can’t see it happening anywhere else. Then again I can’t see Obama happening anywhere else so… double edged sword.
Well, true – I took ‘gave us’ too literally, perhaps. I would agree that it is US public culture that made it seem sensible to try the Palin ploy, and made it somewhat surprising that it backfired so spectacularly. It is US public culture that made George W Bush’s success possible (and that made him what he is). I certainly agree that those facts are symptomatic of something very baffling and very disgusting.
But as you say…the sequel is also astonishing, and in a much better way.
I have perhaps foolish hopes that the sequel will help to forge a US public culture that will no longer make a Bush/Palin type seem like a canny political move. I have perhaps foolish hopes that intelligence and thoughtfulness will no longer be the kiss of death for a national politician and that stupidity, ignorance, obstinacy and cronyism will no longer be the short straight highway to power.
I think such hopes are justified because it wasn’t so long ago that George Bush would have had no more chance in America than he would in Europe.
Indeed up until 1945 or so it was the Americans who were electing great statesmen and the rest of the world who were falling for the nutters & demagogues. (Not that I’m equating Bush with Hitler, but you see my point.)
American politics has only really been so crazy since the 1960s. A lot of people would say it was Vietnam that made the left fear & dislike the right and vice versa.
I agree with O.B anti Americanism drives me nuts, I think that like smokers it is aceptable to be predjudiced against Americans. Maybe that will change when the U.S no longer has a white majority population?
Hopefully some of the idiotic anti-Americanism will die off in about three weeks time when a certain leading cause of anti-Americanism will be gone.
I sympathize with those who are furious with my country and its government(so am I). But the really annoying part about this is that it just plays into the hands of those Americans who think we should ignore foreign countries because they hate us anyway.
Also, there’s a weird tinge of classism to this: by “Americans” I suspect he means “trailer trash.” Though maybe I’m being uncharitable and wrong in my suspicion. But I have come across Europeans who will use it in that way…it’s very unfortunate.
But as the election campaign reminded us, there are many for whom, if you are not white, right-wing, and frankly, kinda dumb, you’re not a real American at all… So what’s a poor foreigner to do but take them at their own evaluation? Real Americans ARE the fat, racist f*ckwits we know and despise, apparently, because they say so.
Once again, just kidding folks, but hey, if you septics can’t figure it out, how can we?
if the colony would forget independence and such like illusions and return to good British values we could forgive and forget.
“return to good British values”
Blimey, your net name is that of a regicidal dictator. How contradictory of you, er…Lord Protector”!
Cromwell’s measures against Irish Catholics have been characterised by some historians as genocidal or near-genocidal, and in Ireland itself he is widely hated.