"Why Do They Hate America?" It's Freudian!

[Annie]

Interesting piece, hat tip: http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/antiamericanism.html

This rather long, nicely written, often tongue firmly in cheek, article considers the psychological, economic, political, and cultural reasons that so many Europeans in particular and 'world citizens' in general have this weird need to put down Americans:

http://opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-77-2325.jsp

[...]
Since 9/11, America has been aware of and concerned about the amount of anti-Americanism inside and outside its borders. Some of this has been caricatured, some of it earnestly analysed. Interest goes right to the top. “Why do they hate us?” President George W Bush asked Congress two weeks after 9/11. His administration splashes out $68 million per annum on “Al-hurra”, an Arabic satellite station which aims to tell “the truth about the values of the policies of the United States” to middle eastern couch potatoes. It was Bush who hired the legendary Madison Avenue advertising guru Charlotte Beers to market his nation to the Muslim world. She quit after eighteen months.

Some of this is understandable. It’s also understandable that “Why do they hate us?” has limits. In a recent Newsweek article, Fareed Zakaria expressed concern that with his lofty second inaugural address, Bush had ripened the opportunity for America’s critics to charge his nation with hypocrisy for the cavernous gap between its high ideals and its not-so-pure actions. But when Bush declared “America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one,” he was also telling the world how (with some noteworthy exceptions) the charge of American hypocrisy might lose legitimacy. The speech combined time-honoured American idealism with a smidgen of “put up or shut up”. Two birds with one stone. “Will you give us a break?” the president was saying. “We’re doing our best here. Cut us some slack, why don’t you?”

Quite right. It would be futile for America to respond in a soul-searching manner to the trash talk of its detractors. Why? Because most of the time, it’s not America’s fault the world so condemns it. It’s not that America does everything right. America is imperfect, thank God. Its commitment to (and achievement of) imperfection is arguably its greatest feat. For this, we should love it. Criticism remains entirely valid. If America makes a bonehead move – something it does as well as most of us – we should jeer and blow raspberries. Though this is not what we do. The industry of anti-American sentiment is just that – an industry. It should not be mistaken for legitimate and considered concern. “I hate America” is the world’s default position. Knocking America is a form of displacement. It helps non-Americans avoid focusing on their own big problems. In fact, strip it of its lacy hosiery and the world’s relationship with America is disgustingly Freudian...

 

[onedomino]

Tripped over that article very early this morning. You were the one that turned me on to the Medienkritik blog. It is very good. I did not agree with all the points in Hilton's long article. But it was interesting reading. I did not catch the nationality of Hilton; German or French, I guess. Also noteworthy, but somewhat disjointed, is Hilton's 12.23.04 article on the US election: http://opendemocracy.net/debates/article-3-115-2282.jsp

The election transpired at a time when, as me and my colleagues put it, “the consequences and implications of US power are subject to intense and global arguments.” With about 30% of world economic output, more than half of all military expenditure, and a seemingly limitless cultural reach, America is the “universal country”, the “superduperpower”, the “colossal Empire”. The American president is ordained “the world’s most powerful man.”

The human race is infatuated with America. Some love it, some hate it, the majority appear to do both. Just how important is this age of American hegemony we cannot yet judge. History will make and remake its judgment and keep selling us its revisionist must-reads, but one thing I think we can say for certain: at the very least, the presidency of George W Bush has amplified the potency of global feeling towards America. Clinton felt our pain, but that’s not interesting. Bush is judged to either cause our pain or heal it, depending on your persuasion – and that is interesting.