Do They Hate Us?

We're in Vienna now.

Saw scholar Andrei Markovitz talk at Webster University's campus here on the phenomonon of anti-Americanism. It was the most intelligent and informed defense yet of the idea that the Europeans' hate us today for who we are (and not simply for what we do.) This is clear, he claims, because they hate is in just the same ways they hated us 50 and even 100 years ago, i.e. long before America became "Mr. Big" in world affairs.

Very interesting, entertaining talk, and just plain wrong. Depressingly wrong. I still don't get the Amis' obsession with so-called anti-Americanism today.

When I lived in Berlin in the '90's someone told me a saying. The Germans are desperate to know if you love them. The French could care less. The Americans just assume everyone loves them.

Well, I guess we're seeing the cost of a love spurned. Now Americans are convinced that "everyone hates us." And we're sure too that it's not for any strange, brutal, thoughtless acts that we are in the process of committing. Noooooo, they hate us cause they.....well, just cause they hate us.

If you want to believe this, evidence is all around you in beautiful, creepy Vienna. Yesterday the streets were full of young people marching against the visiting American President. The weekly news-magazine Profil had a cover photo of Bush with a scrunched up face, and the headline was something like "the crazy world of George Bush." At the Praterstern train stop someone drew a Hitler moustache on the picture of Bush blown up to advertise this issue of Profil. Once you saw the Hitler moustache, you realized it was superflous: Bush already looks like AH in that picture.

Today Nicole and I were walking through the old city, and the America vs. Ghana world cup game was being televised to people sitting or standing around at a sidewalk cafe. Ghana scored it's second goal just as we passed, and the crowd - it seemed like the entire crowd, but who could tell - cheered. This was a pretty sophisticated looking crowd too. I turned to Nicole. Did I miss something in my reading? Was it the Ghanians who sent care packages to the Austrians when they were starving after World War II? Did Ghana play some vital role for 40 years in protecting Austria from a Soviet invasion? Did Ghana invent apple strudel and generously donate it to Austrian national culture free of charge? (Ok, America didn't do that either, but I was getting rollling and Nicole was laughing at my perfect-pitch imitation of an indignant American tourist in Europe.)

I admit it. The Austrians (and the Germans for that matter) go overboard in their animosity toward things American. They have deep-seated, silly prejudices and misconceptions about the USA. On the topic of American culture, they annoy me. Big time.

But: Have you ever heard an Austrian or a German talking about France, Italy, Poland, or Switzerland? You get an abundance of silliness there too. Seems to me that the Europeans more or less all have a pronounced tendency to make incredibly bogus generalizations about each other. They do it with such an air of authority and heartfelt earnestness that it sounds like conviction. Mostly it's just talk.

But how can we possibly argue seriously that they "hate" America? Isn't it enought that the Europeans buy our products, learn our language, visit our country, mimic our customs, watch our movies, listen to our music, obsess about our stars, our politicians, and our pets. They're even into Paris Hilton, for god's sake! Now they read our high-fallutin'ist novelists too. Right now 3 out of 10 novels on the Austrian bestseller lists are Americans. Paul Auster is a household name all across Western Europe. Philip Roth is treated as a demigod. The most widely respected choreographer in Europe is an American. The leading theater director. One of the leading opera directors. Many of the major classical singers are Americans. In the past 10 years, even American conductors have had a breakthrough in Europe -- and they're still mostly not accepted in America as legitimate!

In German and Austrian academia, it's American scholars who mostly set the standard. Look who is getting read in university classes - regardless of the discipline. Even in German history....even in German literature American authors are treated as authorities. Hell, the Europeans even invite American academics to come speak to them about their own anti-Americanism! This is a pretty puny form of hatred?

And how can "anti-Americanism" be worth taking seriously when there are no consequences? A year ago, people were saying that anti-American sentiment had destroyed international cooperation. But this is clearly bullshit: it turns out that even the most "anti-American" European leaders were secretly cooperating with the U.S. on Iraqi intelligence and the schlepping of accused terrorists to secret interrogation spots. What are the consequences of anti-Americanism apart from one bulldozed McDonald's in rural France? Well, ok, they were marching against Bush....but is he now "America?" God help us.

IMHO, the allegation of anti-Americanism is a big farce, and it plays right into the hands of the Bushies and other neo-cons who want to delegitimate the European social model, European foreign policy, and (most of all) European criticism of the U.S.

So enough already. Consider me an opponent of those claiming to fight anti-Americanism: an anti-anti-anti-American.

Can't wait to come home and start a movement....