| Hating
America's Success
By Daniel Pipes
"The creation of the United States of America is the central
event of the past four hundred years." Thus does Walter A.
McDougall of the University of Pennsylvania begin the first volume
of his acclaimed new American history, Freedom Just Around the Corner
(HarperCollins).
Not
surprisingly, this central event has evoked a wide range of opinions.
Tens of millions of immigrants have voted with their feet to slough
off prior allegiances and join the boisterous experiment that makes
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" its official
goal.
The
result has been an astounding success. "We dominate every field
of human endeavor from fashion to film to finance," writes
American columnist Charles Krauthammer. "We rule the world
culturally, economically, diplomatically and militarily as no one
has since the Roman Empire." As one symbol of this dominance,
the outside world is so affected by the forthcoming U.S. presidential
election, polls are now taken of who non-Americans would vote for,
if they could.
There
is, of course, a dark side to this extraordinary success too, and
it includes envy, fear, and resentment. In a wise, pungent, and
(given its negative subject matter) enjoyable study, Barry Rubin
and Judith Colp Rubin review this other side in Hating America:
A History (Oxford). In the book, they accomplish three main things.
First,
they provide a host of nonsensical assessments of the United States
going way back, some amusingly absurd, others vicious.
- Comte
de Buffon, renowned French scientist (1749): The American
"heart is frozen, their society cold, their empire cruel."
- Talleyrand,
French politician (1790s): It is a country of "32 religions
and only one dish ... and even that [is] inedible."
- Alexis
de Tocqueville, French social philosopher (1835): "I
know of no country in which there is so little independence of
mind and real freedom of discussion."
- Sigmund
Freud,
Austrian psychiatrist (1930s): "America is a mistake, a gigantic
mistake."
-
George Bernard Shaw, British playwright (1933): "An
asylum for the sane would be empty in America."
- Henry
Miller, American novelist (1945): America is "a fruit
which rotted before it had a chance to ripen."
-
Harold Pinter, British playwright (2001): The United
States is "the most dangerous power the world has ever known."
Second,
the Rubins trace the surprisingly variegated history of anti-Americanism,
a play in five acts. In the eighteenth century, a widely credited
"degeneration theory" argued for America's inherent
inferiority. Animals and humans from Europe, it posited, dwindle
in size and shrivel mentally in the New World's wastelands.
The
period 1830-80 witnessed a focus on the alleged failure of the American
experiment. Democracy had produced a miserable polity, society,
and culture, one on the verge of collapse. The United States threatened
as a bad example that might be emulated.
America's
rise to power, 1880-1945, saw fears develop that the American model
might dominate the world. Each American military victory –
in 1898 (over Spain), 1918 (World War I), and 1945 (World War II)
– caused this anxiety to take on new urgency.
America's
stature as one of two superpowers during the Cold War, 1945-90,
further enhanced those fears. Whereas the Soviet Union had limited
appeal or influence beyond its military prowess, American hegemony
threatened via such seemingly innocuous matters as fast food, movies,
clothes, and computer programs.
The
United States emerged in 1990 as the unique post-Cold War "hyperpower,"
fulfilling the worst nightmare of anti-Americans, who blamed it
for all of the world's ills and engaged in unprecedented spasms
of America-hatred.
Finally,
the authors' catalogue of hundreds of pages of fury clarifies
the motives behind anti-Americanism. From very early on, the spacious
skies and amber waves of grain offered a freer, richer, and more
tempting alternative, compelling those who stayed behind to rationalize
their choice. (In domestic American terms, it's like justifying
not having moved to California.) Anti-Americanism is the Doppelgänger
(evil twin) of America's seductiveness and power.
To
a limited degree, the hostile effort has succeeded. A sustained
French campaign against Coca-Cola in the 1950s lowered consumption
of that potable below anywhere elsewhere in western Europe. Polls
today show wide global disapproval of the United States.
Ultimately,
however, the rants, shouts and insults fade away, defeated by America's
serving as a benign force on the world stage and its accomplishments
in enabling its citizenry's pursuit of happiness.
Daniel
Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org)
is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures (Transaction
Publishers).
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