Monday, December 30, 2002
Anti-Americanism, 2002 in review: Reader No. 1 gave his ‘watershed’ review of 2002 above. Since I say ‘ditto’ to all of his local observations, I’d like to give my own, more global watershed review, strategically placed here after the Haiti and ‘Root Out Evil’ items. The topic: Anti-Americanism.
I think -- or I hope -- 2002 will be considered a watershed year in the sense that most anti-Americanism across the world has been slowly and relentlessly exposed as intellectually bankrupt. Sure, there are so many things about America and American policies to get frustrated over, from our Haitian policy to the Pax America traits of the Bush administration to McDonalds expanding into downtown Paris. But the Haitian, Bush and McDonalds policies merely exacerbate a deeper, already existing anti-Americanism. They didn’t create anti-Americanism. The anti-Americanism I’m talking about is of the knee-jerk, ideologically-warped, world-view kind -- a true 'ism' in which America is portrayed as the source of everything wrong in the world, as if our defense of democracy and triumph over right-wing and left-wing totalitarianism in the final 60 years of the 20th Century meant nothing, the type of 'ism' that, if you took out the anti-Americanism from their world view, they wouldn't have a world view. This anti-Americanism -- the last vestiges of a once vibrant intellectual left but now increasingly found on the far right -- is shallow, insecure, resentful, regressive, more often than not wrong and, therefore, dangerous in a very dangerous world. I truly respect Harvard doctors who toil in almost unbearable conditions in Haiti and occasionally emerge to write op-ed pieces criticizing specific American policies. I don’t respect pampered, affluent, publicity-seeking, world-view ‘activists’ who theatrically play out their moral dramas in order to win media attention and make profound statements about themselves in the process. Over the past year, I’ve seen strong signs of moderate liberals taking on these see-no-gray-area clowns -- as well as signs of moderate conservatives taking on the isolationist/Pax America clowns on the right. And so 2002 showed us there’s hope. ...
There. Got that out of my system. Now back to local items. ...
I think -- or I hope -- 2002 will be considered a watershed year in the sense that most anti-Americanism across the world has been slowly and relentlessly exposed as intellectually bankrupt. Sure, there are so many things about America and American policies to get frustrated over, from our Haitian policy to the Pax America traits of the Bush administration to McDonalds expanding into downtown Paris. But the Haitian, Bush and McDonalds policies merely exacerbate a deeper, already existing anti-Americanism. They didn’t create anti-Americanism. The anti-Americanism I’m talking about is of the knee-jerk, ideologically-warped, world-view kind -- a true 'ism' in which America is portrayed as the source of everything wrong in the world, as if our defense of democracy and triumph over right-wing and left-wing totalitarianism in the final 60 years of the 20th Century meant nothing, the type of 'ism' that, if you took out the anti-Americanism from their world view, they wouldn't have a world view. This anti-Americanism -- the last vestiges of a once vibrant intellectual left but now increasingly found on the far right -- is shallow, insecure, resentful, regressive, more often than not wrong and, therefore, dangerous in a very dangerous world. I truly respect Harvard doctors who toil in almost unbearable conditions in Haiti and occasionally emerge to write op-ed pieces criticizing specific American policies. I don’t respect pampered, affluent, publicity-seeking, world-view ‘activists’ who theatrically play out their moral dramas in order to win media attention and make profound statements about themselves in the process. Over the past year, I’ve seen strong signs of moderate liberals taking on these see-no-gray-area clowns -- as well as signs of moderate conservatives taking on the isolationist/Pax America clowns on the right. And so 2002 showed us there’s hope. ...
There. Got that out of my system. Now back to local items. ...
