America 'Tis Of Thee!

How much do we hate the Americans?

This is not as simple as you might think. The question was posed on a Radio 4 programme today where an American professor was responding to Professor Taylor about his book which detailed the negative European response to American values and culture.

A French commentator was dismissing the thesis of the American professor and pointing out the very real links that exist between, for example, the French and the Americans. Listening to her was odd because, God knows, if there is one nation that we do hate it’s the French! The entente cordiale is desperately recent in terms of European history for the British and you only need to scratch the surface to find the usual British response nearer to healthy hatred as far as the French are concerned. In the opera ‘Billy Budd’ by Benjamin Britten there is a wonderful duet of English naval officers singing a paean of detestation of the French:

SAILING MASTER
Don't like the French.
Don't like their Frenchified ways.
FIRST LIEUTENANT
Don't like the French.
Their notions don't suit us, not their ideas.
SAILING MASTER
Don't like the French.
Don't like their bowing and scraping.
FIRST LIEUTENANT
Don't like their hoppity-skipetty ways.
SAILING MASTER
Don't like the French.
FIRST LIEUTENANT
Don't like their lingo.
SAILING MASTER,
FIRST LIEUTENANT
These damned mounseers!
FIRST LIEUTENANT
England for me. Home and beauty!

This is what we know about, good, old fashioned anti-Gallic prejudice, when the two sides, England and France, were a little more equally matched.

There is no such match with Britain and the United States of America: the ‘special relationship’ is a sick joke which we continue to delude ourselves about. We are not even a junior partner in this relationship; we are just another European nation in that laughable organization which never actually flexes its muscle or uses its real strength and continues to allow the United States to be the only convincing Super State in the world.

We continue to believe that, as the United States speaks our language they must be like us and have sympathy for us and our ideas. This is deluded. Churchill once commented that we are two nations separated by a common language. I think that is perceptive: it is the elements which would seem to unite us that actually show our divisions. From their customs and Christianity to their politics and political institutions they are different, and disturbingly so. The simple idea of a local sheriff being a political appointee is anathema to us. The overt veneration of The Flag and the pledge of allegiance seem absurd. The size of the country is beyond our imaginations.

The French commentator observed that the relationship between France and America was strong because of the number of American influences in the country: McDonalds, Hollywood, pop singers etc. The American commentator pointed out that a country can adopt many aspects of a foreign culture without being sympathetic to its values. He cited foreign demonstrations where American flags are burned by people wearing NYC baseball hats and America T shirts. I find that concept convincing and with a French commentator speaking I was reminded of the attitude of the French towards film.

In ‘Les Cahiers du Cinema’ the French took an essentially American development and industry and gave is an essentially French interpretation: the study of film as a valid artistic and intellectual exercise is basically a French invention. So the French could talk about, for example, Buster Keaton, and in their idolization of his ‘genius’ and talking of him as a great artist almost claim him for their own, as their own special creation, talking about this comic actor in a way in which his fellow countrymen find mystifying.

Of course we hate the Americans. From what little we know of history, we do know that they are doing what we used to do and we are having to watch as they rule the world and do what they like.

But just as certainly we would be idiotic not to participate in the illusion of the ‘Special Relationship’. As the United States is the most powerful democratic nation in the world we have to link our fortunes to a country which offers so much as a major ally.

Doesn’t make it any more palatable when the leader of our major ally is someone as unprepossessing as the idiot Bush.

Could have been worse; at least he isn’t Nixon.

Though I still wouldn’t buy a second hand car from Bush.