The Real ‘Ugly American’
He pauses and looks at the Ethiopian man in the eye. “Can you tell me something? One? Thing? What – do – you – mean – by – democracy?” He shakes his head. “I’ll make a confession. I don’t know the meaning of the word!” He grins with immense self-satisfaction. “They say in the United States that we have democracy. But democracy is just another way of stealing from the people. It’s just another way they have of controlling us!”
His voice is still very loud. I exchange a look with a man across the aisle from me. His eyes roll.
“What do I do?” the American says. “I’m a student. I’ve been a student all my life. I’m a student of politics and economics and movies. And I’m still learning, sitting here talking to you!”
He jabs a finger at the Ethiopian, flashing another broad, self-satisfied, condescending smile. Then he tells the Ethiopian where he works and what he does. (Later, I Google the name of the place — an Oslo cultural institution — and find his name. He has, it turns out, a position of considerable cultural influence.)
“So how long have you been in Norway?” he asks the Ethiopian. His eyes widen at the answer. “Just seven months? Really? You’re newcomers! Welcome! Welcome! I’ve been here for twelve years. I’m so glad you’re here! It would be so boring here with just Norwegians! They’re so rude! I speak to them and they don’t even look at me. But they’re also so polite — they wear Walkmans instead of going around with ghetto blasters!”
I look at the Ethiopian man. I wonder if he knows what a Walkman is. I can’t imagine he’s ever heard of a ghetto blaster. It obviously has not occurred to the American that this might be the case.
When I get off, the guy across the aisle from me smiles conspiratorially. “Lucky you,” he says, sotto voce. In unaccented English. So he’s American, too. The guy in the cap is still talking away. As the train pulls away, I turn and look in the window to see him writing something down — presumably his name and phone number — for the Ethiopian man.
If recent history should have taught us anything, it’s that the freedom we enjoy in North America and Europe is a rare and precious commodity. It’s not something we’ve earned; it’s something that was fought for by others and bequeathed to us. It’s our job to defend it — whether it’s also our job to export it is a question over which America is divided. But one thing that should be clear to all is that denying its reality isn’t an act of generosity and humility; it’s an act of ingratitude and irresponsibility, and an insult to freedom-seeking refugees such as that couple from Ethiopia.
When William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick published their book The Ugly American in 1958, later adapted in 1963 into a film version starring Marlon Brando, it became a byword for American bravado abroad, for an arrogant breed of homo americanus that had no interest in other cultures and believed Uncle Sam had all the answers. The ugly American still exists. Nowadays, however, he’s arrogant not about his country’s virtues but about his own. Among non-Americans, he’s eager to make sure everyone knows how morally superior he is to his homeland.
He’s been a student all his life. And he’s learned absolutely nothing.
Yeah, I know the type, I’ve come across them all to often; as I’ve been living in Warsaw since 1995. Many of these expats are leftist and anti-business; who never had any “real jobs” in the USA. They usually work as a TEFL teacher for commercial language schools and/or for some academic schools. I know some who came to Europe on the Fulbright program, straight out of college, and stayed in Europe working as a TEFL teachers. It’s probably just as well that they stay in Warsaw, because they don’t seem to have much value for the USA job market.
Expat
I have often thought the same thing, that the real ugly Americans are the self-loathing liberal kinds desperate to ingratiate themselves with people they just assume hate America as much as they do. I have met a fair number of these pathetic self-loathing ugly Americans here in Israel. Often they are self-loathing Jews as well (often they are just self-loathing WASPS). Truly pathetic. One sees these know-nothing Americans with their wincing ‘please like me I didn’t vote for Bush I hate America too’ shtick everywhere outside of the States, even in some of the most horrific and depressing places on earth. Maybe these so-ashamed-to-be-American Americans think the squalor, impoverishment, injustices, tyranny and barbarity from Mexico and Brazil to South Africa, Uganda, Sudan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the entire Muslim world for that matter is all Bush and Cheney’s and Rush Limbaugh’s and Fox News’s fault. These self-haters take moral relativism and its associated ignorance into the stratosphere.
In fact when it comes to masochistic self-hatred leftwing Americans surpass Europeans and Brits, even the Scandinavians, and that is saying a helluva lot (as Bawer knows!). They are winners in the Western Self-Hatred School of Flagellants, a dubious honour but when one considers who the current president of the USA is, entirely apposite. I have a friend who is a Kurdish Swede whose family fled the barbarity of Saddam’s Iraq decades ago and is staunchly pro-Israel (as many Kurds are) and considers this species of self-loathing Westerner, American and self-loathing Jew beneath contempt and as suffering from a kind of insanity. She has said to me, “my whole community was terrorised by Saddam Hussein. My family suffered dreadfully, What is wrong with them [the self-hating American and self-hating Jew] Larry?” And I can’t answer her with a quip, because it truly takes a book-length treatment to do justice to the self-loathing American and the self-loathing Jew for that matter. I just shake my head and say, “I know I know they are insane, what can one do?”
You are describing about 60% of my in-laws. Not only are they self-loathing, they are loud about it. It’s important that everyone within a given radius know they belong to the correct group of people, with the correct ideas. All social exchange is liberally (to use a bad pun) seasoned with numerous politically correct sound-bites, which is supposed to elicit paroxysms of enthusiastic approval. It’s proof of one’s sophistication. I simply respond to such statements with a poker-faced stare.
Prologue, you took the words right out of my mouth. I’m the only Conservative memeber in my family of Ivy-League educated,Upper West-Side,New York Times reading Jewish Liberals. They look at me as if I have 2 heads and something must be wrong with me, or they humor me, because I’m not as “Educated” as they are. All this while not having enough common sense combined to know when to get in out of the rain.
Oikophobia
“The ugly American still exists. Nowadays, however, he’s arrogant not about his country’s virtues but about his own. Among non-Americans, he’s eager to make sure everyone knows how morally superior he is to his homeland.”
I disagree. The Ugly American today is that worthless piece of filth who thinks he or she can establish some sort of credibility, usually among Europeans, by trashing the United States. They say what they THINK the Europeans want to hear, not what is true. To the man’s credit in the story, at least he had the nerve to move to Norway. I can’t stand the people who trash the United States overseas (like Obama) and then hop on a plane and come right back here. They are the true hypocrites and liars.
All Americans need to stand up for this country, wherever they may be. They do NOT have the right to trash a country in a foreign land when the United States gives them all of the freedoms they use (and abuse) so often. Shame on them. The sad part is, many people overseas listen to these jerks and believe what they say. But, fortunately, even more people do NOT believe what they say and still want to come here. Just look at the number of people that are trying to come into this country, and not trying to run away from it.
I am not convinced by recent observations that the “ugly American” is as prevalent as the “ugly European”. If anything we are more likely to be accosted by liberal “aholes” while traveling giving us a ration against Bush or a big high five for Obama. Most Americans both in the USA and while traveling are nice and polite even though they may be confused and naturally nervous especially when they don’t speak the language. The guy in the subway could just as easily be some know it all Brit who works for the Economist riding the metro in DC.
“Among non-Americans, he’s eager to make sure everyone knows how morally superior he is to his homeland.”
So you mean he is a liberal?
I’m embarrassed as an American about that incident. I have been to Norway and by no means are they anything like he describes. They were very nice and well mannered and said absolutely nothing nasty about anything, as far as I heard. The Ethiopian couple found a good place to go though because Norway has no idea about racism. Literally. Here’s to hoping that ugly American has a “Kick Me” sign posted on his back so that everyone he encounters knows better than to think he is right about anything.
Norway has no idea about racism, eh? Tell it to the victims of islamic intolerance. Your color makes you a target in the nordic countries….
Dave in D: Que? You seriously think that muslim-on-white violence is a problem in Norway?
When their numbers get large enough, it will become a problem.
So where have you been? Under a rock in the back of a cave on the dark side of a remote planet on the other side of the sun?
There are areas of France where even police won’t go into…wanna guess who lives there?
“Muslim-on-white” and “Muslim-on-Jewish” violence and hostility are probably more notable in Malmo, Sweden than in Norway, but apparently there are some problems in other Scandanavian countries, too. Including Norway.
http://fjordman.blogspot.com/2005/02/muslim-rape-epidemic-in-sweden-and.html
Jews are rapidly leaving Malmo.
http://www.forward.com/articles/129233/
I’m not so sure that the violence and hostility can all be attributed to “racism”. Cultural intolerance is very evident where hostile immigrants seem to be in de facto control of local areas, however. And immigrants have perhaps been led to expect that the host country would take care of them better than they have been taken care of. Negative attitudes toward “immigrants” (no one mentions the “Muslim” part) are also emerging in Sweden in response to the behavior of the “immigrants”.
I’m really not surprised this guy would find most Norwegians rude. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would find people everywhere rude. If he met me he would certainly find me rude.
Why all of the excitement..?
Mr. Bawer encountered a typical American Obama supporter riding the subway in Oslo.
The “ugly American” in this story, appropriately enough, calls himself a lifelong student. I’m sure that’s true. He has probably never actually been out in the real world where he has to support himself, pay his own bills, and work at a job that is not government or government supported. No wonder he can continue to hold such non-reality based ideas.
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Yeah, well, maybe as long as this is the best and only job and the only power that you chickensh*t, little control freaks will ever get, the rest of the country will sleep better knowing that, ya think?
Maybe it isn’t so much that immigrants are attracted to America because it is a great place to live as it is that it is God’s will that all of His mistakes, i.e., all of the loopy people in the world will migrate to the USA, so that all of them will be isolated and concentrated in one place to the relief of the sane people on this planet, ya think?
Yes, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” You can keep all your group thinking masses- give us your rejects, your unfit, your “wretched refuse.” We have built a nation that has surpassed any power that has come before it from those same huddled masses of rejects.
“We’re Americans! Do you know what that means? It means our ancestors were kicked out of every decent country on the planet! We’re mutts. But there is no better, more loyal friend, than a mutt. We are 10-1.”
Sounds like European train travel is as fun today as it was when I was a young tourist 20 years ago.
Tell us the guy’s name and the institution. He didn’t hesitate to say it publicly. What a rude, vile, ignorant man. It would have hard not to castigate him for his thoughtless, crude language, much less his soul-searing hatred. His name!
If added up, I think I’ve spent nearly three years traveling outside of the USA, and when struck by the magic of this or that amazing locale, I’ve even sometimes toyed with the notion of moving permanently to that locale, but the reality of actually becoming an expatriate has always been unthinkable.
Among the dozens and dozens of US expats I have met over the years , a few I have liked immensely, but many more not so much. While the noxiousness might not be on par with the character described above, the strain of anti-Americanism Mr. Bawer describes is quite common among those I have encountered. They often cringe in shame about their American-ness, do everything in their power to efface it, or they strike the pose described above and flout their hatred for their American origins. It often (though not always) strikes me that there is something extremely broken about these American expats, something off, something broken in them which they blame on America, but which reflects, in truth, something which belongs solely to them, and something which they have gone to great extremes to avoid facing. These expats hide from themselves abroad.
A wise person once helped me resolve a crisis – I was having great difficulty making one of those life changing decisions which come with no instructions, and couldn’t figure out how to decide. He asked me if I was running towards something, or away from something, and the answer became clear in that instant. The expats I have met who were running towards something were inspirational. They were few. The other types who despise America explain quite a bit about why anti-Americanism is so rife abroad. These expats are poisonous people – and it is no wonder that these bad ambassadors for America have been helping to give many abroad a very negative impression of this great nation.
Tragedy for all involved who know them and absorb the American self-loathing which these expats embrace so fully.
This article struck a chord with me as I have had similar experiences while traveling the tube or other transport in Europe. I’ve been overseas for the last six years and I see why these types of American’s exist. It’s the non-confrontational path of least resistance.The atmosphere in Europe is rife with anti-americanism–the media both right and left has it both explicit and implicit. I married a non-American and found it even in wife’s extended family. At first, I was shocked, but couldn’t adopt the path of least resistance because it made me feel dirty to adopt that attitude. I just ended constantly verbally sparring or not discussing the matters as I usually had the stronger arguments. As an expat, it’s better to stay true to your roots and correct the misinformation than to disown your roots and end up rootless.
I don’t think Norway will have to wait long before the third world immigrants flooding into their neighborhoods will turn into types of that “ugly American,” demanding accomodation to their views and religions and laws.
Shouting “RACIST!” “BIGOT!” “ZENOPHOBE!” if they don’t get their way, and burning up cars and houses to make their points, not unlike France.
Sorry, I guess I just don’t care anymore.
Its funny, Bruce, that you of all people write this. You have been living here in my country for years now, yet you keep on badmouthing it in every article I read. Your organization, HRS , recieves money from the state, but still you dislike the system. You and yours are continually misrepresenting the situation in Norway to your US readers, and you find this american uglier than yourself?
Go home, or at least have the balls to get of the state-welfare.
I suspect you indignation comes not from righteousness but shame. All of the people on that train could not have been foreigners, yet all allowed the Ethiopians to so assailed. Being polite means that sometimes you must raise you voice to say: “STOP, LET THEM BE!” Were the passengers, including the author, in that care being polite, or cowardly?
I see nothing particularly negative about Norway from the author in this article. I have seen Norway described as a wonderful country which is developing some problems in other pieces by this author. Perhaps you are being a bit over-sensitive? No country is perfect, and things change over time. Perhaps you should be more specific in describing exactly how the author “badmouths” Norway, and why he is wrong.
That story gives me a chill. I’ve met the same kind of obnoxious American “student” plenty of times. I often wonder what the natives think of this strange breed.
I traveled in my youth. While studying in Sri Lanka in the 80′s, I played for a local rugby team. When I told my friends there that I was considering a career in the U.S. military (somewhat hesistant at what their reaction would be), they were actually excited. One young guy told me how glad he was that Reagan had slapped down Khadafi hard. A father invited over his son who flew helicopters against the terrorist Tigers in the north.
hmmm the “ugly american” is the one that has a “tribune” in US medias, as far as we are concerned, I never met a ugly American in my country, only persons who were impressed and tried to not look “paysan”, or persons that were there with the alliees, thus they like what they did, and our country too.
I remember working on a french cruise ship (long time ago), our custommers were Americans from “Chevrolet” Cie, some guis were asking me how they should dress for the dinner with the commandant, what tie would suit with their outfit, when I ask them to show me their lot, I found the most ugly choice I ‘d ever seen, So I said them, better use a bow tie !
they are usually of the liberal elite class. and they are everywhere. a parasite of sorts.
Sadly, they are very poor ambassadors for America. They are big libs, a subset of about 20-30% of the population afflicted with mental illness. Most couldn’t hold a real job in their homeland.
“The Ugly American … became a byword for American bravado abroad, for an arrogant breed of homo americanus that had no interest in other cultures and believed Uncle Sam had all the answers. The ugly American still exists. Nowadays, however, he’s arrogant not about his country’s virtues but about his own.”
Obviously Mr. Bawer only writes for PJM but doesn’t read it.
Joseph, mr. Bawer is way to busy painting Europe as a warzone between muslims and whites to bother with reading his own publication-channels. Hes making a good living of the norwegian state, wich he uses to slander it. Its just a job.
I have been reading from several European publications about the Muslim non-assimilation and their efforts to impose sharia law in place of civil law. Not to mention violent out burst and even murder by Muslims to achieve their ends. Are all of these publications biased? Europe sure has a lot of fire and blood, while having no problem.
Fnord,
Are you sure you are not exaggerating or generalizing when you say that the author “slanders” the Norwegian state? Concerning the non-assimilation of Muslims in Europe, have you not heard that Angela Merkel has declared multiculturalism a failure in Germany?
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20101018_germany_and_failure_multiculturalism
In Norway, are immigrants urged to integrate into Norwegian society or to retain their own cultural identity?
Norway has a culture?
In that acutal book, “The Ugly American,” the ugliness of the Ugly American of the title is purely physical, not moral, political, etc. The character demonstrates that a person can all the external “ugliness” of the stereotypical American-loud, brash, motorcycle-riding, et al–as well as personal physical ugliness, but can still adapt to, win over, and help a distinctly foreign culture.
A better title for this entry might be the “The Handsome American,” in the sense that the protagonist seems to have adapted all the external trappings–job, expensive clothes, hipster ironic cap–that will supposedly establish him as the champion of the anti-America, but in every other way is hideously ugly.
That this nincompoop holds “a position of considerable cultural influence” makes me content to a simple ignorant barbarian back here in the States. I read a book recently about living in Italy; an expat couple interviewed said they relocated to Italy after the 2004 elections because they could not live in a country that elected George W. Bush. I thought: so they live in a country that elects Silvio Berlusconi? Jeepers. To paraphrase the great R. Lee Ermey, what is these folks’ major malfunction?
Five types of Americans I’ve met around the world.
1. Tourists
2. Working ex-pats.
3. Business travelers
4. Students/ cultural/ language/ art aficionados.
5. The morons that resemble your village idiot. There was one professor from New York City. Born and raised in Harlem with an over the top British accent on Tobago that was very, very, special.
And said #5 morons are just mortified Republicans won big in NOV 2010 and probably screaming about it to anyone within earshot right now.
I traveled abroad when the “Ugly American” image was in its heyday. Needless to say, even then, Americans in most European countries were treated with dignity and respect except for France. They went out of their way to be rude and inhospitable except for the hotels and other attractions that depended upon American tourism for survival.
A local blog I used to frequent had one poster who lived in Germany doing his missionary work or whatever it was. It became boring and bothersome after a while reading his commentary about how much better things were in Germany. He was one expatriot I felt should have stayed in Germany since he was convinced it was superior in every way.
We live in perhaps the greatest country in the history of this planet. American exceptionalism has led the way for over 100 years in almost every advancement in medicine, engineering, manufacturing, farming, and any other enterprise imaginable. Yet, our critics, our president being one of the leaders of the pack, refuse to acknowledge it and when they do, it is with a sense of remorse and embarassment. The Chinese copied the blueprint from Nucor Steel to build their steel industry from the ground up. Japan and Korea took our automotive technology and made changes and improvements. This is typical of how foreign technology develops.
While working in the ME, I had the opportunity to observe the way work was done on major construction projects. The American projects were almost always ahead of schedule, superior workmanship, and cost effective. I could look at the buildings and distinguish between the ones built by American companies from everyone else.
The new “Ugly Americans” remind me of the “elite academics crowd” in high school who thought it was undignified to cheer and go a little crazy over the accomplishments of the sports teams. They turned their noses up at any display of enthusiasm and derided the students who enjoyed themselves at rallies, etc. These are the same people who accuse everyone else of racism but when the truth is outed, they wouldn’t allow a black person without the proper credentials in their homes unless they were there to mow the grass or do the cleaning.
Bart
uh may-be you are a “ugly american” that’s why your mouthing without facts but rumors !
if you are fond of ugly stories, I have some spared ones in drawers too !
While I was in the Navy during port calls I would use my phrase book to try to communicate in the language of the country I was in. Invariably, I was thanked for trying, but that I should speak English, with the notable exception of France. With precious few exceptions, civility was stony silence, or in the extreme an admonishment stop. Of course when I tried English I received, if you guessed, stony silence. One incident stands out while lost in Marseille I was told I sounded like a pig. In fairness, I never got out into the country side. Things might be better out there, however I would not be inclined to spend my own money to find out.
A parallel, New Yorkers have a reputation for being short, to the point of rudeness, with out of towners, but at least some are working on changing that. The French might take note.
A parallel, New Yorkers have a reputation for being short, to the point of rudeness, with out of towners.
When I was in my teens and early twenties, a country mouse learning how to navigate the NYC subway system,if I were standing still when downstairs in the subway- the symptom of someone who has lost his way- invariably a New Yorkers would stop and ask if they could help me.
I figured out I had found my way around NYC when tourists asked me directions.
Gringo,
I spent a lot of time in NYC and found the people to be some of the most accomodating in the world. Once you get past the false perception of an unfriendly populus, you will find very genuine and friendly people. My trips to NYC are among the best trips ever.
It was about 1971 or 72 when my State Department dad chose to spend our family vacation in France and Iberia rather than going home to the US. Wonderful intinerary: two weeks or so in Paris, then a long drive through Asturias (so beautiful it hurt!) down to the Portuguese coast. Had a great time AFTER we got out of Paris, where the places and objects were lovely but the people wanted no part of us, except for our paid guide. We sublet an apartment instead of staying in a hotel, and when my mom, a seasoned traveler who did her own marketing in Rio and in Lahore, showed up at the local grocery with her Berlitz phrasebook, the French staff simply ignored her. Undaunted, she cast around until she found another grocery, this one run by Portuguese immigrants who were charmed by her bits of leftover Brazilian Portuguese and happy to serve a fellow foreigner. That’s how we made it through our Paris time, and were glad to put the place in our rear-view mirror. (Those were the days. Now I can’t afford to take my own kids to Disney World. Would not even consider Paris if it were three bucks a day, though.)
Robert, I feel sorry for you, but in Marseille, you really probably sounded like a “pig”, oh fatche des cons !
I still travel significantly, when you get “bad responses”, it is most likely that you deserved them somewhat, somewhere, somehow…
Now, Americans, the ugly ones, just have a look at what you were writing on the French, do you expect that people who were/are insulted, will jump and say Americans are such good people !
Marie Claude,
Are you for real? Apparently, my comment about France touched on a sore point with you. My first hand experience was not rumor or speculation. When I was in Paris, it was the most unpleasant experience of my travels in Europe. Belgium, Germany, and other countries were mostly hospitable and generous. As a seasoned traveler, I learned early on to respect the country I was visiting and did everything I could to project the image of a respectful visitor. However, in France, especially Paris, it did no good.
So, maybe you are a troll or are one of the ones who treat visitors badly. I think it may be the latter.
I have been to France may time and Americans that were polite and tried to get along with the French were treated well, except sometimes in Paris. Since 9/11 I have been to France 4 times and everyone has been more than polite even in Paris. Given the opportunity I would spend time in France and skip California. The people are just more reasonable and friendlier.
thank you man
… it became a byword for American bravado abroad, for an arrogant breed of homo americanus that had no interest in other cultures and believed Uncle Sam had all the answers.
I fervently wish that the normally astute Mr. Bawer would have READ the book before repeating his travesty of the plot. Here, he has his brain in reverse. Being a musician myself, I rather liked the book because the ‘ugly’ American referred to not only respected and entered into the ‘foreign’ culture on a cooperative basis, he used his ability on the harmonica to gain friends as he went.
Yes, there are loud arrogant Americans in Hawaiian shirts properly disgusting the reader in the book, but the ‘ugly’ one is the honorable exception.
In sloganizing the ‘ugly American’ phrase, Mr. Bawer is now the loud one in the Hawaiian shirt with all the mindless answers. Yes, others have practically cast the cliche of ‘ugly American’ in concrete, but that’s no excuse for joining the mob in reversing the meaning of Lederer and Burdick in the title phrase. Read the goddam book.
Norway itself is making the headlines when Senator Sam Brownback protested about the about the antisemitic and anti-Israel hatemongering.
Also here’s a bit from Deutschlandfunk
“Eine notorische Anprangerung von Juden”
But we forget that for the Socialist Europeans and their Muslim masters the Jews aren’t human.
Sure enough, Daily Kos provides a laugh-track for this article.
Guide to Leaving America for the European Union
Just by looking at the title (not ever want to wander over the site ever again), if Kos is encouraging the Koskids to EU (hopefully permanently),
How is that a bad thing?
When Norway recalls the Nobel prizes to Obama, Gore, and Arafat, I might consider taking their moral preening seriously. Right now, they’re an international political clown show.
You left out that well known bastion of corruption and lies, the deci-scientific, UN-controlled IPCC, otherwise known as the International Panel on Climate Change, co-receiver with Al Gore of the Nobel prize.
A few remarks about the ugly American mentioned in the text
1) He is around fifty and still a student!!!!!!
2) He wears expensive clothes so we can discard that he is surviving through the kind of McDonald’s jobs resort to. In other words he is still living on Dad and Mom’s money, probably despises them and has never worked in his life. We can bet he despises his eeeeevil capitalist parents for the way they got their money. Notice that he hasn’t decided to work in order to be able to donate this ill-acquired money to a charity (or to the revolution). He prefers to lay on his bed and dream.
3) He is a student in soft sciences. He said economy and politics but I suspect it is mostly the latter and that for the former he is not attending classes but reading some marxist books. AFAIK such books don’t require any knowledge of Mathematics unlike books of post 1880 non-Marxist economists. Maths require effort. For the politics part we can bet he is not into real “poltical science” ie where you are required to read dozens of books a la Machiavelli’s “The Prince” but some obscure sub-discipline created by some loser a la Ward Churchill and you are only required to be able to recite from memory the guru’s books and chant “Death to America”.
4) It is quite obvious he is not interested at all either by this ethiopian couple or by the plight of ethiopians in general. His only interest is in using them as ammunition to be thrown at America either physically (he would just love persuading the guy to become a terrorist) or morally by presnting them as victims of America. If they don’t cooperate and speak about democracy then they are just house nigas to him.
5) He feels superior to us mere mortals because he has seen the light and understanding how the world works. That is why he “studies” politics and economics. This “I understand what really happens” of him makes you can bet this guy thinks 9/11 was an inside job.
6) I thionk there is 90% probability this guy rejoiced on 9/11.
Parting remark: BTW, has anyone noticed that this guy hates America, Obama’s America with passion. Americans were told if they elected Obama they would be loved by everyone, That hardcore islamists, europeans and even people like this guy would sing “God Bless America” if Obama was elected. Loks like it was not about Bush after all.
nice to see you back
Brilliant, Bruce. A synthesis of not just the new ugly American abroad, but a perfect picture of the American leftists’ thoughts too, here in the states. They’re not happy unless they’re SHARING their dislike of their country. ACTING on it. All the while enjoying its comforts, the prosperity, the safety….
I always understood the American liberal as someone who not only wants to believe he is inherently good, but he wants to be SEEN as good, so he has to come up with some way of acting, speaking, demonstrating his goodness so that he will be acknowledged for it. And in the mind of a lazy, selfish, childish person, the easiest way to seem good is to loudly condemn evil so that he can seem COMPARATIVELY good.
That is what your train rider is doing. His premises are faulty, of course, but he is too intellectually lazy to bother with actual inquiry. The left is childish, vain, arrogant, and darn near impossible to educate with reality. Amazing that they have such influence, but it’s only because human beings are flawed and can be easy to corrupt with stuff that SOUNDS good and claims some moral high ground, no matter how ephemeral it might be.
I’ve encountered quite a few “ugly Americans” right here in America. They’re the ones who trash anything that isn’t part of the bicoastal liberal establishment. If they should actually dare to leave their liberal enclaves, they loudly decry the inferiority of the places they’re visiting as if it were an impoverished 3rd world country. In short, they’re arrogant and ignorant snobs.
After “The ugly American” Lederer wrote “A nation of sheep”. The book was about showing how the generations raised in the era of “Isolationist America” were ill prepared for America’s new role after WWII. That the lack of knowledge of foreign languages (he tells that in one occasion where Governemnt needed a translation of a Laotian text there were only ten persons in America none of them American who could od it) had led to many emebararassments (he tells of a movie who was given as an example of good translator job until the day a natural of the country revealed the peasant wasn’t telling what he was supposed to be saying but what the local government wanted Americans hear: the aid is doing good, communists are losing ground, send more aid), he told about how Comminist countries sent the sons of local elders to their universities and then elders told people to vote for the Commnists while Amerioca squandered its aid, he told about ignorance of ethnic divisions (a Viet is not an H’Mong is not a Kha), he told about supporting every tug claing to be anti-communist like Tchaing or Syman Ree was undermining Aerica’s cause (“if we have to use them, let’s use them honestly and keeping our eyes open” ). He called for Americans studying foreign languages (specially those of the front line against Communism), to read newspapers with serious coverage of international politics (in local opnes it was near zero) and to pressure represntataives (because getting 6 (six) letters in those times meant a really angry electorate every letter counted).
While likely true in the statistical mean in 1960, I come from a younger generation. … And Left-Americans will not listen to foreigners saying 1) decent things about America, 2) the truth about their “home” country. And further the Left-Americans will hire and subsidize the anti-American foreign ex-pat while the local immigrant risks her job if she disagrees with the narrative. And… this works in reverse to your point regarding American cultural ignorance. Those Americans who know these languages and cultures are dismissed while those who do not are exalted.
Again exceptions provide the proof – brilliant, talented foreigners who have critical remarks against America and positive remarks for their “home” country are also DISMISSED if they criticize the Left here, and praise specific responsible, adult policies at “home.” For example, I once spent an hour listening to a Russian engineer trash Communism and describe his struggle to bring simple, basic techniques to his industry in Yamal. He also criticized America – for sucking up to Commies and enabling their foreign adventures. I sat right behind the Anchorage Daily News reporter – who wound up writing nothing more than a 2 sentence notice of the event’s occurrence. Hey, it just didn’t go with their Lib narrative.
Can’t take them anymore…no more ‘friends’ on FB
after 11-2-10 I give up!
Thank you Veterans.
All countries have their uglies. This man with the big rude mouth is going to get his fat head cracked sooner or later.
Your first sentence I agree completely. As much as I agree that the conclusion of your second sentence would be justice, I doubt it will come to pass. The reason it will not come to pass is, decent people are slow to rile, and the others are his enablers.
As Joe Y correctly points out, the meaning of the term “Ugly American” is inverted from the book. The ugly American of the book was cut from the same cloth as Greg Mortenson, truly listening to and respecting people away from the centers of power. The well-dressed, “sophisticated” pedigreed “experts” talked only with their local counterparts and were helping to lose Southeast Asia to the communists by their top-down self-serving infrastructure projects.
I have a slightly different view on this because my wife is from Oz (Australia) and many in my extended family are from China. So for me it’s getting to see their reactions as my family talks about the good things in America and how things are being messed up. Compairisons to Oz and China abound and USA doesn’t always come out on top, but it does far more often than America haters would believe.
#22 Joe Y, and #26 Insufficiently Sensitive, beat me to it, but I will add my voice nonetheless: it is clear that Bruce Bawer may know the cliche use of the term “ugly American,” and may even have seen the film (which I have not), but has never read the book.
The book “The Ugly American” is a detailed dissection of how America was losing the battle against Communism by failing to take simple but necessary steps. The only “ugly American” who was so named in the book was, as mentioned above, physically “ugly,” but one of the most effective advocates for America and the American way portrayed in that work. In the context of the book, “ugly American” was actually a term of pride.
What makes me wonder is why everyone, including the author allowed this idiot to go on and on, without a STFU? If that would have not ceased his diatribe, I would have added in a lil whup-ass for him….and I’m a woman! Man up, will ya?
Blackwater is the real ugly American, not some obnoxious prick on a subway.
Blackwater?? Blackwater doesn’t make policy, or offer contracts to PMCs. Your ignorance offends me. I didn’t see you criticize any politicians that have whole beaches closed so they can have some private time. How about politicians that take several hundred useless people with them and take over whole hotels for their “safety”. How about everybody that still thinks the French are any ruder than anyone else. I haven’t seen your Queen in the State Department refuse to use Blackwater people for her own protection.
Boors are everywhere – in Norway, at my gym, even in the comments here. Life’s too short and too good to do anything but ignore them. How bad can it be here when even the rich Hollywood types keep threatening to leave, but never do?
There are things about Japan that are absolutely better than the US, and vice-versa. It would be a boring world if everyplace was the same, and there’d be plenty of unhappy people around if you all had it my way.
Yes, there are ugly Americans. But I have seen a lot of Eurotrash. I have sat by them on airplanes. They are smug, liberal, free to ridicule our traditions…..by the way, they don’t bathe enough, the women don’t shave their legs and eat too much garlic. They deserve our expats.
I was disgusted by the eternal student who had no idea at the age of 50 what democracy meant. However,I wonder why the author of this piece and/or the other U.S. citizen witnessing the Ugly American’s rant did not quietly intervene. In five minutes, Bruce, you could have provided that misguided hippie with an entire lifetime’s worth of education, while simultaneously relieving the Ethopian couple from further assault.
I would have loved to kindly inform him of the definition of democracy and how that differs from what the United States is – a Republic. And how well that form of government could have worked if it weren’t for people like him.
As a two-time (and current) expat, I’ll give everyone a word of advice. Complaining about your own country is like complaining about your own family. Even those who agree with you still think you are an idiot.
I see those self-haters all the time.
Spot on! I arrived at Heathrow a couple of days ago and was fumbling with pences at the convenience store when the quintessential New Ugly American – graying pony tail, yellow teeth, and alone (after probably his third or fourth failed marriage) made some off-hand comment.
“American?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t like to admit it,” as if he was a Pharisee admitting that he had once traipsed into Samaritan territory.
“Well, that’s not nice to say on Veteran’s Day.”
“I was in Vietnam. What a waste” (As if that alone was enough to invoke The Narrative and bring condemnation down on the most self-sacrificial nation on earth.)
I shook his hand. “Thanks for your service. It was not totally a waste. millions of Vietnamese sill escaped the Leftist dictatorship there, even though our US Leftists allowed them to take over eventually and massacre 3 million of their victims.” His eyes started batting back and forth, as if wanting to roll a joint and escape the present uncomfortable turn of the conversation, so I started asking personal questions. It turns out he was living on a generous US government pension, in Hawaii, and traveling Europe alone. Tough life. Bad U.S. He will find some drug-induced comfort here in Berlin where I presently am, where the entire zietgeist is to avoid discussing the root causes of the two Holocausts brutally visited upon Germany- the Communist and Fascist ones – and ignore the fact that while only less than 1 % attend a Christian church, in many places both the Communist and Nazi Parties get 30% of the vote.
Bruce, may I refer to the result of the Bundestagswahlen 2009:
Union(CDU, Merkel’s party) = 33,8 per cent
SPD = 23,0 per cent
FDP(Liberals, Westerwelle) = 14,6 per cent
Grüne(environment, multi-culture) = 10,7 per cent
Linke (left) = 11,9 per cent
No extreme right-wing party made it – though they used the terms Heimat and Familie(home and family), issues badly neglected by our government.
I wish you a nice time in Germany and remember: Berliner are not known as the most polite persons in Germany but when you are nice to them, they are nice to you. (General wisdom, can be applied to all people everywhere).
So we have the traditional stereotype of the ugly American who represented an arrogant embodiment of American exceptionalism and then the essay above where the ugly American rejects American exceptionalism and then there is me, adrift in Cairo, unhappy at being in America because of the winking at urban crime because it is after all my fault, the political correctness that says everything bad is my fault.
I am fleeing conformity in the US that touts itself as the exact opposite. Even a Cairene knows which end of their donkey constitutes an ass. Sometimes common sense is its own freedom.
Bruce
You betray a bit of your own ugly American-ness by saying that your fellow American spoke in “unaccented English.” As any American knows who has lived and traveled abroad extensively (as have I), we Americans do indeed have an accent. Ours in not the “normal” unaccented English, as you imply with your wording. (Indeed, there is no such thing as “unaccented English,” or French, or German, or any language for that matter.) If you had simply said “in American-accented English” you could have made your point without betraying your own subtle bias.
I’m confused. Having traveled extensively throughout the Far East, I have never been treated badly by the locals. Filipinos are particularly friendly and helpful, as are Thais. Malaysians, Indonesians, Viets, Chinese and Japanese: all seemed hospitable and warm. Low class Americans seemed to have some problems because their own inappropriate
attitudes offended the locals.But they would have caused the same hostile responses in Los Angeles or NYC. If one is polite, respectful, helpful, he will do well. God save us from the selfish, loudmouthed ignoramiwho project an alpha attitude in a beta environment!
In Europe in 1980, I briefly had a travel companion from the Bay area. Our friendship ended abruptly one evening in Amsterdam. We were at a cafe and I stepped away to go to the ladies room. When I came back, there were 2 Iranian guys sitting at our table. They were attacking America and Bridget not only agreed with them, she apologized profusely for our many sins. This was during the Iranian hostage crisis. I sat there stunned for a good 5 minutes. I was very young and pretty naive in those days. I was also very patriotic, the midwestern daughter of “Scoop Jackson Democrats.” The willingness to abase oneself at the feet of barbarians, the self-loathing of a San Francisco leftist was utterly new and shocking and disgusting to me. I said something. I was too shocked to be articulate and I remember Bridget laughing at me. I left her to her Iranians. When I think back to the incident, I can’t help but wonder if Bridget – a very heavy young woman – wasn’t motivated by something other than sheer anti-Americanism. She had two young men at her table, paying attention to her. I don’t think that was a common experience for Bridget (and yes, I know how catty that sounds. I don’t know how to make an obvious truth sound un-catty. People who are anxious for the company of members of the opposite sex will put up with, or even go along with, terrible behavior.) Losing a friend and badmouthing her own country might have seemed like a small piece to pay.
Re: France. I had heard many horror stories about Paris before I got there, and it made me nervous, because my French is terrible, but I wasn’t treated badly there. But then I was 22 (this was a few years after my first trip to Europe) and I instinctually asked only men, not women, for directions. In several instances, the gentlemen were not only not mean to me, they walked me to my destination and offered to buy me a drink at a cafe:-) (My kid brother had a tougher time in Paris). Outside of Paris, I found people of both sexes friendlier, especially in Normandy. Never made it to Marseilles.
The rudest native Europeans I encountered were British lefties in Oxford, who began abusing me as soon as they heard my accent.
Ugly Americans are ruining things for us sex tourists.
The “ugly” foreigner: Not sure about the rest of you, but I find the same cognitive dissonance in the foreign ex-pats here. The more they hate America, the more they love their “home” country, the more they are Liberal (collectively meaning the whole spectrum – from fascists to communists). Often, they work for our government, or for universities. They deny holocausts (e.g. the Gulag, the Armenians, the Kurds, and yes, the Holocaust(really! and guess who that guy voted for!), and discrimination (e.g. against Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Bahia or other religions, or tribes (Biafra anyone?)) in their home countries.
Those who love America frequently tell the wildest tales of bigotry (India), death squads (El Salvador), communism (Nicaragua), and mass murder (Iran). I will always remember when my Iranian 2d line flipped out. An Iranian-Bahia, he teared an hour in a rant-tirade about Iran, the Shah, and America. He criticized America – for electing Carter and letting the Shah fall and effectively installing Islamists. Let’s see, would it have anything to do with 46 of his relatives being slaughtered? Or his own family’s narrow escape from Iran? Now – that movie would make some cha ching, but it doesn’t go with the narrative.
My heart bleeds for all the immigrants who want to come here and be American. No matter what their circumstances. There should be no welcome mat though for those who want to bring their “home” country’s biases, bigotries, prejudices, ignorance, and hatreds, and who demand that our government shove this garbage down our throats and force us to honor it.
Plus, of all those foreign ex-pats who love America I know, none have been on the dole. All have been hard workers, many professionals, and their criticism, if any, of America is usually true (and not disingenuously so) and has no substantial impact on either America’s record of exceptional-ism or its record of exceptions.