Posted by Mary Madigan
Writing for Open Democracy, Dominic Hilton explains why anti-Americanism is “as derisorily fashionable as those ludicrous woolly boots everyone’s presently sporting”.
Biggest reason – deriding evil capitalist America is profitable:
Unlike back in ‘68, “I hate America” is now “organised”. Not organised in the leftist sense, I mean organised in the Ben and Jerry’s sense. Attractively-packaged, nice tasting, creamy, chocolaty, cookie-dough anti-Americanism that clogs the arteries and numbs the brain.
Fashion trumps sophistication. America’s insignia are ubiquitous — from Ralph Lauren jumpers to Primal Scream album covers to the end of a flaming match in the Arab Street, looking modish even when being burned. I’ve seen kids on TV in Osama bin Laden t-shirts and New York Yankees’ baseball caps (Hello? You don’t see the irony?). I’ve watched young British men in the nondescript north-of-London town of Luton clad in “New York” sweatshirts holding up banners of the extremist Islamic group al-Muhajiroun.
Our rebels are American. So are our anti-Americans. Michael Moore is one of America’s biggest exports. America makes anti-Americanism profitable for America. What a country!
After all, it’s hard to make a buck in a Euro-socialist paradise.
What can we do about it? More ‘we’re sorry’ photos? More parodies of ‘we’re sorry’ photos?
Hilton says it best:
America is not the panacea, nor is it the devil. Our problems are generally our problems. The world would do well to be a little more like America, a tad more insular, self-involved.
Good idea. Europe, for example, has a few problems of its own to work on. Let’s make it a new trend for the summer season; something to replace those ludicrous woolly boots.
[link thanks to Harry at Harry’s Place]
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