American Anti-Europeanism

[truth-searcher]

Hier ein interessanter Artikel über den amerikanischen Anti-Europäismus aus dem seriösen britischen "The Guardian", written by Todd Gitlin, professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,887678,00.html

Auszüge:

...Rumsfeld's disdain is as old as America, an extension of Europe, which in a certain sense founded itself as the anti-Europe ...

...The cultural side of anti-Europeanism has a long, thick history. Throughout the 20th century, American culture defined itself as the fundamental against the complex, the bold against the hesitant, the redskin against the paleface. Against the opera, there was Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Against symphonies, there was jazz. Against Proust, Joyce, and American wannabes like Henry James, there was Hemingway, with his Old Testament cadences. (Never mind that he was an expat too.) The European movie talked, the American movie moved. Arnold Schwarzenegger could become an American icon, not despite his limited facility with the American language, but because of it. ...

... So what exactly is this American anti-Europeanism of which so much is heard these days?

It is the corollary to a distinct political style - which happens to be the style that rules from Washington. The anti-Europeanism in circulation now is an accompaniment to the messianism of the administration in power. It is heavily regional - a product of the Sunbelt, which consists of the old Confederacy plus the mountain states and the prairie, counting roughly half the national populace. Texas is its heartland. Oil is its definitive industry. The heartland of anti-Europe was Reagan's America and now, minus California, it is George W Bush's. This Sunbelt imagines itself ruggedly self-sufficient. It likes to think of itself as six-shooter country. Diplomacy means follow the leader. Watching UN-mandated inspections is, well, like watching paint dry. ...

Aber das gilt nicht für alle Amerikaner:

...Even in the Republican heartland, Bush's constituents are not saddling up. Even after his messianic State of the Union address, Americans at large are unconvinced of the need to rush to war. There's no evidence either that Americans overall enjoy riling Europe, Old or New. Just as John le Carré was wrong to declare recently that "88% of Americans want the war", there is little reason to fear that most of America sneers at the Kyoto protocol; or at the International Criminal Court; or at most of Europe's commitments - or, indeed, at Europe.

Was denkt Ihr darüber?

Wie seht ihr die Einstellung der Amerikaner gegenüber den Europäern?

Glaubt ihr, dass diese Einstellung eine der Ursachen für die Bush-Politik gegenüber dem "alten" Europa ist?

Grüsse und Frieden,

Truth-searcher