Uncle Sam, Made Ugly By Sebastian Mallaby
LONDON -- Here in Europe, you get a fresh view of the United States. It is a country "increasingly in thrall to a very particular conservatism"; it languishes in "the extraordinary grip of Christian fundamentalism"; its democracy is "an offense to democratic ideals." The aforementioned "overblown conservative rhetoric" sadly "prevents self-knowledge and intelligent self-criticism." Indeed, this "dominant conservatism is very ideological, almost Leninist."
The U.S. economy, meanwhile, "rests on an enormous confidence trick." It is governed by "a Wall Street crazed by greed" with the result that "corporate America now no longer principally seeks to innovate." It produces "severe economic and social problems": There has been "a marked growth in American selfishness and introversion"; "obesity has reached unprecedented levels." All that before you get to the "tenacious endemic racism" and the grim fact that "citizens routinely shoot each other."
These quotes do not come from some marginal fringe nut. They come from "The World We're In," a new book by Will Hutton, a former editor of the London Observer, a traditional beacon of Britain's high-brow left. Hutton's last book was a bestseller and for a time appeared to influence Tony Blair's Labour Party. Writing in the Financial Times recently, John Lloyd, another prominent leftish intellectual, declared that "Hutton holds first place among left-of-center British journalists."
What to make of Hutton's polemic? It's easy to say that it's exaggerated: that tenacious racism lately has been less visible among Americans than among French voters, that crazed gunmen recently opened fire on innocents in France and Germany, that another gunman assassinated a leading Dutch politician last Monday, that the American economy has bounced back from recession with alacrity and that, if conservatives really have staged a Leninist putsch in Washington, it's strange that government spending is booming. But all this misses the biggest questions Hutton poses. Why does this respected author -- and many other Europeans like him -- resort to this kind of caricature? And why should we care?
Why does he do it? Well, here's a theory. Societies, and especially intellectuals, need to define themselves against others. From 1945 to 1990, West Europeans defined themselves against two "isms": the fascism only recently defeated and the communism that menaced their cities with nuclear missiles. They were preoccupied, moreover, with the domestic clash of socialism and liberalism, which kept politics lively. But now these isms are all wasms. It's hard to know with whom to argue these days.
What are Europeans to do then? Some revolt against the European Union: Jean-Marie Le Pen called the euro a currency of occupation, and Britain's Conservative Party is dominated by Euro-skeptics. Some revolt against Muslim immigrants: Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch right-winger assassinated last Monday, complained that Islam's intolerance threatened his gay lifestyle. And yet others revolt against America just because it's big and powerful and omnipresent. Like Hutton, they exaggerate its weaknesses and complain of its "hyperpower."
You can say that this is silly and does no one any good. But it's worth noting that mirror-image caricatures of Europe can be found in the United States. The prominence of Europe's anti-immigrant far right, together with some horrible attacks on synagogues, has prompted exaggerated talk of a return to the anti-Semitism of the 1930s. But this is like seizing upon Pat Buchanan plus an outbreak of black church burnings and declaring that America is about to reintroduce slavery.
The truth is that both Americans and Europeans are guilty of caricaturing each other and that this habit may grow more dangerous as the Cold War fades in memory. It is not just that these old allies have lost a common enemy; it is that each has a psychological need to construct a replacement. The more Europeans define themselves against America, the more Americans feel the temptation to do without Europe and resort to unilateralism. The more Americans succumb to that temptation, the more Europeans denounce the United States as a nation of cowboys.
The effects of this dynamic are visible across a range of European-American issues, from the fractious trade relationship to the doubts about NATO's future to the clash over multilateral initiatives such as the International Criminal Court. Alliances cannot withstand endless mutual acrimony, however deep their roots are, which is why it's important to ignore the contrived demons peddled by Hutton and his ilk.