ANGLO-AMERICAN: TWO POWERS SEPARATED BY A COMMON HYPHEN
We had a great time at the Skinner's Arms last night. My lovely little sister Christine is visiting London on Christmas break from Japan, where she is teaching English. Among other things, we compared notes on the attitudes of "the locals" towards Americans and the war. My general impression: citizens of the former enemy Imperium, which we once attacked with atomic bombs, are more favorably disposed towards America than those of the former Imperium with which we have an alliance, and which we helped rescue from Nazi domination. I'm not sure if it's "ironic," exactly, but it's interesting.
Damian Penny, the good Canadian (of the top-notch Daimnation! blog) writes with a helpful suggestion for Americans in England: why not just tell them you're Canadian? It's true that there's not much anti-Canadian fervor out here. But I don't think I could "pass." My girlfriend claims she can spot an American guy from blocks away, just by how he walks. Anyway, you're okay as long as you keep your mouth shut, whether or not you're Canadian. Until you speak, they just assume you're as anti-American as they are, if you appear to be from their own social class (middle-class, educated, for me.) One does often have the sensation of being "baited," presented with near-inflammatory statements as an experiment to gauge the reaction. (It's less extreme, but similar to my experience, long ago, of visiting an ex-girlfriend's back-woods, deep-south family, who kept testing me by telling racist jokes...)
It's my impression that British children are taught to be generally suspicious, even ashamed, of the very idea of patriotism; they get freaked out by it when they observe it in others. They are certainly taught to be ashamed of Britain's imperial past. (In America, you have to wait till your first Chomsky-encounter, usually in your freshman year of college, to encounter this sort of attitude.) Perhaps this ethos requires a suspicion and hostility to the world's current hegemon, whoever that might be, as a matter of course-- see the Madeleine Allbright survey below. It's probably more complicated than that, I know. More later, as always.
Posted by Dr. Frank at December 20, 2001 01:39 PM | TrackBack