November 28, 2002

Christopher Hitchens on anti-Americanism: as

Christopher Hitchens on anti-Americanism:

as with the simultaneously over-capacious and over-specific analogues ("terrorism," "anti-Semitism") we do seem to need a word for it. There are those in the Islamic world for whom the slogan "Death to America" is a real and meaningful invocation. There are those in Europe and elsewhere for whom the word "American" occasions a wrinkle in the nostril. And there are those, in America itself, for whom their country can do no right. I at any rate would claim, perhaps uselessly, to know this phenomenon when I see it...

He proposes the new terms "anti-modernist" or "anti-cosmopolitan." I'm not sure about those, but I do like his suggested designation for our own home-grown anti-Americans: "native masochists."

Posted by Dr. Frank at November 28, 2002 09:20 AM | TrackBack