Hating America
by
John Chuckman
Dissident Voice
March 12, 2003
Recently
there has been a thunderous outburst of accusations about "hating
America" with lightning strokes crackling towards France and Germany. Some
of this storm front rattled into Canada when a member of Parliament, upset over
Mr. Bush's relentless demand for war, made the mistake of muttering an aside
about hating Americans, a statement which any thoughtful person understood immediately
as frustration rather than hatred.
But how is it even possible
to hate so vast and complex a thing as America?
America is sweaty, droning
backwaters, and it is also great institutions of research and culture. America
is shameful ghettos and shantytowns, and it is Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis
Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and Frederick Law Olmstead. It is the hateful
shouting of right-wing radio personalities, and it is Studs Terkel reminiscing
on great past events. It is Know Nothings, and it is Lincoln; lynchings and
Roosevelt's Four Freedoms. It is "freedom-loving" patriots who
bought, sold, and beat slaves, ran Loyalists out of the country and stole their
property when they didn't just burn them out, and it is Benjamin Franklin. It is
local sheriffs enjoying petty tyrannies, gangs running neighborhoods, crooked
politicians fixing elections, and it is the Bill of Rights. It is a churning
sea of selfishness and unprincipled grasping, a hideous noise of marketing and
insincerity, and it is sacrifice and devotion to principles. America has a
character historian Page Smith called, in a usage that is now dated and
inaccurate but still understandable, "schizophrenic."
One of the threads holding
together the vast, chaotic, noisy battle that is America is the simplistic
patriotism instilled like religious fervor with anthems, uniformed marching
bands, baton twirlers, slogans, color guards, and a pledge foisted on children
that has always smacked of what one expects in authoritarian societies.
Patriotic excess has at
least two roots. One is the desire by those with power to hold this explosive
thing called America together and to use its resources and influence to their
own ends. Thus we almost never see figures like George Bush or Dick Cheney
without American flag pins on their lapels and big American flags as backdrops
to speeches, as though one could possibly forget what country they come from.
These symbols are being used as powerful totems. You can't sneer at the flag
even when it is a pathetic mediocrity or an essentially evil figure wrapping
himself in it.
The other root is the almost
excruciating sensitivity many Americans feel about their national identity.
This is something one expects to find in any young and raw society, but America
does appear a bit slow in maturing beyond it. Undoubtedly, the discomforting
nature (for some) of a highly diverse population whose composition actually
keeps changing provides a retarding effect. So, too, does America's crude
social Darwinism. This is a land where it is not hard to find a lot of
loneliness and anger, people ready to embrace those chest-thumping moments of
presumed society.
Of course, a confident
individual doesn't need to strut or brag or threaten. Brash patriotic displays
reveal a childish need for constant reassurance. This doubt and uncertainty is
a theme running through American history with, for example, the highly
self-conscious efforts of the Concord Group about seeing an American literature
created, or with authors like Henry James, T.S. Elliot, or James Baldwin
effectively fleeing either the excesses or the cultural sterility of their
native land.
That is the more charitable
explanation, and I believe it holds for the most part. But there also is that
dark corner of the American soul with its attraction to fascism. After all,
fascism represents in part a desire for certainty and predictability. Perhaps
only the Hitler-tinged figures of the world feel the need for a vast dumb-show
of patriotism every time they give a speech or make an appearance, and I
believe what we see in George Bush who is more given over to this display than
most American presidents hints at something quite dark and fearful.
Many outsiders do not
understand that in American society, two or more great and divergent currents
run simultaneously at all times on most issues. I refer to something more
profound than the existence of two political parties, neither of which stands
for any great principles. For example, many think of America as the land of
casualness, lack of formality, hatred of bureaucracy, and the embrace of the
individual. And in part, they are right, but only in part.
At the same time that noisy
right-wing hacks blubber night and day about unlimited individualism, Americans
in their ordinary lives experience some of the world's more intense spasms of
mindless bureaucracy and anti-liberalism, often the result of legislation
created by the very same right-wing forces with their seemingly irresistible
desire for control.
As any potential immigrant,
even the spouse of an American citizen ostensibly entitled to live in the
country, soon learns, the paperwork, restrictions, and bureaucratic hurdles of
legal immigration to the United States are formidable, ungenerous, and costly,
something that was true even before 9/11.
As anyone who has taken a
mortgage in the United States knows, the transaction involves one of the
largest and most complex piles of paperwork that can be imagined. Something
like an inch-thick stack of legalistic documents no ordinary person can hope to
understand must be signed.
As anyone who has filed
income tax in the United States knows, the forms and rules must rank as among
the ugliest, most complex, and indecipherable on the planet.
And, of course, there are
the many intrusive, blundering public and secret agencies with which America
abounds. The FBI, the NSA, the CIA, the ATF, the DEA, Homeland Security,
military intelligence, naval intelligence, State Department intelligence, state
and urban police security agencies, the INS… New ones are created regularly,
especially when right-wing extremists enjoy power as they do now.
Albert Einstein wrote to a
friend in 1947, "America has changed… It has become pretty military and
aggressive. The fear of Russia is the means of making it digestible to the
plebs." Since Einstein was a refugee from Nazi Germany and always
displayed great sensitivity to signs of authoritarianism, his words offer an
important historical insight to distinct change in the external policies of the
United States. What has followed is a long series of colonial wars and
interventions, a remarkable portion of which have been unsuccessful and
pointlessly bloody or have resulted in the establishment of tyrannies. It is
not hard for a thinking person to find things to "hate" here without
reflecting on any broader concepts of America.
As for what Canadians
represent, I can only think of Canada fighting Hitler two years before America,
suffering in World War II about twice as many deaths per capita as Americans
did. I think of America's kidnapped diplomats in Iran and the brave Canadian
diplomat who hid some of them from danger. I think of the wonderful people of
Newfoundland generously, without charge, putting up hundreds American
air-travelers grounded for days following 9/11. I think of the many generous
gifts Canadians sent to 9/11 families. I think of Toronto sending a fleet of
men and equipment to Buffalo, New York, when it was buried in seven feet of
snow.
Anyone with sense would be
grateful for a neighbor like that, but Canadians still have no use for your
damned war.
John Chuckman lives in Canada and is former chief
economist for a large Canadian oil company. He is a columnist for Yellow
Times.org, where this article first appeared (www.yellowtimes.org).