Why Europeans And Arabs Hate America And Israel: In this brash, provocative essay for
The Weekly Standard, good old
David Brooks blames what he calls
bourgeoisophobia. He may have gone too far in his desire to make his point, but there's
something in what he says. Is it envy? Is it anti-semitism? Is it hypocrisy pure and simple? There's definitely a ressurgence of the pushy, garish, ostentatious and arrogant "ugly American" stereotype after September 11. Apart from the conservative
Daily Telegraph and
Spectator, it's becoming more and more difficult for Atlanticists such as myself to avoid ritual America-bashing in the European mainstream press. What in the
hell is going on? My feeling is that Americans themselves are going out of their way to reaffirm their way of life and reinforce those prejudices. It's as if you
vont to be alone. Or is it, as I suspect, just us? [
More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Apr 14, 2002 -
84 comments
Why Are So Many Americans Cancelling Their Subscriptions To "The London Review of Books"? This letter from
Paul Genova rings true - and
touché - to this European at least. Ever since the very respectable
LRB published its
issue on the September 11 attacks, American readers(and some notable contributors) have been writing in droves to cancel their subscriptions and connections to the journal.
Mary Beard's article(
op.cit.) aroused most of the fury, though others are arguably just as outrageous. In the pages of this most lively of letter sections - graciously available online - this particular correspondence seems to demonstrate an ever-sharpening divide between American and European intellectuals. Are Paul Genova's and other readers' disgusted reactions justified? Are they specific to the WTC attacks or, more worryingly, representative of a wider separation?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Feb 15, 2002 -
46 comments
