Let us cleave these plucky little Americans to our bosom

[kskiska]

The Americans now see us, apparently, as 'introverted, arrogant bores who whip children and live in perpetual rain'

Euan Ferguson

All generalisations are dangerous, even this one. But the worst kind, it's often seemed, are those about nationalities. The French as dogbreathy bed-hoppers; the Italians as pretty cowards; the Aussies as irritatingly upbeat simpletons whose definition of 'cultured' is someone who gets out the bath to have a pee; the Bulgarians as torn-faced miserly cut-throat scum who would sooner slice open their neighbour's first-born than pick up a bar of soap; the Swedes as a kindlier, sexier yet strangely more suicidal version of the Germans... lazy generalisations, pat and trite and unhelpful, unless of course you're ever planning to go, quite unaccountably, to Bulgaria.

(snip)

This, then, is the special relationship. US ambassador William S Farish was going on about it again yesterday, in a valedictory piece after three short years in Britain. His impressions, he told us, were that normal Britons see George W Bush not as a caricature but 'as a plain-spoken man of principle who says what he believes', which shows Farish as a man not above actionably deluded poppycock in the same way the ocean is not above the sky.

He went on again, fairly cynically, about the special relationship. They throw this phrase at us so cheaply, like dropped popcorn; it means as much as an empty promise to a mistress. No, not a mistress, a 'stalker'; we are the ones who know, obsessively, their tastes, their plans, their favourite films, and they are the ones with a dim recollection of poking us once in a cabbagey attic and an even hazier recollection of our name.

(snip)

Every couple on every cloistered flatulent coach trip, every vapid trotted tourist cliche, every dismal teacake in the rain, has been, we can now see, a proud and determined little blow against ignorance: and this summer we must talk to them, or at least stop sneering quite so openly; and see them as one last hope for a better American future, and bless their little polyester socks.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1243364,00.html

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Fantastic piece!

I hope I get the quote right: "What that God the giftie gie us/ to see oursels as others see us".

This essay is one of the best think-pieces I've ever read on the subtle ethnocentrism that can jar your head into whiplash in less than a second.

As we Americans, and the Europeans collectively, see ourselves as an intelligent minority surrounded by strange and frightening savages, we should keep this lesson in mind. People who are different from us may be scary, but nothing is more fearful than shutting out the possibility of connection with our fellow humans.

--bkl

[left is right]

4. Burns, "To A Louse" wonderful quote

When I quote it I say "Would" not what and "ithers" not others but I have no hint whether you are correct or if I am

[Dogmudgeon]

5. You probably have to correct version

I suspected it was Burns, and I probably saw the attribution once, but I learned the quote when I was about 14.

Thanks for the update -- I'll try to find the full version of "To A Louse", too!

--bkl

[patdem]

2. Good point...do not hate Americans who visit Europe

if you MUST hate Americans...hate those who never visit outside America...or chose not to!

[Lisa]

3. nobody ever notices the polite tourists ...

Yesterday I observed a couple of American visitors. They were not strutting about or making obnoxious remarks -- evidently they were trying to blend in with the locals, as they were attempting to take a city bus! (I assume they were staying with friends, as this was in a part of town that doesn't have hotels.) Naturally, it's not tourists like this who will be remembered by the store clerks and restaurant staff -- only the unpleasant ones.

I gave them information on how to get downtown, plus a spare bus schedule, and two bus tickets (rather than have them sacrifice $5 US, which was the smallest denomination they had). It pleases me, to be able to help nice people.