Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America

[jsbowden]

I recently read the book in question, and while it's not an easy read (things of this nature aren't really written to be), it is an interesting one.

I don't know if cerebrate_think bothers to monitor LJ accounts anymore, but this is a book I'd recommend, based on many of the things he's said WRT to the UK prior to his leaving for here. So, Amy, if you see this, let Alistair know this is something I think he'd like, 'kay?

In general, I'd say it paints of fairly grim picture of European attitudes towards us. It definitely makes it plain that antisemitism is alive and well in Europe, although in a new guise..

The only Europeans I know are the ones I've met who've come to the US, and they aren't generally anti US or I suspect they'd have chosen other ways to use that vacation time and money, and the folks on my f-list who I've been interacting with over the intertubes in various forums for the last dozen years. I think Herr Markovits might be overstating things based on these long time interactions, but then, the sorts of people who don't like us were definitely present (and still are) on various Usenet corners, and this book pretty much nails them.

Comments

[cerebralsilicate.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

"hiding behind me"?

There's a passingly infamous hadith, in which in the world's final hours the trees and rocks are supposed to call out to the Muslims and say "There is a Jew hiding behind me! Come and kill him!". It gets cited a lot in the more foaming-at-the-mouth fanatic strands.

Literally, eh? That's been a root cause of pretty much every form of anti-Semitism as long as can be remembered. Irony hits the roof when the laws against Christians dealing with money were why the Jews became the bankers in the first place...

It's an interesting one, to me, because you can see the cognates to the way many people just love minorities in general until they become successful and start joining the majority, at which point the hate comes down.

But that's just a blending, not all of it - I don't pretend to have a good handle on generalised European anti-Semitism. The former reasonably obvious religious reasons you'd think would go away at least somewhat on the world's self-designatedly most secular continent, and no-one ever comes out with a reason that isn't one of the usual rationalisations. As far as I can tell, Europeans dislike Jews because Europeans dislike Jews.

It's a bloody weird mindset, and I wish I could get some better insight into where it comes from. I just know it exists, and seems to be getting more and more virulent and intense with time.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, Europeans dislike Jews because Europeans dislike Jews.

The actual religious reasons may be gone, but the effects can remain.

But honestly, this has happened before, building up to a spike. Last time it spiked...well. But the time before that (Dreyfus) has been cited as the origin of Zionism and the eventual creation of the state of Israel.

[prince-corwin.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if it's not a societal version of the Uncanny Valley: "They're almost like us... but just enough unlike to get us to focus on the ways in which they're not."