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The New York Times

14 February 2003

 

 

THE INTELLECTUALS

 

A Sense of Fine Qualities Trampled and of Something 'Terribly Wrong'

 

By SARAH LYALL

 

LONDON, Feb. 13 — When asked what they think of the United States in these

uncertain times, European intellectuals tend to draw a swift distinction

between the American government and the American people.

 

But European anti-Americanism is more than just straightforward opposition

to the policies of the current administration. There is a growing sense

here, reflected in interviews with writers, cultural figures and other

intellectual leaders in Western Europe, that many of America's most

admirable qualities — its respect for its great cacophony of voices, its

belief in freedom, its proud democratic principles — have been so trampled

in the debate over war as to have been rendered toothless or even

nonexistent.

 

" Something has gone terribly wrong in America, " said Jacqueline Rose, a

feminist scholar in Britain. " America established a certain tradition of

public dissent, with the civil rights and feminist and anti-Vietnam

movements. But post-Sept. 11 there is a feeling that the American left has

largely gone silent. "

 

In The Times of London last month, the author John le Carré went further,

writing that " America has entered one of its periods of historical madness,

but this is the worst I can remember. " Comparing the current crisis to

the McCarthy era, he said, " The freedoms that have made America the envy

of the world are being systematically eroded. "

 

Opposition to the war is everywhere in Western Europe. Millions are

expected to take part in antiwar protests around the world this weekend,

and more and more people here have been signing petitions, publishing

antiwar articles in newspapers and on the Internet, and giving speeches at

antiwar rallies.

 

In France and Germany, dozens of influential writers, artists, scientists

and others — including Günter Grass, Christa Wolf and Jacques Derrida —

signed a statement opposing the war.

 

In Britain, a similar petition appeared today in The Guardian, signed by,

among others, the musicians Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, the playwright

David Hare and the actors Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman. In Spain, where

the film establishment turned a recent film awards ceremony into a virtual

antiwar demonstration several weeks ago, the director Pedro Almodóvar

plans to present an antiwar manifesto at a rally in Madrid on Saturday.

 

Some of the antiwar sentiment goes hand in hand with an outright hatred of

all things American, a view that many believe belongs in the category of

" stupid anti-Americanism, " as the author Peter Schneider, a German, put it

in an interview. But stupid or not, such an attitude is on the rise.

 

" I would say that even in the Vietnam years, I've never seen so much

anti-Americanism all over Europe as I see now, " Mr. Schneider said. " This

is something America doesn't realize. "

 

But the cause for a subtler approach toward the United States, which Mr.

Schneider advocates, is not helped by the American government's perceived

lack of subtlety. The Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom says one of the most

distressing recent developments is how the Bush administration seems to

dismiss even well-thought-out European disagreement.

 

" I get rather upset if I read American comments from people like Perle and

Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld that we are all anti-American, " Mr. Nooteboom said.

" I do not think I am anti-American; nor do I like it when people say I am,

because of a difference of opinion. "

 

In The Guardian today, Annick Cojean, a commentator from the French

newspaper Le Monde, said the debate had descended into vicious

name-calling from America's politicians, supported by a too-complacent

news media. " This torrent of insults against France and Germany, these are

insults that one thought belonged to a bygone century, " she wrote.

 

Europeans have always been ambivalent toward the United States. Affections

ebb and flow; each country has its own history and relationship with

America. Cultural leaders might denounce the ubiquitousness of American

influence, but they wear American clothes, read American books, listen to

American music, watch (and make) American films, and cross the Atlantic as

readily as they might cross the French-German border.

 

 

Anyone who's sincere would admit to a certain degree of conflict or

compromise in their own life about America, " said Ian Jack, editor of the

British magazine Granta. " You find that, even with writers who say, `I

cannot stand what American culture has done for the world,' many of them

have e-mail addresses ending in `harvard.edu.' "

 

The same is true among another growing anti-American group in Europe:

young people who criticize what they see as imperialistic tendencies in

the United States, bullying tactics, and an effort to turn the world into

an American-owned subsidiary.

Advertisement

 

 

Such are those who might take part in antiglobalization demonstrations and

buy anti-American books — several were on French best-seller lists last

year — but they could also be seen dancing to Bruce Springsteen at a

recent concert in Paris, shouting themselves hoarse.

 

" I don't believe one should blame America; America is many other things

besides whether or not there is a war in Iraq, " said the Italian

commentator Alain Elkann, an adviser to the Italian culture minister.

" Each one of us for one reason or another dreams of America, and America

is everywhere. "

 

Johano Strasser, president of the German PEN Center, the international

writers' organization that defends freedom of expression, said that if

disagreeing with the United States meant being anti-American, " I know many

Americans who are also anti-American.

 

" I think it's nonsense to talk about pro-Americanism and anti-Americanism,

" he said. " People have different opinions on very important political

questions. Let's talk about the opinions and not the motivation behind

them. "

 

In Italy, where there is a particularly deep affection for the United

States, even opponents of war say that many Europeans are unfairly

dismissing the profound sense of anger and vulnerability that are driving

American policy. " I would prefer an approach from America that was more

open to discussion and different points of view, " said Furio Colombo, the

editor and publisher of the Socialist newspaper L'Unità in Rome. " But

anyone who was here and not in New York on Sept. 11 cannot understand in

full the immensity of that tragedy. "

 

But to many, even such sympathy is tempered by a real disillusionment in a

country they once loved, or at least admired.

 

" As recently as the mid-80's, there was a view where you thought that

America made mistakes but was a force for good in the world, " said Will

Hutton, chief executive of the Work Foundation in Britain and the author

of " A Declaration of Interdependence: Why America Should Join the World. "

" Europeans, like Americans, were captivated by America's fantastic

Constitution, by the promise of a whole continent consecrated by the idea

of liberty. "

 

" That's still there, " he continued. " But there's another America which is

rather threatening, a bullying America convinced of its own rectitude,

profoundly disregarding the sensibilities of others. "

 

That is the America that Mr. Nooteboom, the Dutch writer, said seems to be

prevailing right now. " There's this enormous pressure by the United States

to have it their way and do it their way, " he said. " In the meantime, some

very precious friendships and allegiances and great positive feelings

toward one another are being ruined. "

 

 

" Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature. "

-- Samuel Butler

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