In a speech this week British PM Tony Blair chided European leaders for their “mad anti-Americanism,” according to wire reports. He went on to say that the world would be a more dangerous place if Americans “pull up the drawbridge and disengage.”
Such staunch, logical and principled support of America has cost Blair, and he has announced that he will be stepping down next year. So for Blair, the defense of his principles has been a Pyrrhic victory. What makes Blair’s defense of America noble is that his high IQ most certainly told him it would or could cost him his political career. In Europe, as in Canada (where I reside), anti-Americanism is a powerful political tool, used to create both national identity and support for various types of nationalistic policies and agendas, usually subsidized by the government.
In Canada, for instance, there’s the notorious Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, which uses Big-Brother style tactics to ensure Canadian content on the airwaves, permits Canadian television networks to feed parasitically off American programming and bans satellite dishes that feed viewers highly desired but dangerous, inflammatory and elicit broadcasting, such as ESPN.
We need the CRTC to protect us and keep our minds and hearts pure and uncorrupted by the American way of life. Central to the CRTC’s mandate and funding, therefore, is a vein of robust anti-Americanism. Pro-American Blair’s real nemesis, then, isn’t opportunistic politicians who pander to hysteric yankee-phobia, its a large chunck of the non-American Western world which despises and envies American lifestyle, power and prestige.
I have been unable to discern any moral (right vs. wrong) element in this disparaging assessment of the United States by its so-called allies. Instead it appears to me that dislike of America is based on antagonism toward the nation as a “consumerist” culture (because Americans have more disposable income) and the idealistic belief that rogue states, dictators and terrorists can be convinced to be good by nice words rather than corercive force — flying in the face of more than 2000 years’ of historical evidence.
Have PoliticalMavens.com delivered to your inbox in a daily digest by clicking here
