LAISVĖS AIDAS

AMERIKA

Disturbing as it may be, the sad truth is that
many people throughout the world DO hate America and what she stands for

FIVE years ago Hollywood produced a spate of movies about attacks on Earth by aliens from other planets. The most extreme of these films was Independence Day. In it, alien spaceships station themselves over every major city - and then blast them to pieces.

The movie had been on general release only a few weeks when word filtered back to Hollywood that when New York was pulverised to dust, the audience in cinemas across Europe burst into cheers. The producers were left wondering: 'Why New York?'

The answer to this question might provide us with a clue to the amazing turn-around that seems to be happening in some sections of our society in the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attack on the twin towers of New York's world Trade Centre.

The first 48 hours brought a wave of sympathy for the victims and outrage against the perpetrators. Londoners queued to sign books of condolence.

Listeners to radio phone-ins heard Britons emphasising their close ties of blood, language and culture with Americans and their horror at the images of devastation on their television screens.

Government ministers lined up to tell the nation that we stood shoulder to shoulder with our American cousins in this terrible hour. Nothing was ruled out. Briton was prepared to go all the way with the U.S.A.

Then something happened. Almost overnight, another emotion crept in. On the special edition of BBC's Question Time on Thursday evening, a surprising number of people in the audience said, in effect: 'Serves American right.’

People remembered that this was the first time in American history that the U.S. mainland had been attacked, and noted the panic that the bombing seemed to have caused - all borders closed. all aircraft grounded, military on top alert, the President shuttling around the country from Florida to Louisiana to Strategic Air Command in Nebraska, home to the nuclear bunker.

Many recalled the bravery and stoicism that Britain displayed during the Blitz. Others pointed out that Britain - and many other countries - had been living with terrorist attacks for years. The IRA bombing in Brighton, which came close to killing not only Mrs Thatcher but many of her Cabinet, did not close the country down. Life went on as normal.

They also noted that one of the main sources of funding for IRA terrorism had been its sympathisers in the U.S.

This sort of mild anti-Americanism could be summed up as: 'You've been lucky for so long. Now welcome to the real world.'

But it appears to have kickstarted and anti-Americanism that is much more basic and widespread and which stuns Americans when they are confronted with it.

Most Americans do not travel abroad: less than ten per cent have a passport. At home, they are certain that the rest of the world regards them as Americans regard themselves - kind, happy, tolerant people who want to spread democracy, freedom and prosperity everywhere.

It therefore comes as a terrible shock to them to learn, from angry demonstrations like those in London and Seattle in 1999 against the World Trade Organisation summit, that so many people dislike them and their country – some with a hatred so murderous that they could plan and execute Tuesday’s atrocity.

What exactly is the source of this second form of anti-Americanism? Much of it is simply envy. We envy the wealth and prosperity of the U.S. We envy its confidence, its success.

But we also resent its cultural imperialism, the fact that if Americans had their way we would all be eating McDonald's hamburgers, dancing to American drinking Starbuks coffee and wears Nike shoes.

In a Greek nightclub last summer I watched dozens of young men and women eschew American pop to dance to traditional Greek folk songs. When I asked why, one replied: 'We don't want to be conquered by the Yanks.' 

Many also dislike America's bullying over trade matters (‘Trade on our terms or not at all’), its self-centred foreign policy, its contempt for treaties which no longer suit it, its willingness to use force as long as it can avoid American casualties.

THIS visceral anti-Americanism was best summed up by playwright Harold Pinter in a speech earlier this week: 'Arrogant, indifferent, contemptuous of international law, both dismissive and manipulative of the United Nations - this is now the most dangerous power the world has ever known.'

I wonder, however, if it is not the New York aspects of the American character that is behind much of this ill-will - New Yorkers' ignorance, crassness, sense of superiority, the flaunting of their wealth and, above all, their contempt for anyone who does not hold the same values or think like they do.

This is why the attack on the World Trade Center carries a symbolism for anyone who has harboured even the slightest sliver of anti-American feeling.

Most would disagree but the twin towers were, to some eyes, New Yorkers' two-finger salute to the rest of the world.

KERŠTAS