Hating Yanks

Here's a taut little essay by Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The New York Times on "anti-americanism" entitled "Smiley's (Anti-American) People." It's prompted by the recent release of a John LeCarre novel which is more of vitriolic screed than fiction. Some rather naive reviewers, like the one in this Sunday's Washington Post Book World, have expressed a rather touching shock at the level of LeCarre's anger at the United States post-9/11. They obviously think that since he writes about spies, he must be some sort of hawk. And just as obviously they haven't read much of his stuff, which as Wheatcroft observes is "a writer who has enjoyed much success in America despite an aversion to American power dating from his earliest books, who has no very subtle political understanding, but who all too accurately voices the bitterness of national impotence and decline." Just read the first couple of pages of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy if you doubt this.

As Wheatcroft makes clear, this attitude is a very strong current in British conservatism. Lord Salisbury, enshrined in our links section in the form of Salisbury Review genuinely hated the United States, and remained a supporter of the Confederacy long after its destruction. Dr. Curmudgeon's literary hero, Evelyn Waugh, is a shining example of this kind of thick stupidity. Writing to Graham Greene, he made the astonishing claim that "Of course, the Americans are cowards. They are almost all the descendants of wretches who deserted their legitimate monarchs for fear of military service."

Oh, buh-ruh-thaaah.

As Wheatcroft notes, for decades "The Americans were supposed to take this in good humor: it is poignant that the greatest of presidents was assassinated while watching an English comedy called 'Our American Cousin,' which mocked the former colonials for their uncouth ways."

After four years in England, I think my humor ran dry. They are going to have to get used to their jokes being treated with a little less respect from this Yank.