Dan Simmons on the Iraq/Middle East Situation

The New York Times made the news recently. They had an article that actually said the situation in Iraq had some improvements. FOX News reported it.

Dan Simmons responds to an disgruntled American complaining about how unpopular the US is in Europe, from his message board:

Dan Simmons comments to Sylvain --

You wrote --"And lets say that today everybody thinks in Europe that Americans in general are . . ."

In that phrase, even without having to finish the sentence, you have encapsulated the reason why so many thoughtful Americans no longer give a damn about what "Europeans think."

1)" . . . everybody thinks in Europe . . ." It must be nice to have a 100% smug and absolute consensus on the failings of some other nation, some other people, some other people's national leader. Don't Europeans ever WORRY that such total consensus means that they're dealing from massive prejudice rather than real thought or debate?

2) " . . . that Americans in general are . . ." We've heard this sort of generalizations about "Americans in general" from French, Germans, Brits, and other Europeans for decades now, and the generalizations haven't gotten any smarter. At least Americans, in their ignorance of specific European issues, political parties, and political leaders admit to their ignorance and have the good grace to keep their mouths shut rather than reveal their ignorance. Too many Europeans seem to revel in their ignorance of American realities. Europeans feel they have been gifted by some divine second sight to understand " . . . Americans in general . . ." when there is no such thing as "Americans in general."

I understand that there are valid psychological reasons why Europeans finding solidarity in opposing "American hegemony" (whatever the hell that is) and unanimity in judging America's failings help the many squabbling nations and cultures of Europe feel "more European" (since they haven't found unity any other way), but it's still tiresome.

I confess that it's also wearying to hear -- constantly -- these moral judgments about the United States from European nations that still have the blood of the Holocaust (or from collaborating in the Holocaust) up to their elbows, or from generations of Europeans that have grown up in democracies only because of the sacrifice of so much American blood and treasure during World War II and for decades after.

Many in the States happen to believe -- for a wide variety of reasons that Europeans may not have been exposed to -- that Al Gore is a showboating putz. We obviously argue that point amongst ourselves,(the last time was during the presidential election of 2000,) just as we argue about almost everything else here. We'd be happy to discuss the sepcifics of those arguments (including global warming) with our European friends, but ONLY if they quit thinking and judging en masse and promise to learn a lot more about this country and its people before they launch their absolute pronouncements.

I now return you to the reasoned discussions here with Some Fool and others.

-- Dan S.

I love it when "celebrities" don't automatically jump on the European America-Hating bandwagon.

See previous discussion about the Dixie Chicks...bandwagon jumpers for sure.