Anti-Americanism

Have you ever been labeled "anti-American"? I know I certainly have and I would guess many of my fellow writers here at TBV have, too. It's an interesting label because it's so ambiguous. What is "anti-Americanism"? Seemingly anybody who doesn't go along with the President in whatever it is the Decider decides to do is anti-American, but surely it must mean more than that.

I've asked a great many people to explain anti-Americanism, but I haven't gotten very many answers. The other day while visiting a blog I asked that question an got a rather interesting answer:

Now, people can disagree with the notion of anti-Americanism. But I see it as a co-equal strand of radical ideology itself. Anti-Americanism rejects the founding principles of the United States as a diabolical contradiction in ideals (no liberty, no equality), backed by corporate/business elites, and driven by a messianic religious fundamentalism intent to take over the world. The free market, in addition, with its rugged individualism, is simply the justification for ruthless oppression and exploitation of the working classes. The American system is in essence a hegemonic, imperialist order, intent of conquering the less civilized nations of the world, and capturing all their natural resources for the dominant sectors. In sum, America stands for the propertied classes, the denial of justice, and the elimination of oppositional elements resisting the grand design. The left hates everything about it.

There's a lot of tangled webs to pull apart in that quote, but note how America is basically equated with the capitalist--free marketeers--class. Essentially what's being said is that anti-Americanism is anti-capitalism.

There's a big problem with that, though. Noam Chomsky sheds some light on this curious term:

Such concepts are typically used only in totalitarian states or military dictatorships. Thus "anti-Sovietism" was a grave crime in the halls
of the Kremlin in the old days, and I suppose the Brazilian generals and their supporters charged their internal enemies with being "anti-razilian."

In countries that have some respect for their freedom, the concept [anti-americanism] would be dismissed with ridicule. Imagine the reaction in the streets of Milan or Rome to a book called "anti-Italianism." And then observe the actual reaction in the US and Britain to a book by a respected author called "anti-Americanism" -- a scholar who specializes in the Soviet Union, incidentally, and therefore understands very well the model he is following (link).

Chomsky is pointing to the utility of such a concept in discouraging dissenting opinions. Afterall, who wants to be anti-American? Of course Chomsky is often labeled an "anti-American" by those on the Right, but have you ever noticed that most of the people that are vilified for being anti-American are actually Americans? Doesn't that strike you as odd?

Moreover for such a concept to make any sense at all it has to dismiss a large segment of American society and history. What about the writers of the anti-federalist papers? The small farmers who organized Shay's Rebellion Or the young female factory workers in Lowe Massachusetts who agitated against the system of wage slavery in the 1840s and 1850s? What of the masses of working people who organized and agitated for the ten hour and eventually eight hour day? What of the anarchists of the Hay Market affair who were diligently fighting for working people? What of the suffragists, who fought for a hundred years just so women could gain the right to vote. What of the millions of Americans who fought to end slavery and fought for civil rights? And, finally, what of the millions of Americans who are fighting to protect the environment from a socio-political system that has no means to deal with problems like Global Warming?

Anti-Americanism is an empty concept. For it to make any sense you have to pretend that the majority of Americans and the majority of our history never happened. You have to pretend that we're all part of that 1% of the population that control the land the labor the resources of the planet. I am an American and I will not allow George W. Bush nor his supporters to tell me what America is and is not. I want to impeach Bush not because I'm anti-American but because I'm pro-American. I don't want to end the war in Iraq because I'm anti-American but because I'm pro-American.

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