You are sooo “American”
What the heck is it with people (Europeans/Latins) saying “I love America, but hate Americans”. I’m not talking about a snobbery based on a disagreement with Bush’s foreign policy, but rather a more general position towards our culture and people. A widely and closely held prejudice that “Americans” are so…well, “American”. What does this mean? It means we are unsophisticated, myopic, not well traveled, we don’t know how to have fun, and we don’t sit around at outdoor cafes all day drinking vino tinto and “smoking fags“.
So can this really be true? Well in order to digest these criticisms, you have to recognize that this is a typical strawman argument. See our critics have a very narrow definition of sophistication, which is limited to:
a) being a polyglot
b) having a sexy exotic accent
c) having a large number of stamps on your passport of countries you have visited
Based on this definition, most Americans fail miserably, and clearly don’t pass as being “sophisticated”. But therein lies the fallacy of this argument. Sophistication is not simply restricted to the imposed constraints of a few jet-setting euros. Rather, Sophistication embodies a multitude of criterium. For example, you will NEVER hear a critic say that Americans are not educated. Why, because Americans on a whole posses a massive amount of education and higher-level degrees. And our educational institutions attract our very critics in droves. No, you won’t hear anyone say that Americans aren’t intellectually sophisticated, because it is simply not defensible.
So, critics are forced to focus on the more superficial “shortcomings” of Americans. The obvious ones. The ones that they can easily sell to another undiscerning individual who will eat it up. And if you challenge the stamp they have placed on the word “sophistication”, they are likely to fire back with the loose adjective “worldly“. “Yea, well Americans just aren’t worldly”. What does this mean? We aren’t of this world, we don’t live on planet earth? Oh, wait I get it, it means we aren’t well traveled. Well unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of buying a euro rail pass and hitting 5 different closely-packed countries in 5 days.
Would we like to have another language? Of course! But, we simply aren’t required to study and be fluent in more than one language (like many other education systems around the world). Perhaps we are victims of our own success, we can function pretty darn well just by knowing English. This doesn’t mean we don’t respect or appreciate language, its just not as high a priority. And yes, we would love to have sexy accents so Gwyneth Paltrow would think we are better dinner conversationalists, but that just isn’t in the cards…
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This was hilarious. I could not have been nodding my head harder throughout reading.
Reminds me of the time somebody in London tried to tell me that “Americans have no culture”, to which I replied that we invented jazz, gave the world F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Yo-Yo Ma, Martin Scorsese, Stan Brakhage and on and on and on and on.
I then told her we just import the shitty parts the nobody here wants, like McDonald’s and awful NBC sitcoms.
@ha ha
yes and Warren Buffett, Walt Disney (hehee), Johnny Cash, and the majority of the television and cinema they watch.
We love america, but most of all because it is where NYC is located and we heart nyc
This one cracks me up… there’s a ‘deeper/ darker’ undertone to it …
would you care to talk about it??
hehehe… just kidding, well uh… not really….
anyway, great post!
Well not learning another language just because it is not required….indeed does not make you a worldly person (Definitions of worldly on the Web: * characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world; “worldly goods and advancement”* blase: very sophisticated especially because of surfeit; versed in the ways of the world)
Your post is rather narrow itself…I do agree the people that believe sophistication is claimed based on your accent is also pretty narrow and knows nothing about sophistication.
This is an old post but my favourite so far. Good writing. it is funny and so true
Goodness! I know a man who’s been on all seven continents, And he’s a totally uncultured hog. As for being a polyglot, How often would I be using these other languages? I am studying Spanish, but as for studying any other European languages it makes no sense to study just for ostentation. I lived in Europe for a number of years. I’ve learned one thing: We all have the same needs. as for wants? That is ona person by person basis.
I totally agree that it makes no sense to hate anyone based on generalities.
I am an American. But I was born a human being.