This is the first of what I would hope to be many guest commentaries, drawn from various friends and acquaintances of mine. They're generously scattered about the world, so we're all the richer for the perspectives they provide - especially when all the pontifications eventually converge on plain old common sense.
Patrick Woods is a junior undergraduate at the University of Chicago. The original bassist from my friend Gabe's glam rock project P1XEL and the Chronic Network, Patrick was invited by Gabe to my own (erstwhile) band's inaugural performance last summer, where I met him briefly. -ed.
The political scientist in me has relished the opportunity to spend the 2002-2003 academic year abroad at The University of Dublin, Trinity College. Experiencing Ireland and the Old Continent’s landscapes, people, and cultures notwithstanding, experiencing Europe through a political lens – in and outside of class – has been memorable itself. Not surprisingly, the political issue of contemporary salience has been the American foray into Iraq; discussions particularly on the war have often mutated into general discussions on American foreign policy and its government beyond. Too often from native Europeans, I encounter this: “I love America, but I hate your government.” While I have always smiled and nodded in agreement in an effort to avoid subjective debate, I find the conclusion itself logically problematic. Here's why.
Succinctly, I contend that those who love and hate America as described occupy a state of mental contradiction; they love the products of American society, but abhor the governmental structure that allows for such product development. They love the blooming flower, but they hate the soil – sometimes fertilized, sometimes literally shit-ridden – that gives that beautiful flower a place to root.
They wear New York Yankees baseball caps while lecturing me about my country's "capitalistic, imperialistic" tendencies. (Yawn. How quickly have we forgotten post-World War II reconstruction? Marshall Plan, anyone?)
Stripped to the bone, such contradictions of thought are quite visible and seem quite silly. When these thinkers go politicking, however, the visibility lessens and the argument gains superficial legitimacy.
Here's an Irish example. Throughout the conflict, many have protested the use of Shannon Airport in County Clare as a pit stop for American planes, urging that the Irish government cease allowing America landing rights. Protests have been held outside of the Airport itself and in the streets of Dublin. Yet placards splashed with "No Blood for Oil"and "Not in My Name" failed to sway the policy of the Irish government. With such convincing, digestible arguments, one may ask, why ever not? Perhaps because the arguments are not so convincing. Perhaps because Ireland, that professed (yet historically internally violent) neutral, peaceful nation, needs constant allies in the form of America and the United Kingdom. Perhaps Ireland does not want to forsake years of historical tradition and alliance with the United States so flippantly. Perhaps Ireland (and when I say Ireland I mean the Irish government) realizes that the Iraq question will likely occupy a place in the annals of history as a moment of gardening. A moment of coalition action that ensures that not only will the flower continue to bloom in the United States, but also, for the first time, in Iraq. Perhaps Ireland is choosing its side in history wisely, carefully, no matter the font or its point on those snappy placards. Perhaps.
Listing examples of this juvenile anti-Americanism could continue infinitely within and outside of Ireland, but let us stop in the pursuit of brevity. I have seen this anti-Americanism in many forms; through a vocal (small) populace on the street with signs, through European statesmen playing a dangerous game of power politics, et cetera. This independent liberal urges especially that the self-loathing sector of the American left not conflate such European sentiment with enlightenment or ideological alliance, and most definitely not with altruism.
To those who do harbor this sentiment: enjoy the smell of the flowers. Wear your New York garb, sip from a Burger King cup, listen to Eminem, watch terrible Hollywood flicks dubbed in your native language, and hate my government. I do not plan to. I do, however, plan stances of healthy, informed dissent when I deem it necessary. Yet I do not have the luxury to enjoy the products of my nation while blindly hating the products’ ingredients. I am a voting American.
I work for the gardener.
Patrick Woods, Dublin Ireland, April 20, 2003. Contact Patrick Woods directly for congratulations, correspondance, work offers, movie deals or stock options. Be sure to follow his journal, as well. Ladies: here he is. Sean Bean or Larry Mullen Jr.? Or both?
