The end of pessimism

Is everyone ready to cheer up now?

Obama is going to be the next President, we are a couple of years away from mass produced electric cars, the economy will rebound, the war in Iraq and against terrorism is being won (see Edward Luttwark's provocative piece in Prospect on this) and, as Frank Rich so brilliantly argued yesterday, Bush-Cheney have become history before they are history. The news is pretty good. It's time to start smiling again.

So enough already with all the bad news about America. I came to this country in 1983 from dark, dismal England to be cheered up. I don't want to read kvetchers like Chalmers Johnson, Naomi Wolf or Morris Berman comparing America with Nazi Germany and Ancient Rome. I don't want to hear about imperial decline or the End of America. Its boring. And fundamentally wrong.

It's curious that the most obstinate defenders of America are English. Three of the most positive books about America that will published this year -- Matt Frei's Only In America, Bronwen Maddox's In Defence of America  and Justin Webb's Have a Nice Day... Behind the Cliches: Giving America Another Chance -- are all by English journalists living in America. Perhaps it's because, having had the misfortune of growing up in dark, dismal England, we can fully appreciate the remarkable optimism and vitality of the United States.

Back in 1983, when I arrived as a graduate student in America, there was a similar pessimism about the country. America, the kvetchers predicted, was about to be eclipsed by Japan, the economy no longer was innovative, the Post Watergate  political system didn't work, blah blah blah. The end-of-America pessimists were wrong then and they are wrong now. Today, the smart money is going into American business, American real-estate and the American dollar. Now is the time to invest in America. By next year, everyone will be doing it.

Comments

[Hullite]

Andrew,

Fair enough. I came to the US from England in 1982, drawn by the same get-up-and-go I saw here that you did. Optimism, can do, and all that. And it hasn't changed, it's still there.

What does disappoint me about the US is that it isn't close to fulfilling its potential, and I wonder if it ever will. The most precious thing this country has is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That's something Merry Olde has suffered from for centuries, despite Magna Carta. However, the US itself seems to continually dump on its jewels. It often doesn't seem to know what it really should be fighting for.

Despite that, it's a great place. I share your optimism.

But, on the other hand, enough with dumping on the homeland. It may seem gray and colorless on the surface -- what doesn't after a thousand years or more? -- but I still get a kick out of the people back there. They are funny, generous and tolerant. Much like most Americans. And it's real easy to be vibrant and thrusting when you're in the driver's seat.

All that being said -- love the place.

[andrew]

Hullite -- yeah, fair enough. I love to go back to London and find a much more sympathetic audience to a lot of my ideas there. Plus there's the football. This is the year everything will change: Modric -- the new Cruyft...

ak

[Vince Williams]

Part of the genius of this country is its aptitude for self-criticism. We need fomenters of dissent to prod us just as much as we need movers and shakers to get things done.

Admitting the imperial ambition of the Bush-Cheney partnership isn't the same as capitulating to terrorists-- our nation is not about to decline and fall, but perhaps the idea that it needs to maintain a de facto empire is.

I can't imagine a citizen of this country, of whatever political stripe, agreeing that it would be acceptable for a foreign power to build military bases here under any circumstances-- yet there seems to be an unspoken assumption in the land of the free that by some natural order of the universe it is the manifest destiny of the United States to be the boss of the world.

[Simon Cooke]

I came to this blog from Justin Webb's BBC blog. I moved to the UK in 1995 & every year since then the UK has gone down progressively. So, if you think America hasn't lived up to its potential, the UK has not even got potential!! What I see is country stuck in its colonial past & still thinking it is 1945. And if you think you've seen government waste in America, it's nothing compared to the waste here in the UK. And it doesn't even matter which party is in charge. £600 billion pounds last year & it was still not enough to provide decent public services. Can someone colonize the UK? Please? Quickly?

[JimW]

And what happens if McCain is elected?

The anti-Americanism that is everywhere will merely come back, full force, after a slight respite.

This is a nice try, but it's mostly sentimental and wishful thinking.

[andrew]

Jim -- he won't be. Trust me

[JimW]

Well, apparently you have knowledge no one else has.

The emotional swings in favor of or against Americans is a very strange phenomenon. The cheering crowds that turned out in Berlin for Obama are a a far cry from the shutting down of Maiz when Bush visited Germany. They like us. They don't like us. They love us. They hate us.

It's very important to have good transatlantic relationships, but all this drama is more than a little confusing.

I don't trust these sudden changes.

[Morgaine]

The US does have huge potential, and its founding principles are noble. It has not lived up to that potential. Instead it has become arrogant and its citizens have become soft and spoiled. Freedom has to be fought for sometimes if it is to be kept, but our rights have been assailed. We haven't had a truly free (i.e. untampered-with) election since Bush took office and yet the public's reaction -- like that of Rome on the eve of its fall -- is to say, "What's to be done? It's always been this way." We're willing to send our children off to fight for corprate greed, but on a personal level we're no longer willing to sacrifice our comforts to defend our freedoms here at home. At that's where they're most often lost... People will have to lose all that they've struggled for before they will be willing to do something, and then it will require drastic action. When will people start learning from history, instead of telling themselves, "Oh it can't be that dire yet?"

[Alex]

New "Housing" Bill included IRS reporting of EVERY credit card transaction.

Obama wants to disarm citizens and make illegals....citizens.

Obama will have the military in Africa.

Obama (or McCain) will usher in the NAU.

[Anonymousse]

"It's curious that the most obstinate defenders of America are English."
Or perhaps not... I mean, do you read books and articles in any other language than English? On top of that you are an ex-pat which suggests you'd be more familiar with the UK than other countries.

In a technical sense it might be true though, since English as the world's lingua franca naturally means English-speaking media gets the most attention in the world.

"The emotional swings in favor of or against Americans is a very strange phenomenon."
For the last decades it's been cheers when it's a Democratic president and boos when it's a Republican, so it's hardly confusing! Well alright, George Bush the elder was kinda liked. Quite curious really that a man who was probably one of the most formally competent presidents ever would produce such a disaster of a son.

[Jill]

In answer to a comment posted by: andrew | Tuesday, 29 July 2008 at 12:49 PM

"[...]
I can't imagine a citizen of this country, of whatever political stripe, agreeing that it would be acceptable for a foreign power to build military bases here under any circumstances-- yet there seems to be an unspoken assumption in the land of the free that by some natural order of the universe it is the manifest destiny of the United States to be the boss of the world."

You miss the part where Europe USES the USA's military for protection, so that Europe can USE their citizen's wealth to build a fragile socialist utopia. The hypocrisy is so grand that it is an exercise in stupidity to explain it. I'm all for the US withdrawing from the world, and Europe becoming accountable for their own needs.

[Vince Williams]

@ "You miss the part..."

That comment was posted by me, Jill.

You've forestalled any debate-- I can see it would be an exercise in stupidity to argue with you.;-)

VW