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learn English; they couldn't make a living; they weren't appreciated as
much as they needed to be. . . . Many strong motives drove them back,
but a feeling of antipathy against America was not among them; this
they adopted in order to give their decision a halo of ethical consecration.
It is this urge to re-interpret a forced decision as an act of free
will which makes prophets of anti-Americanism out of many claiming
to seek refuge in Europe from American barbarism.
The Ideology
Several centuries have done a good job of preparing the
ground.
In Germany there were, for example, the poet Lenau who com–
plained that America had no wine and no nightingales, and the psy–
choanalyst Jung who characterized the American as a European with
the soul of an Indian and the manners of a Negro. The most concise
epitome of this sad branch of learning can be found in a popular
"Dictionary of Philosophy." Under the entry "Americanism" it says:
"Superficiality, hurry, overrating of material goods, unbridled interest
in setting new records, predilection for sensationalism, mechanization
of work and life, ruthless exploitation of natural and human resources."
Not all the things found in books live in human heads. But this defini–
tion lives-in human heads and even in highly intelligent human heads.
Let us enter one of the most famous of universities, and listen to
one of the most learned among professors of philosophy. He complains
of the "American" discussions which have become current practice in
German universities; he complains of "American" research work.
If
we
try to learn more about the difference between American and German
discussions, what it all comes down to is that any discussion is American
if it is noisy and does not take place in a small group. As for the
American type of research, we are informed that it lacks what Goethe
called "the spiritual link"
(das geistige Band).
Today the word "Amer–
ican" belongs to Europe's vocabulary of disapproval, along with "ma–
terialistic," "subversive," "atheistic," "nihilistic," and "destructive."
More surprising is the fact that this conception of "Americanism"
also lurks in American minds. As women tend to look at themselves
through men's eyes, so Americans tend to look at themselves through
the eyes of Europeans. I read the definition quoted above to an Amer–
ican student and his young bride on a ship to Europe, and their only
objection was to "hurry." We were on a French liner, and the night
before we had seen the old film,
Le Jour de tete.
In it a rural postman
