Andrew Sullivan directs our attention to this in the American Prospect.
The van Gogh murder is a little bit like our 9-11. The degree to which the United States had changed after 9-11 was hard to fathom in Europe. Now, this one murder seems to be having a similar effect on my fellow Dutch nationals.
In Europe we have experienced our own homegrown terrorism for years, so although Dutch people felt enormous solidarity with Americans after 9-11, many asked, "Aren't Americans a bit too focused on themselves when they keep saying that 9-11 was some huge paradigm shift?"
The Netherlands, right now, is undergoing a similar sort of attitudinal change. It will be interesting to watch whether this change sparks a shift in Europeans' generally hostile attitude towards George W. Bush's aggressive foreign policy and his "axis of evil" style approach to the world.
This is frequent topic of conversation for me. With a daughter in school in the UK, I get to hear quite a bit about the European view first hand. Many people keep saying (or is it hoping?) that once Europe experiences some of their own attacks that they will come closer to "our" way of thinking. I'm not so sure. And I'm not certain that we actually want them to.
Allow me to explain. It is paramount that the United States have some other point of view that we can listen to without falling into the trap of believing only our good press and none of our bad.
The role of the fool historically was one that was essential to curbing imperial hubris (say, that would be a great title for a book! Oh. Never mind). The legend goes that as the King would make his way through the day, attending to the affairs of state, receiving dignitaries and passing down judegments, the fool would whisper in his ear that he wasn't nearly as important and all powerful as he believed himself to be.
Okay, I'm not calling Europeans fools. With the exception of the French dudes who can't find their explosives. But I am saying that without alternative views from our allies, we do run the risk of making terrible errors, if only because we become too enamored of our own voice.
It will be a good thing for European and other countries allied with the US to stop their own hyperbolic complaining about American arrogance and for America to cut out the crazy talk about how if you don't follow the Bush line of thinking you're either pro-bin Laden or a just a bunch of sissies that we're going to have to bail out sooner or later.
Yes, yes, I know. The French were in bed with Saddam (Lucifer is gonna be pissed) and the Belgians think they ought to run the world from the Hague and the Spanish fell off the map when they were attacked and the most of the rest of Europe thinks Bush is Hitler even though they don't remember a little thing called Auschwitz. You can have all that. And it is all foolish.
But just maybe what we need from time to time is a fool to keep us honest, to whisper in our ear and remind us of who we are and what we're about.
Comments