18.3.04
It is the week of student elections in my university. This means that people I have never heard of are putting up posters in the hope of grabbing my attention so that I will vote for them to be the Vice-President of Student Activities, or the Vice-President of Student Support. Then, I will never hear from them again.
Some of the posters have campaign promises. Most of them adopt the advertising campaign strategy: If I remember their name, and think their posters were funny, I'm more likely to vote for them.
Some half dozen of the candidates this year have decided that they can be funny and politically aware by lampooning George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
We've had people's names above the large, and rather unilateral proclamation, "No War!"
We've had Tony Blair kitted out as a 1940s pilot with the words, "Yankee Crack. Real Good Stuff."
We've had "The 3 'F's! F@£k Blair [insert picture of Blair], F@£k Fees [insert picture of protests], F@£k Chimps [insert picture of Dubbya]."
It pisses me off that hating George W. and The War has become a buzz word. It makes me angry that anyone can say, "Yeah, isn't he an ass? Isn't this all so, like, wrong?" without any understanding of what they're taking a stand against, and suddenly they're political gurus.
Am I electing someone to be the Vice-President of Student Armourment?
It's become cool. Hey, kids! Let's slag off the USA and then go surfing!
As an accentless (and therefore invisible) American in Britain, it pisses me off because I begin to feel desperately defensive.
To be clear, I think the current US President is a walking disaster. I think this war is a disaster. I've been anti-war since my mom explained to me the fuck-up that was Vietnam when I was eight and sat in the bath tub.
Still, as an accentless (and therefore invisible) American in Britain, I have noticed the phenomenon of the Anti-Bush Bus League.
I think if you hear a topic of conversation repeatedly on the bus then it's a good indication of the way the general populous feels about something.
I guess I wouldn't so much mind if the conversations were simply Anti-Bush. These are British people, they live in Britain, they know that it's possible to be British and to also hate Tony Blair. But the discussions I hear on the bus rarely incorporate our illustrious Prime Minister and his part in our little jaunt into Iraq. In a way, I understand. It was not, after all, his idea. He just tagged along for the ride.
Like I said, Anti-Bush, I can handle. It's the way that it always seems to spill over into a general discussion about the moral and educational state of the United States that bothers me.
These people might intellectually understand that being American does not require one to support George Bush any more than being British requires on to support Tony Blair. But subconsciously, I sometimes wonder.
On the bus I hear how few Americans have left the USA, and on how few have passports, as if this proves their insular and idiotic tendencies.
I want to shake them and say, do you know how large America is? Do you know it's about the size of Europe? Do you know that it encompasses tropical islands, deserts, mountains, plains, swamps, and frozen wastelands? How many of you have ever left Europe?
On the bus I hear how most Americans couldn't place Switzerland on a map. Doesn't this prove how uneducated they are?
I want to ask them if they could place Utah on a map, since America and Europe are of comparable size.
On the bus, I had one man talking about how his French aunt used to arrange marriages, and how young people really needed this because everyone these days was only marrying for sex. What we needed was to slow down and have someone advise us on who we should marry. And shouldn't we be standing up to Mr. Bush and saying No?
I didn't really want to say anything to that man, although I did wonder where he'd gotten the plastic flower for his hat.
I think bitterly to myself that I have heard sarcastic jokes about America told by almost everyone I know, but that anytime I've spoken to a recently returned vacationer they always talk about how friendly and nice everyone was.
And I am becoming bitter. I'm just as mad about what Bush is doing as anyone else, and I probably understand it a damn sight better than most of the Bus League.
But when I hear these things, I just want to explain. I want to tell them that they don't understand the context for the figures they're quoting, and they don't understand what things are really like out there, and that, hey! You know some of us are okay! Really!
But it's not really a good thing to do. It makes people uncomfortable. You know, defending America, the Big Bad.
When people find out I'm American, the first thing I've taken to saying is, "Yes, I am, but it's okay, I do hate George Bush."
Sometimes I just don't mention it at all, because it's easier and I'm tired of being an apologist. Especially when I think a lot of the people here who like to hate America do it because it means they don't have to look too closely at their own country. There. I said it. I think people like to have someone else to blame.
At a friend's house recently, a friend of my friend's; an acquaintance of mine, said in response to a television programme,
"Oh, I was going to make a comment about Americans' geography, but then I remembered who was in the room."
How, I wonder, is it considerate to tell me that?
Some of the posters have campaign promises. Most of them adopt the advertising campaign strategy: If I remember their name, and think their posters were funny, I'm more likely to vote for them.
Some half dozen of the candidates this year have decided that they can be funny and politically aware by lampooning George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
We've had people's names above the large, and rather unilateral proclamation, "No War!"
We've had Tony Blair kitted out as a 1940s pilot with the words, "Yankee Crack. Real Good Stuff."
We've had "The 3 'F's! F@£k Blair [insert picture of Blair], F@£k Fees [insert picture of protests], F@£k Chimps [insert picture of Dubbya]."
It pisses me off that hating George W. and The War has become a buzz word. It makes me angry that anyone can say, "Yeah, isn't he an ass? Isn't this all so, like, wrong?" without any understanding of what they're taking a stand against, and suddenly they're political gurus.
Am I electing someone to be the Vice-President of Student Armourment?
It's become cool. Hey, kids! Let's slag off the USA and then go surfing!
As an accentless (and therefore invisible) American in Britain, it pisses me off because I begin to feel desperately defensive.
To be clear, I think the current US President is a walking disaster. I think this war is a disaster. I've been anti-war since my mom explained to me the fuck-up that was Vietnam when I was eight and sat in the bath tub.
Still, as an accentless (and therefore invisible) American in Britain, I have noticed the phenomenon of the Anti-Bush Bus League.
I think if you hear a topic of conversation repeatedly on the bus then it's a good indication of the way the general populous feels about something.
I guess I wouldn't so much mind if the conversations were simply Anti-Bush. These are British people, they live in Britain, they know that it's possible to be British and to also hate Tony Blair. But the discussions I hear on the bus rarely incorporate our illustrious Prime Minister and his part in our little jaunt into Iraq. In a way, I understand. It was not, after all, his idea. He just tagged along for the ride.
Like I said, Anti-Bush, I can handle. It's the way that it always seems to spill over into a general discussion about the moral and educational state of the United States that bothers me.
These people might intellectually understand that being American does not require one to support George Bush any more than being British requires on to support Tony Blair. But subconsciously, I sometimes wonder.
On the bus I hear how few Americans have left the USA, and on how few have passports, as if this proves their insular and idiotic tendencies.
I want to shake them and say, do you know how large America is? Do you know it's about the size of Europe? Do you know that it encompasses tropical islands, deserts, mountains, plains, swamps, and frozen wastelands? How many of you have ever left Europe?
On the bus I hear how most Americans couldn't place Switzerland on a map. Doesn't this prove how uneducated they are?
I want to ask them if they could place Utah on a map, since America and Europe are of comparable size.
On the bus, I had one man talking about how his French aunt used to arrange marriages, and how young people really needed this because everyone these days was only marrying for sex. What we needed was to slow down and have someone advise us on who we should marry. And shouldn't we be standing up to Mr. Bush and saying No?
I didn't really want to say anything to that man, although I did wonder where he'd gotten the plastic flower for his hat.
I think bitterly to myself that I have heard sarcastic jokes about America told by almost everyone I know, but that anytime I've spoken to a recently returned vacationer they always talk about how friendly and nice everyone was.
And I am becoming bitter. I'm just as mad about what Bush is doing as anyone else, and I probably understand it a damn sight better than most of the Bus League.
But when I hear these things, I just want to explain. I want to tell them that they don't understand the context for the figures they're quoting, and they don't understand what things are really like out there, and that, hey! You know some of us are okay! Really!
But it's not really a good thing to do. It makes people uncomfortable. You know, defending America, the Big Bad.
When people find out I'm American, the first thing I've taken to saying is, "Yes, I am, but it's okay, I do hate George Bush."
Sometimes I just don't mention it at all, because it's easier and I'm tired of being an apologist. Especially when I think a lot of the people here who like to hate America do it because it means they don't have to look too closely at their own country. There. I said it. I think people like to have someone else to blame.
At a friend's house recently, a friend of my friend's; an acquaintance of mine, said in response to a television programme,
"Oh, I was going to make a comment about Americans' geography, but then I remembered who was in the room."
How, I wonder, is it considerate to tell me that?
