We’ve all been in love with America, at some stage, and certainly some of us have hated it with a passion. That’s the problem with being Irish, or European, or Western, or from Earth. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to be indifferent to or ignorant of American culture, politics and power. The relationship the rest of the world has with the Land of the Free is far more intense and volatile than that of mere neighbours. It is love or hate, joy or rage, addiction or allergy. We devour what pleasure and gratification it provides, and resent it at the same time.

As everyone from North and South America is sick of repeating, there’s more to America than the United States. And yet it is the US that we think of, when we say “American” – because one defining feature of the American psyche is that Americans are bigger than the box they are born into, at least in spirit, if not in the flesh. Always expanding, always reaching out for growth and progress, always seeking to come out on top.
Despite the fact that practically everything we own, even if it is designed by American companies, is made in China, we do not resent the Chinese, because they are not culture peddlers, merely expert artisans and merchants. In other words, it is not merely financial and (therefore) military strength that makes America so powerful, it is the way Americans capture our dreams.
It is because Americans are us. More precisely: they are comprised of a vast collection of subsets of every nationality on earth. But not representative subsets. If they were comprised of a fair demographic cross-section of each contributing nationality, Americans wouldn’t drive us so nuts. But they are not, they are those brave and resourceful individuals who packed their bags and left home, left the rest of us behind, or their descendants. They are those who wanted better than what their home, family and community could give them; they wanted to risk all to survive, to vote, to eat, to be free to speak, to love, to be rich, to win.
New World citizens have to believe that they’ve chosen the right path in life; for many of them, of course, they have. But there is a blindness that comes with the way they view themselves and their pursuit of the American Dream, that is damaging. Like all of us who have left home to follow our dreams, we have to cut the cord, we have to learn not to look back, or we are eaten up with a heartache, a crippling nostalgia. Sending back money to the ageing parents in Slovenia or Armenia or Siberia or Nigeria becomes a guilt offering for having abandoned them, for ceasing to be part of their community. But money cannot buy a sense of community.
Inevitably, those left “behind” are seen as backward, suffocating, restrictive, old-fashioned, impoverished, dictatorial; all those qualities that persuaded one to leave in the first place. In order to survive in the extremely harsh and fearful environment of America, one has to believe that one has done the right thing, and hold on to that belief, even if the evidence dictates otherwise. All the painful sacrifices made by so many immigrants to the United States can’t result in a nation that is just like any other, can it? It’s got to be the best. It’s got to be the most powerful. It’s got to be the freest, the most democratic, the most brimful of opportunity, the one most likely to reward hard work. Other countries can’t be learned from, because every other country is a homeland for some Americans, their Old Country. As Michael Moore points out, one never finds on American TV a programme about how well another country does, in dealing with healthcare or any other aspect of life – it goes against the American psyche. The default position for Americans is to bolster each other up, to encourage, to look on the positive. It’s a wonderful quality. But only if things are going well. When there’s a problem, one needs a critical mind.
Unfortunately, this blind spot to the rest of the world was taken full advantage of by the hatemongers behind 9/11, for whom America was the easiest of targets. For the truth is, despite their blundering swagger, their astonishing arrogance, their amazing capacity to believe their own lies (Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, etc etc etc), Americans are rather naive in their body politic. They are highly suspicious of notions of society, the greater good, and anything that smacks of socialism or communism. This is because America is full of people who have needed to take highly individualistic paths to escape their own communities – the Wild West was a harsh, unforgiving, and lonely reality, and as a symbol it is still resonant to this day.
9/11 woke Americans up to the reality that they were hated. They flailed around blindly and stupidly in defence, doing immense damage to the rest of the world in its aftermath. In this current recession, and likely Depression, Americans have come to realise that their own economic system was at fault; their sub-prime crisis infected the rest of the world, due to greed and lack of responsibility and a complete lack of care for the repercussions of their actions.
With 9/11, they could believe it was envy that drove the terrorists to attack them; now they have no such comfort. America’s survival will depend on a level of introspection that it has not had to undergo since Vietnam, and an embracing of a notion of community that perhaps it has not really contemplated since FDR’s New Deal. America’s sense of self-worth on the international scene can only be repaired when it stops thinking of itself as the special one, and engages with the rest of the world honestly and respectfully, at the UN or on Kyoto. For a wounded country, in the same way as it is for a wounded person, losing that sense of narcissistic specialness is extremely painful. But, in response, they will be welcomed, and met with a great sense of acceptance, and even affection.
For the truth is that the rest of the world wants America to succeed, to prosper, to be content in itself. Everyone in the world knows of people who have moved there to follow their dreams – and they live out their dreams for us. The Americans I’ve met since Obama’s election are dizzy with elation and relief – they are no longer ashamed of their country. They are no longer embarrassed by their leaders, no longer haunted by their shadow, their blindness. And the rest of the world is only too willing to welcome the prodigal son home.
Home is not too bad a place.