EuroYankee

Here’s an exerpt from an insightful essay on growing anti-Americanism in Western Europe by Andrei Markovitis:   

I have been traveling back and forth with considerable frequency between the United States and Europe since 1960, and I cannot recall a time like the present, when such a vehement aversion to everything American has been articulated in Europe. No Western European country is exempt from this phenomenon — not a single social class, no age group or profession, nor either gender. But the aversion reaches much deeper and wider than the frequently evoked “anti-Bushism.” I perceive this virulent, Europewide, and global “anti-Bushism” as the glaring tip of a massive anti-American iceberg.

There’s a lot of good stuff in this essay, for those interested in a non-hysterical take on anti-Americanism.

EuroYankee’s opinion: the U.S. does not face global irrelevance. It has a huge economy, powerful military and uncanny ability to produce pop music megastars. But the next decades will reduce U.S. power and influence on a global scale.

The new year has found EuroYankee watching Seinfeld, contemplating national reconciliation and listening to Jane’s Addiction (thanks dad).

“I think eventually fashion won’t exist. I think someday we’ll all wear the same thing. Because anytime I see a movie or a TV show where there are people from the future or another planet, they’re all wearing the same outfit.”

“Al Qaeda is now a franchise in Iraq, like McDonald’s.”

“Save the complaints for a party conversation. The world is loaded, it’s lit to pop and nobody is gonna stop.”