Ban fears

Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Seven Eleven on one side. Occupation, abuse of power, bombs and rockets on the other. Many people associate it all with the United States – and do not like it.

- However, it is important to distinguish between what the United States makes and what the United States er, says Dag Herbjørnsrud.

It may sound like a matter of course, but Herbjørnsrud, who along with Stian Bromark wrote Blank lies, dirty truths Last year, think it's worth repeating the point. For criticism of the specific actions of Americans can be unproblematic, we believe the pair of authors. Then there is something else with criticism of what the United States er: Here the misunderstandings and irrationality prevail.

misunderstandings

And this is the theme of the duo's next book – The fear of America. A European History, coming in late October this year. On Thursday next week the Bjørnson festival starts in Molde. There, Herbjørnsrud and Bromark will be there to talk about their latest project.

- A book about the United States, could you believe it?

- Well, less om United States than about our relationship to the United States, replies Herbjørnsrud.

A relationship that is in short supply, and according to the author and Aftenposten journalist, long-lasting and strained.

- Western Europeans – us Norwegians included – are characterized more by our own background than by what the United States actually does, says Bromark.

This is how America's source of criticism is pointed out: It lies here with us. It is a European identity project.

Marshall aid

- So there are no differences between the Norwegian and French relations with the USA?

- Yes. It is clear that there are internal differences in such a broad category as "Western Europe", but there are also connections. The French relationship with the United States is continued by Norway. The French have a long tradition of fighting against Anglo-American cultural influence. Both in the French domestic market and in its postcolonial global ambitions. In Norway, a similar distaste for American culture has been continued by cultural conservative forces, although Norwegian culture can of course never compete with the Anglo-American international, says Herbjørnsrud, who has a somewhat surprising time for when anti-Americanism gained a foothold in the Norwegian people's soul.

- Anti-Americanism did not come as much with the student uprising in 1968 as with the Marshall Aid and the military ties between Norway and the United States that arose in 1945. It is thus not a left-wing radical project even though criticism of what the United States makes that might be it. Criticism of what the United States er namely, follows one conservative tradition. And it is very widespread, he continues, before Bromark complements:

- Basically, it can be interpreted both positively and negatively for the left. For the past three decades, however, they have been given the exclusive right to this project, but still with culturally conservative arguments against popular and damning American culture. "Anti-Americanism goes deeper than criticizing the American occupation of Iraq or demanding that they withdraw from Vietnam," he said.

So what one might call "the essentialist anti-Americanism" has had a solid cultural foothold, almost cultural hegemony, in Norway since 1945?

- Yes at least, if not longer. We look even further back in our book, the two say.

Power or right?

Robert Kagan, author of Paradise and power, describes such a deep transatlantic schism in the security-political situation after the fall of the Wall. Do you share the bleak perspectives on the gap between the US and Europe?

- We have had enough of the present and the past in the work on this book, but we will highlight a man like Charles A. Kupchan (The End of the American Era). He describes the divide as a new East to the West, and does not rule out, almost suggest, that it can go as far as a military conflict. We refer to both European and American experts who say that developments after the Cold War, and especially after September 11, 2001, have given us a new situation. It has also been one of our starting points for writing this book, says Bromark.

But still. The two authors will not be one-sided (and not least unique) pessimists.

- In such a situation, surely all good forces must support Europe, which insists on an international legal order against a United States that insists that power is right?

- Maybe. On the other hand, the question may be asked incorrectly. Maybe the opposition is not so strong. Here I would rather not reveal which examples are put down on paper, but we have some of them, and they show that things are not as simple as some would like them to be. At this point, the book is a continuation of Blank lies, dirty truths, which, among other things, showed that the differences between Islam and the West are less clear than we thought.

Keeps on the cards

Especially more specifically, the two will not come out at this time.

- But you must be able to say something more about the examples?

- We will turn a good deal of myths upside down with the help of examples from European cultural history over the last five hundred years. And the examples will show that both those who say we have a dangerous conflict and those who say that the fear of America is exaggerated are wrong. It is this critical view of our own attitudes to the United States that is the focus, Herbjørnsrud explains.

So the hypothesis that anti-Americanism is rooted in a European identity project does not make it unfounded?

- You can also say the opposite. It is only natural for Norwegians and Western Europeans to fear the United States. If one fears nothing, neither by the country the people nor the culture, it is strange. At least if you have experienced some of the Cold War.

fears

- What do you fear about the United States, then?

- Before we started writing, we both feared the United States like all other peoples. We shared many of the prejudices about a cultureless and aggressive country. Now we would rather say that we fear our fear of America more than we fear America itself. However, that does not mean that necessarily is wrong to fear the United States. Nor do we have to ask when er correctly and when it does is not right to feel such fear.