An excellent piece on the emotional gulf that divides Americans and Europeans. What does that portend for those of us who were raised with both American and European values homogenized in one body and brain - a constant internal conflict between the two perspectives and cultures ending up in a confusion of bipolar thought pulling the sufferer constantly back and forth between the two cultures and thought processes. Fred
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The Gap in Transatlantic Emotions
Monday 11 May 2009
by: Dominique Moïsi | Visit article original @ Les Echos
Dominique Moïsi reflects, "Of course, it's neither possible, nor, undoubtedly, desirable, to 'clone' 27 copies of Barack Obama. But how is it possible to reduce the 'hope deficit' that exists in Europe today?" (Photo: Radio Free Europe)
In spite of persistent misunderstandings, an incontestable rapprochement between Europe and the United States on the diplomatic and social fronts has occurred since Barack Obama's arrival in office. However, with respect to emotions and values, the gap remains as wide as it used to be between the two sides of the Atlantic. One may even wonder whether it hasn't deepened. So today, there's much more collective hope and individual fear in America. The opposite is true in Europe: there's less collective hope and less individual fear. It would be easy and not necessarily incorrect, to explain this difference in two words: Obama in the United States and the welfare state - that is, social protection - in Europe. In the United States, strengthened by a president who incarnates the return of hope and who simultaneously inspires and reassures, Americans are beginning to believe that the bottom of the crisis has been reached and that the worst is behind them. What was a shiver of hope only at the beginning of the spring has solidified as the days and weeks have gone by. Collectively animated by a mixture of optimism natural to American culture and profound nationalism, Americans have made their president's campaign slogan their own: "Yes, we can." Conversely, the extreme individualism that is one of the keys to American optimism translates on an individual level to situations that we in Europe would rightly deem perfectly unacceptable. "Tent cities fill up with victims of the economic crisis," headlined the popular US daily "USA Today," a few days ago. The media unceasingly report the tragic cases of middle-class Americans, for whom the loss of a job and health insurance coverage may literally lead to death when they are unable to assume the care of a serious illness such as cancer. It is not correct, as certain uber-capitalists sometimes maintain, that the absence of a social safety net makes people or society stronger. The goal of a society born of the Enlightenment cannot be to create a people "armed" with guns on the one hand and "disarmed" in the face of an illness on the other. Moreover, in a society in which people "live to work," the loss of a job is perhaps even more destabilizing than it may be in a continent like Europe, where people tend to "work to live." On this front, the behavior of a majority of Americans faced with the prospect of retirement is very revealing of a country where identity derives from work. Family breakup, very often a product of geographic distances, also makes retirement much less often associated, as is the case in Europe, with the joy of taking care of one's grandchildren.
Also see below:
The Economist: France Is Doing Better Than the Anglo-Saxons •
In Europe, the situation is exactly the opposite of that in the United States: Our societies, perhaps because they are older and more cynical, bask in a collective gloom that they have trouble emerging from. Of course, it's neither possible, nor, undoubtedly, desirable, to "clone" 27 copies of Barack Obama. But how is it possible to reduce the "hope deficit" that exists in Europe today? On the eve of elections for the European Parliament that will undoubtedly see gloom triumph through record abstention levels, the answer is far from obvious. Europe suffers from a deficit of incarnation, a deficit of plan, a deficit of identity. In contrast, America today has all that in abundance. However, it's not at all certain that it will be easier for the United States to respond to its citizens' individual fears through a reform of its health care and social protections systems than it will be possible for Europe to produce a renaissance of collective hope. The two sides of the Atlantic should, in fact, provide each other with a source of inspiration, to soften the consequences of inequalities in America and to rediscover the meaning of collective hope in Europe. Formulated in these terms, the European challenge certainly appears even more formidable than the American one.
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Dominique Moïsi, a special adviser at Ifri, is a guest professor at Harvard University.
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Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.
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