The arguments made by de Grazia suggest it is in these deeper, more basic realms, that the most important impact of Americanization is found and felt. In addition, if activists really wish to counter Americanization, it is on these levels and against these phenomena that they really must direct their energies. However, it is far more difficult to locate many of these, let alone attack them. Many of these phenomena have made their way deep into the fabric of societies around the world with the result that an attack on them becomes an assault on one’s own society. It is far more difficult to oppose one’s own society than it is to oppose an external “enemy” like the US. It is this that makes the task of those opposed to Americanization so daunting, if not impossible.
MINIMIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF AMERICANIZATION
In spite of all of the evidence on the importance of Americanization, the academic literature on globalization tends to minimize or downgrade the significance of the US in global processes.
Some researchers focus on the declining importance of the US (Ferguson 2012; Hardt and Negri 2000; Huntington 2011; Preble 2018). Operating from his world-system perspective, Wallerstein offers a nuanced picture of the role of the US in the global world system, but it is dominated by images of decline. Beginning with the near-revolutionary events in the late 1960s (e.g. the student uprisings, the anti-Vietnam War movement), Wallerstein (1992) describes the US as undergoing a long-term decline that it has only been able to stem in part. He argues that “The heyday of US prosperity is over. The scaffolding is being dismantled” (Wallerstein 1992: 16). It could be argued that much of the recent well-being of the US has been built on unusually low-priced imports and that that era is ending as a result of increasing tariffs and other economic trends (Goodman 2019), although Wallerstein wrongly focused on Japan and was unable to see the economic ascendancy of China. While America will retain its military and political power, Wallerstein sees a “terrible” decline psychologically among Americans who will have a difficult time adjusting to their less exalted position in the world system.
Others see the decline of the US linked to the overall decline in the importance of the nation-state (Dasgupta 2018; Strange 1996). The declining importance of the nation-state in general, and the US in particular, is also reflected in work that focuses, for example, on the rise in the importance of transnational flows (see Chapter 4) and of global cities (see Chapter 13). Still others argue that the US’s massive debt will rapidly speed its decline (Ferguson 2012).
ANTI-AMERICANISM
There is no dearth of anti-Americanism around the world. Various individuals and groups have found many things about the US to dislike, if not despise, including its militarism, its obsession with guns, its continuing use of the death penalty (Singh 2007), its seemingly extraordinary religiosity (especially fundamentalism) (Berggren and Rae 2007), its role in global warming (including its temporary withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement), its culture (Ciftci et al. 2017), the imperialism (e.g. television programs, movies, even its [fast] food) associated with it, and especially recently former President Donald Trump, his America-first attitude, and his disparaging comments about other countries and their people (Velasco 2017). Indeed, opinions of the US in several countries around the world, while always ambivalent, plunged dramatically after the American-led 2003 invasion of Iraq and throughout Bush’s presidency, increased again under Obama, and fell dramatically again under Trump (Pew Research Center 2017). Interestingly, however, anti-American sentiment was higher under George W. Bush than for Trump. This is explained, in part, by that fact that “Trump does not personify America to foreigners in the way that Bush did” (Schalit 2018). In addition, foreigners who were critical of US policy under Bush largely felt that Bush represented Americans, whereas many foreigners believe that Trump does not widely represent Americans in the same way.
Americanization has long been accompanied by a counter-reaction to it in various places in the world that can be thought of as anti-Americanism. Just as Americanization has proliferated as a process closely linked to globalization, so, too, has anti-Americanism. Not only is it an increasingly global phenomenon, but it is also one that seems to flow far more readily than Americanization to the far reaches of the globe. It also seems more intense than in the past and there is certainly far more attention and publicity devoted to it. But what, exactly, is anti-Americanism?
Although anti-Americanism has become a buzzword in political and academic circles, it (like Americanization) is used by so many, and in so many different ways, that it is today a vague concept lacking in coherence. It is necessary to realize that anti-Americanism is not a homogeneous phenomenon, even if the word itself conveys a sense of a kind of general criticism that is expressed similarly in much of the world. There are distinct forms, causes and expressions of anti-Americanism, in other words there are anti-Americanisms (just as we saw in Chapter 2 that there are globalizations) rather than an overarching anti-Americanism (Singh 2006). It is such an amorphous concept that both opposition to US cultural, economic, and political policies, as well as more sweeping negative generalizations about the US, are included under the heading of anti-Americanism. It can encompass everything from casual and superficial criticism of the US to a deep-seated and widely shared animosity to it. In O’Connor’s (2007, 2012) words, “one person’s criticism of the United States is another person’s anti-Americanism.”
We can begin with one well-known definition of anti-Americanism:
Anti-Americanism is a predisposition to hostility toward the United States and American society, a relentless critical impulse toward American social, economic, and political institutions, traditions, and values; it entails an aversion to American culture in particular and its influence abroad, often also contempt for the American national character (or what is presumed to be such a character) and dislike of American people, manners, behavior, dress, and so on; rejection of American foreign policy and a firm belief in the malignity of American influence and presence anywhere in the world. (Hollander 1992: 339, emphasis in the original)
This is a rather breath-taking definition of anti-Americanism encompassing a wide range of specific phenomena, and similar to other views of “a generalised prejudice against, and disdain for, America and Americans” (Schalit 2018). Its attraction is its sweep, but the diversity of phenomena encompassed by that sweep makes it clear that our sense of anti-Americanism needs greater refinement.
There are a number of ways of refining the general idea of anti-Americanism. For example, Naim has analyzed anti-Americanism in terms of several categories (Naim 2002: 103–4).
Psychological and religious hostility stemming from, and perpetuated by, long-lasting stereotypes and images of America.
Historical anti-Americanism referring to the resentment toward the US based on its past behavior.
Political and economic anti-Americanism rooted in current political and economic policies of the US.
Lastly, cultural anti-Americanism, or the resentment of America’s cultural domination and the displacement of local cultures as a result of America’s global cultural imperialism. The cultural aspect of the resentment to the US is focused on the homogenizing effects of US culture, tastes, values, consumer goods, industries, and systems throughout the world.
Perhaps the most important dimension of anti-Americanism focuses on the dangers, the catastrophe, threatened by the rise of American consumerism (Ceaser 2003). Related to this is the idea that what dominates American consumption, and is most threatening about it, are its highly uniform and standardized goods and services. (It may be that we are seeing the rise of a new form of anti-Americanism as others blame American
