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i am most familiar with france, so i'll talk about my experience living there for a few years...
one example among many many possible: during the first gulf war, i was living in paris and was interested in how the antiwar movement was mobilizing, so i attend lots of meetings, demos, etc.. the slogans at demos for example, were often extremely harsh toward the administration--the state department had apparently reacted to this kind of thing and had issued warnings at the time that americans should stay away stay away and not look "too american" if they were out and about---on the first day of the war i found myself around bastille wearing some kind of university sweatshirt (errors in carry on packing came pack to haunt me when my luggage took a little seperate vacation--after a flurry of phonecalls, we were reconciled and my clothing decided to give our relationship another try about a week later...) and found that i was welcomed by the folk i talked to around the demo. and in all the meetings i went to. i did my dissertation research on a cadre of revolutionary marxist militants and was welcomed at every point, was treated with great warmth by these folk--from the outside, you would imagine that this would be a group whose political opposition to american policy would extend the furthest--and i found that these were lovely, warm, intelligent people for whom a seperation between public and administration in the american case was taken for granted, just as they assumed a separation between the policies of the french government and the public would be applied to them.
it seems fundamental to any vestige of thinking-through-democracy--even one as shallow as the american--must presuppose such a distinction between public and administration. the assumption of an identity between these terms has never turned out well for the people.
as for the cliche about the french hating the americans--which i suppose matthew could have been implicitly referring to--i have found that it is in the main bullshit EXCEPT for those who conform to a particular kind of stereotype--those who flood the tourist areas, not bothering to even start to speak any french not bothering to figure out anything about where they are, treating the place like it is a zoo---hang around for any amount of time near the tourist areas, and you will probably find yourself understanding this attitidue far better than you imagine you would.
on another point, i cannot see how anyone could possible argue with the fact that george w bush has severely damaged american credibility internationally. that damage will continue so long as he is in office--but i suspect that this same kind of ability to make distinctions that you will find amongst people in regular lilfe will extend to those in positions of power, and that once bush is run out of office (one way or another) the damage his policies have done and continue to do will begin to reverse. i do think that this damage will be much harder to reverse if bush wins a second term--this is but one of a near riot of reasons why i opppose him.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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