Usually my weekly columns are hard work, but sometimes they just fall into my lap. Such was the case this week. My wife and I were guests recently at a Mint Museum reception for the preview of a new exhibition, Revelation: A Fresh Look at Contemporary Collections. This excellent show marks a welcome return of modern art to the Mint on Randolph Road. It’s an encouraging sign that the venerable institution is shaking off its dusty dowager costume and emerging as a force in the world of contemporary art. There was certainly an exciting buzz that evening, stimulated by great art, fine professionalism by the rejuvenated Mint staff, and committed supporters of art in Charlotte.
We were seated with some other art prof-essionals sipping the evening’s trademark blue martinis, when an elderly gentleman and his wife took two vacant seats at our table. With little preamble, the husband butted into the conver-sation, and soon had me singled out as a Brit.
“What do you think of Tony Blair?” he asked. “Isn’t he the greatest Prime Minister since Winston Churchill?”
I’m quite used to being interrogated about British politics or culture, so I shared with my questioner the well-documented opinion in Britain that Tony Blair is in serious trouble because of his support for the war in Iraq. More specifically, Blair’s popularity is sinking fast because of his failure to bring mature and nuanced statesmanship to the starkly black and white, bellicose view of the world espoused by the current American administration. Blair sold the war in Iraq to a skeptical British public in part by promising to add restraint and statecraft to the crude American approach. Despite the millions of anti-war protesters in British cities, Britons supported entering the conflict by a modest majority.
But now, I explained, more than a year later, most Brits perceive Blair not as an effective statesman upholding civilized values, but as a humiliated servant of President Bush’s cultural imperialism. A majority of Brits want their troops out of Iraq now, and leading newspapers have reported that members of Blair’s Labour party are talking of a coup d’etat to replace him as leader. The British press reports a markedly anti-Blair feeling on the streets, especially among women. Blair himself admitted last week that his decision to support President Bush will cost him votes in upcoming European and local elections.
Like fellow Europeans, many Britons sense that Bush’s “faith-based” foreign policy has brought the world closer to Armageddon, and instead of building alliances against Muslim terrorists, he and his handlers have turned much of the world against America.
These statements clearly displeased my questioner, whose brow darkened. He argued my facts were wrong, but I follow British politics diligently and stood my ground. His face contorted with anger, affronted that his set-piece view of the world had been challenged. He stood up as suddenly as he had sat down and stalked away from the table, grabbing my shoulder with his bony hand as he passed.
“Say hello to your friend bin Laden when you see him!” he snarled in my face as he stalked out, leaving an embarrassed silence and a mortified wife behind him. His aggressive ignorance and specious reasoning had killed the civilized discourse at our table.
My American companions were more shocked than I at this crude outburst, with echoes of the sophomoric “If you’re not with us your against us” rhetoric promulgated by the Bush administration. Because I had told the inconvenient truth about British public opinion on Iraq, this made me, in the mind of my questioner, a supporter of terrorism.
This little, personal vignette starkly illustrates the larger dilemma facing America. The nation is divided between people who pay attention to the world, think and question; and others, like my rude interrogator, who want the complex, shifting web of foreign relations to conform to a nave, preconceived vision. People like my vulgar inquisitor prefer to swallow simplistic propaganda spread by the White House and echoed by a chorus of kowtowing media. Closed minds desperately seek certainties, even if they’re false. When truth raises its head, as it did in my analysis of Britons’ shifting attitudes towards America, it’s rudely brushed aside.
I’m blessed with many good friends in Charlotte, Americans who are proud of their country, its history, achievements and character. But their pride is realistic. It acknowledges that the world is a murky place, full of difficult ambiguities, and that sometimes America makes mistakes and acts badly. But for them, that’s all the more reason to challenge the government and put the mistakes right. Their America has been hijacked by right-wing fundamentalists and they want it back. There’s an un-civil war waging in Charlotte and elsewhere for the soul of this nation, between fine Americans like my friends, and ugly Americans like my insulting table companion. The world is holding its breath.
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2004.
