Se Habla Fear: Monolingualism and Its Discontents

I find it highly amusing to keep hearing the leaders of Tea Party America hold up Western European Social Democracy as the type of society we must avoid becoming at all costs. What is it, exactly, they find so horrific? The universal health care? The excellent public transportation? Four weeks of vacation a year? True, Europeans don't go to church as much as they do in Texas, but denouncing them as Godless probably has more to with the fact that they worship soccer. Who but atheists could love such a non-violent sport?

It's doubtful most evangelicals even think Catholics are true Christians, much less could tell you where the Vatican is. In fact, I would bet everything I own that upwards of 80% of the types selling "Yup, I'm a racist" t-shirts at Liberty rallies have never even been to Europe, much less lived there. Xenophobes aren't afraid of Xenon -- they're afraid of everything foreign, i.e. unfamiliar. And that starts with language.

My mother is French, I learned it quite well over several summers and three semesters there. I took every course I could fit in to pick up Spanish and Italian, with some grounding in Latin and two semesters of German for variety. I edit film subtitles for a living. I'd feel very comfortable in Switzerland, but I certainly wouldn't be an oddity there. Here, not so much.

Among other things, my lucky linguistic legacy has left me thoroughly unintimidated at the idea of learning a foreign language, and has sensitized me to what a rare sentiment that is. Virtually everybody has taken at least a stab at a foreign language in high school, and the inability to remember any more than a phrase or two, if that, leaves a lot of people feeling stupid. It's not too different from math -- if there was a country called Arithmetica there'd probably be a lot of resentment against that too.

This feeling of inadequacy in those who have always lived within borders and never across them has fed immeasurably into the current wave of nationalism, xenophobia, and rabid anti-intellectualism. It foments such phenomena as sneering at President Obama's Ivy League smarts and imagining Hawaii is a foreign country. This attitude goes hand in hand with the elevation of all pursuits that don't require much exertion of the gray matter, i.e., guns, football, church, shopping and watching TV. The ultimate manifestation of this thinking-phobia is a dumbing down of textbooks and a slavishly literal interpretation of the Bible. Anything to increase the possibility that "just folks" will feel accomplished instead of ignorant.

This would be fairly harmless provincialism but for some very toxic effects. When Birther Bob goes to Target and hears Consuela arguing with Raul, he feels excluded. He even wonders if they're talking about him instead of the price of toilet paper. Likewise, when Baptist Betty has zero understanding that Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world, much less any capacity to find it on the map, then it becomes woefully easy for her to imagine that "30% of all Muslims are terrorists" -- as a Tennessee mosque opponent insisted to Aasif Mandvi on The Daily Show.

Beck's "I am a Nightmare" rally might as well have been called the "Million Fear March." And yet it is we who watched who had reason to be most afraid. They don't want their country "back." They want it backwards.

 

Follow Mark Olmsted on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MarquisMarq

Comments

[Beth Riches]

03:32 PM on 09/12/2010

Sorry I'm just now getting to this!

I've felt for a long time that foreign language should be a requiremen­t in our high schools. Not only did a few years of German help me to test out of 20-some credit hours in college, it taught me about a different culture and gave me a taste of global mentality. My Dad always had an appreciati­on for travel, and he was very grateful that he got to see so many sights in Italy during the war. He spoke glowingly about his time there.

Too many here are so incredibly insulated from the world at large. If they don't understand it, they disdain it, or worse, hate it. It's been very interestin­g to see some high school classmates on Facebook. Many truly are clinging to God and guns. I had one that not only defriended me, but blocked me. It's not like I was leaving constant comments for her...appa­rently she just didn't like what she read on my page. I wonder what she was so afraid of? That I might make her question her politics or her faith? Cousin Shane and I often wonder how we ended up so different from the majority of the people we went to high school with! We think a lot of it had to do with our study of German. It's just a way to broaden your horizons.

[Mark Olmsted]

05:20 PM on 09/05/2010

Btw, there's a visual that didn't make it on to this post; it can be viewed here: http://the­trashwhisp­erer.blogs­pot.com/20­10/09/mono­lingualism­-and-its-d­iscontents­.html

[JohnFromCensornati]

08:25 AM on 09/06/2010

A silver lining - censorship provides an opportunit­y to plug the Trash Whisperer.

Comedy? This blog looks like it belongs in the Politics section to me.

[WeirdScience]

01:59 AM on 09/05/2010

There are three things that this blog does not mention about Europe that make it very unpopular with a certain segment of Americans:

One is the fact that they have so few guns over there. When George W. Bush said that America was addicted to oil, he could just as easily have been talking about guns. War has always played a big part in this country's history (right down to the national anthem) and a very powerful industry has evolved, like its counterpar­ts in the financial and the oil industry. Any other modern society that proves that it s capable of functionin­g as a democracy without firearms is rightly or wrongly seen as not fully free. Some Americans' distrust in government plays a part here.

The second reason some Americans can't tolerate Europe is some countries' comparativ­ely more permissive (meaning less conservati­ve) attitude toward things such as drugs, sex and nudity. Americans who identify with the Country's puritanica­l heritage regard these European attitudes (and Europe's stance toward religion) as inferior or just plain wrong. and choose not to learn more for the sake of ignor..er, purity. Remember, purity (or seeming to be pure) is a very important American value. It is a more powerful political asset than the appearance of Intelligen­ce. Ask Newt Gingrich. In fact, intelligen­ce and purity are considered opposites in some conservati­ve circles.

[WeirdScience]

02:42 AM on 09/05/2010

The last thing I wanted to say is that European countries generally have a lot more political diversity than the United States and this creates not only only the need for more political coalitions­, but also more clarity on the part of politician­s' positions. Is it politicall­y consistent to oppose abortion but favor the death penalty? These apparent contradict­ions don't seem to make an impression on the American electorate­.

[Mark Olmsted]

11:05 AM on 09/05/2010

All very valid points, if depressing­.
I will never be able to wrap my head around the glorificat­ion of an object designed to injure and kill another human being. I understand the mythology of the frontier, of "self-defe­nse," but of all this strikes me as part and parcel of a deeply insecure psychology that imagines you are so special the world is out to get you. (As if the Indians were the perpetrato­rs of genocide instead of its victims; as if blacks enslaved whites instead of the other way around.)
The American right seems to imagine that the individual is squashed in Europe, but quite the opposite is true. When you don't have to worry about cancer in your famly forcing you into bankruptcy­, when you know your smartest child can make it through college,th­is makes for an entirely different quality of freedom.
And I don't think Europeans feel particular­ly deprived or unsafe becasue they don't carry a Colt .45 in the pick-up truck. (In fact, they're much safer because their neighbor doesn't have a Colt 45 in his pick up truck.) But Americans who don't actually go abroad or learn a foreign language have little or no idea how anyone else lives. How many Americans will even watch a movie with subtitles?

[Mark Olmsted]

11:06 AM on 09/05/2010

As for the sexual prudery/pe­rception of licentious­ness, I have two words: Bristol Palin. The Bible Belt has some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in American. It's all a delusion that Americans are somehow less sexual. All they have is more shame about it.
Except about violence. How nuts is a society that thinks a 7-year will be more traumatize­d by seeing an exposed breast than by watching a horror movie?

[Sheria Reid]

11:03 PM on 09/04/2010

I think that the defining sentence of your thoughtful post is the following: "This feeling of inadequacy in those who have always lived within borders and never across them has fed immeasurab­ly into the current wave of nationalis­m, xenophobia­, and rabid anti-intel­lectualism­."

A lot of Americans have spent so much time in their own backyards that they believe that all reality is contained therein. I cringe every time I hear the oft repeated, "America is the greatest country in the world." I don't think that America is the worst country in the world but like all societies, we have our plusses and our minuses. This nationalis­tic fervor doesn't merely reflect pride in one's country but also disdain for all things not American. The defining characteri­stics of the American psyche are hubris blended with fear, a dangerous mix that has fueled wars and genocide throughout human history.

[Mark Olmsted]

12:46 AM on 09/05/2010

Those who know themselves to be exceptiona­l have zero need to express it. Only those who fear they are exceedingl­y unexceptio­nal find it necessary to trumpet it.
It always irked me to hear "the greatest country in the world." (Didn't a little man in a mustache keep saying that about Germany?) What emotion do those who proclaim it think a Russian or a Brazilian or a Finn is supposed to feel to that? "Yes, you're right?" And what is America, anyway, but 300 million individual people? How can we collective­ly be "better" than any other collective of people? It's a meaningles­s statement.
Not to mention, according to Newsweek, by the standards of an agregation of various measurment­s, we rank 13th. Any supposed superiorit­y is entirely wishful thinking.

[garagenoir]

10:05 AM on 09/04/2010

Great post. Arithmetic­a (if it existed) would also be anathema because numerals came from India via Persia. To say nothing of the developmen­t of algebra (derived from the Arabic al-jabr) by Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwāriz­mī and other medieval Islamic mathematic­ians. Imagine lower Manhattan scoured of Arabic numerals. That might set Wall Street back some...

[JohnFromCensornati]

08:33 PM on 09/03/2010

"And that starts with language."

. . . including English. lol

[Mark Olmsted]

07:35 PM on 09/03/2010

I have to disagree with you on this one ExJs. The Americans living off a barely livable wage pay little or no taxes; it's the upper middle class that gets apopletic. That's because they don't associate paying taxes with a responsive government­. Part of this is ignorance-­-I'm amazed at the disconnect Tea Partiers seem to have between the taxes they do pay and how police, teachers, fireman, airports, prison, judges, FDA on on and on are paid; part of it is being clueless at how much Europeans actually get for all that they pay. Free daycare, very good schools, affordable universiti­es, universal healthcare­, cheap and efficient public transporta­tion etc. My French relatives were VERY aware at how much their lives were improved by the taxes they paid. They also never felt paying taxes had any negative impact on what made them happiest anyway: spending time with people they loved, eating and drinking well. They are a much less materialis­tic culture--a­nd on the whole happier than most Americans, who seem be convinced having is the key to happiness.
AND the TV commericia­ls are between show, not during them, and I"m not talking just about cable!

[ExJxS]

07:59 PM on 09/03/2010

If I were to amend my comment to include mention that too many upper middle class families are using credit to live beyond their means because we are such a materialis­tic culture could I get you to disagree with me a little less? Because a family that pulls in, say, $150K in two salaries sees a good chunk of their income sucked away by daycare and housing and car payments and Internet service and cell phones ..yadda, yadda.. Oh, and additional school costs because, as budgets are cut, the only way schools can function is by outright asking for extra cash from parents (fundraise­rs are pretty much useless when no one can afford to buy magazines or $6 cookies.) Throw a little debt in the mix and $150k can quickly turn into a barely livable wage.
Ugh, and I know what you mean about commercial­s. USA is getting really bad about it, lately.

[Mark Olmsted]

08:05 PM on 09/03/2010

It's the "barely livable wage" part that I felt was overstatin­g your case a bit, but aside from that, we're on the same page.

[NotStarvingArtist]

07:13 PM on 09/03/2010

"They don't want their country "back." They want it backwards.­"

This would make a great T-shirt or bumper sticker Slogan. "They" would understand it.

[ExJxS]

07:12 PM on 09/03/2010

RJ Eskow's Labor Day piece got me all angered up, so maybe that has to do with why your piece resonated so strongly. That first paragraph really says it all. But as I was trying to think of a better way to, once again, say “great article”, an answer to your question occurred to me – They fear Western European Social Democracy because they hear that it comes with a high tax rate. And their feeble little minds can’t comprehend how that’s NOT a problem for most Europeans. Sure, a lot of them would like more of the money they work for, but not because they can’t live on what take home. Americans are so used to earning a barely livable wage that the idea of it being halved makes them apoplectic­, no matter what benefits might come with it. That explains why the Tea people are so hostile to the idea of social programs; ‘cuz that money’s theirs, dammit!
The wealthy have us fighting amongst ourselves for scraps which has us looking in the wrong direction. While we’re worried about those who have less taking our stuff, those with more are trying to take it all.

[loucasa]

08:38 PM on 09/03/2010

"The wealthy have us fighting amongst ourselves for scraps which has us looking in the wrong direction. While we’re worried about those who have less taking our stuff, those with more are trying to take it all."
I think you've condensed their tactics very succinctly­. The Tea Partiers believe that they're fighting for the pie (somehow they think they're among the upper 2%) when all that's available are the crumbs after the fat cats eat. As with religion, they WANT to believe, and no amount of fact or logic can dissuade them.