O Americă înfricoşătoare

by Edward Samuel Behr, Doina Jela-Despois (Translator)

I'm a US citizen living overseas--practically an expatriate by now. Almost every day people ask me the most outlandish questions about my native land. I never realized how bizarre a picture of the USA our media presents, until I came to a country where people think Americans live just the way they do in films. After all, how could they know we don't really cuss every five seconds? That's how it is in the movies. What do you mean, you don't all have affairs? But on "Melrose Place" I saw....Is it true that every American owns a gun? Of course, it goes both ways... most US citizens know nothing about Romania except vampires, communism, abandoned children & gymnastics. I just read Edward Behr's "Une Amerique qui fait peur" in its Romanian translation (& surfed over here to find it in English--why hasn't it been translated yet?). It's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why the rest of the world isn't as eager to Americanize as some think it ought to be. Political correctness taken to extremes...Ivy-League professors who believe in UFO abduction...the repressed memory craze...why Clinton will not be remembered kindly...it's all in this wonderful, thoughtful book. I thought I was going to hate this book. I'm a little tired of people criticizing my country, even if I've chosen not to live there (the "I can say bad things about my mother, but you'd better not" syndrome). In fact, I only bought it to treat myself to a healthy dose of indignation. Instead, 1st to my chagrin & then to my pleasure, I found that Behr has presented an accurate & in some ways devasting portrait of the USA as it really is. He mentions its good points, in all fairness; but his main purpose is to tell us that the emperor has no clothes & that the average politically correct American is no longer free to say so, even when it's painfully obvious. The tyranny of political correctness is as overwhelming & ubiquitous as the tyranny of the communist mentality ever was in Romania, altho it's manifested in different ways. In both societies, free speech is not valued unless it's in line with the current political philosophy. In communist Romania, you could lose your job for telling an anti-Ceausescu joke; in modern America, you can lose your job for making a remark that someone else interprets as offensive. Before you assume, based on my comments, that you will hate this book, I should mention that I'm a woman, a feminist, pro-choice, liberal as all get-out, voted for Clinton twice & am pretty sure I voted for Gore (those pesky absentee ballots!). But Behr is right. The liberal values I hold dear have been twisted & distorted to the point that we are the laughingstock of the world. Americans are beginning to realize that the rest of the world sees us differently than we see ourselves; if you want to know why that is, read this book. I doubt that it could have been written by anyone born & raised in the USA. We aren't brave enough for that. Not in today's political climate, more's the pity.--Jay Sorensen (edited)

352 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Edward Samuel Behr was a journalist; he worked primarily as a foreign & war correspondent. He began his career in the early 1950s with the Reuters news agency, then worked for Time-Life, serving as bureau chief in several cities around the world for Time Magazine. He then took a position with Newsweek in 1965 as Asia bureau chief, based in Hong Kong. Later in his career, Mr. Behr also made a number of documentaries for the BBC. He wrote several books during his life on various subjects, including a memoir which was published in 1978.

Reviews

[Manon Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livre intéressant bien que datant un peu. On y voit les prémices de la cancel culture plus d'autres problématiques encore d'actualités.

[Bookaholic]

Edward Behr a avut o carieră jurnalistică impresionantă, a fost corespondent de război (războiul din Algeria, războiul din Vietnam, Laos etc.), redactor al Saturday Evening Post, corespondent pentru Time-Life, director al filialei Newsweek în Hong Kong, a scris numeroase cărţi inspirate din experienţa sa de jurnalist de război şi, printre altele, şi o carte despre Ceauşescu (Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite; The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus). În O Americă înfricoşătoare (Une Amérique qui fait peur, 1995; Humanitas, 2013), Edward Behr vorbeşte despre o schimbare profundă în miezul societăţii americane, începută pe la mijlocul anilor ’70. El include în această schimbare drastică aspecte precum proliferarea talk-show-urilor care promovează senzaţionalismul, banalizarea crimei, violenţa, mişcările feministe, multiculturalismul (!). Perspectiva lui Behr este însă cea a conservatorismului destul de drastic, care vede o mare problemă în promovarea multiculturalismului şi în îndepărtarea de tradiţia „europenilor, bărbaţi, albi şi morţi”, punând noua sensibilitate americană sub semnul deconstrucţionismului, multiculturalismului, antieurocentrismului.

În viziunea lui Behr, este o mare problemă că America are noi „idoli”, care sunt mai compatibili cu societatea multirasială şi multiculturală, lucru care o împinge într-o fază de izolaţionism cum nu a mai cunoscut până acum. Se plânge că a scăzut interesul pentru marii clasici, precum Corneille, Shakespeare. De asemenea, ia în derâdere campaniile împotriva violurilor, campanii destul de răspândite în campusurile americane. Modul în care le descrie face ca studentele participante să pară ieşite dintr-o variantă a filmelor cu vampiri, nişte lunatice care nu au nici un simţ al realităţii. (cronică: http://bookaholic.ro/o-perspectiva-re...)

[laurentiu]

0

[Patrice-loup Rifaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce livre voulait dénoncer l'emprise du politiquement correct sur la société américaine et les dérives qu'elle entraîne.
Mais il ne repose que sur une succession d'anecdotes sans jamais développer la moindre analyse du phénomène ni des raisons l'ayant rendu possible.
20 ans après sa publication cet ouvrage va rejoindre ma poubelle. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi je ne l'ai pas fait à l'époque et encombré ma bibliothèque !