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| Americans love loving America. So why does Independence Day feel ... British? | Americans love loving America. So why does Independence Day feel ... British? |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| Every year around this time, as a Brit living in the US, I'm aware that the fun-house mirror through which both nations regard each other is even weirder and more distorting than usual: America celebrates its independence from Britain, and Britain looks on at the July 4th pageantry, half-mocking, half-envious. | Every year around this time, as a Brit living in the US, I'm aware that the fun-house mirror through which both nations regard each other is even weirder and more distorting than usual: America celebrates its independence from Britain, and Britain looks on at the July 4th pageantry, half-mocking, half-envious. |
| This year, the US self-love-in comes at a peculiar time for both nations, what with America outlasting England in the World Cup – widely used as an excuse to crow about Britain's national "identity crisis" – and leaving we Brits in the odd position of rooting for Team USA. | |
| Before their ejection at the hands of the Belgians on Tuesday, the US football team pulled off the rare feat of attracting in-country support from those born elsewhere - those who have, traditionally, disparaged Americans for what might be called a victory-focused outlook. At the bar where I watched the match, the American guy standing next to me heard my accent and said, genially enough, "You're supporting Belgium, right?" | Before their ejection at the hands of the Belgians on Tuesday, the US football team pulled off the rare feat of attracting in-country support from those born elsewhere - those who have, traditionally, disparaged Americans for what might be called a victory-focused outlook. At the bar where I watched the match, the American guy standing next to me heard my accent and said, genially enough, "You're supporting Belgium, right?" |
| But I wasn't. No Brit I know in New York was rooting against America, mostly out of affection for our host nation - although I know at least one person who was supporting Team USA because of Belgium's colonial record in the Congo. But for most non-Americans, there was something cheering about it – to exist wholly, if temporarily, on the side of the country you live in, rather than as a foreigner on the outside looking in. | |
| A lot of Brits, possibly without knowing it, were also supporting the US for the odd spectacle of America-as-underdog. This, surely, is the real moment of British existential crisis: when the upstart Americans, with their ebullience and patriotism, their certainty and optimism, start displaying traditionally English characteristics, right down to the shuffling self-deprecation and wry acknowledgement of their own shortcomings. At one point during the game, the cameras focused on a ripple as it moved through the stadium crowd, and the guy drinking a Pabst beside me said, "Ahhh, America's real gift to the world: the Mexican wave." | A lot of Brits, possibly without knowing it, were also supporting the US for the odd spectacle of America-as-underdog. This, surely, is the real moment of British existential crisis: when the upstart Americans, with their ebullience and patriotism, their certainty and optimism, start displaying traditionally English characteristics, right down to the shuffling self-deprecation and wry acknowledgement of their own shortcomings. At one point during the game, the cameras focused on a ripple as it moved through the stadium crowd, and the guy drinking a Pabst beside me said, "Ahhh, America's real gift to the world: the Mexican wave." |
| Meanwhile, in Britain, politicians are going through one of their periodic efforts to muster a version of American self-glorification in order to deliver a better "national identity" – to which the entire nation, more or less, has reacted with two fingers in the air (not just the middle one) and an entreaty to jog on. | Meanwhile, in Britain, politicians are going through one of their periodic efforts to muster a version of American self-glorification in order to deliver a better "national identity" – to which the entire nation, more or less, has reacted with two fingers in the air (not just the middle one) and an entreaty to jog on. |
| But this is how the Americans do their patriotism: There are these small baskets at the cash registers in regional airports, accompanied by a sign urging travelers to purchase and deposit items for the US military – M&Ms, a tube of Arm & Hammer toothpaste, a copy of Men's Health magazine. Once at the gate, military personnel are invited to board first and other passengers, led by cabin crew, invariably give them a round of applause. Just last week, the actress Amy Adams was showered with praise for giving up her first-class seat to a soldier seated in coach. If someone ever tried to give up her seat for a squaddie in Britain, my hunch is it would be met with bafflement all around. | But this is how the Americans do their patriotism: There are these small baskets at the cash registers in regional airports, accompanied by a sign urging travelers to purchase and deposit items for the US military – M&Ms, a tube of Arm & Hammer toothpaste, a copy of Men's Health magazine. Once at the gate, military personnel are invited to board first and other passengers, led by cabin crew, invariably give them a round of applause. Just last week, the actress Amy Adams was showered with praise for giving up her first-class seat to a soldier seated in coach. If someone ever tried to give up her seat for a squaddie in Britain, my hunch is it would be met with bafflement all around. |
| Indeed, the only time you see anything like that American jingoistic spirit in Britain is when an opportunity presents itself to get a rise out of Germany. But Americans on Independence Day are far more good-natured, and in any case, anti-German sentiment is not so much about defining who we are as Britons as jeering at who we're not. | Indeed, the only time you see anything like that American jingoistic spirit in Britain is when an opportunity presents itself to get a rise out of Germany. But Americans on Independence Day are far more good-natured, and in any case, anti-German sentiment is not so much about defining who we are as Britons as jeering at who we're not. |
| And we – British expats and allies – are emphatically not Americans, nor do we really want to be for more than 90 minutes and maybe some extra time. One of the most visible differences between the two sensibilities is the way in which Americans love loving America, with all the accessories that entails, in contrast to British default nationalism; arrogant sheepishness doesn't really lend itself to props. | And we – British expats and allies – are emphatically not Americans, nor do we really want to be for more than 90 minutes and maybe some extra time. One of the most visible differences between the two sensibilities is the way in which Americans love loving America, with all the accessories that entails, in contrast to British default nationalism; arrogant sheepishness doesn't really lend itself to props. |
| The envy comes from a possibly erroneous perception of simplicity: all those layers of meaning in the old country – self-criticism as a sly form of self-promotion; understatement that is really over-confidence; disingenuousness posing always as irony – can get a little wearying. A couple of years ago, at an Independence Day barbecue where everyone watched fireworks, drank from huge red, white and blue beakers, and wore foam cut-outs of the Statue of Liberty's crown, I was struck by how straightforwardly fun and uplifting it was. But then, when David Cameron asks us to browse the Magna Carta and hoist the Union Flag, we all collectively heave. | The envy comes from a possibly erroneous perception of simplicity: all those layers of meaning in the old country – self-criticism as a sly form of self-promotion; understatement that is really over-confidence; disingenuousness posing always as irony – can get a little wearying. A couple of years ago, at an Independence Day barbecue where everyone watched fireworks, drank from huge red, white and blue beakers, and wore foam cut-outs of the Statue of Liberty's crown, I was struck by how straightforwardly fun and uplifting it was. But then, when David Cameron asks us to browse the Magna Carta and hoist the Union Flag, we all collectively heave. |
| Ironically, now that the US is out of the World Cup, Americans can abandon their national experiment in half-expecting to lose, and go back to celebrating themselves with undiluted abandon. Britons, meanwhile, can celebrate 4 July (not July 4th) by writing it off as juvenilia – or at least pretending to be mystified by what it all means. | Ironically, now that the US is out of the World Cup, Americans can abandon their national experiment in half-expecting to lose, and go back to celebrating themselves with undiluted abandon. Britons, meanwhile, can celebrate 4 July (not July 4th) by writing it off as juvenilia – or at least pretending to be mystified by what it all means. |
| At half-time on Tuesday, most | |
| soccer | |
| football fans around me were out of a drink. "She's coming back," said my | |
| buddy | |
| mate, of the single waitress circulating in a | |
| bar | |
| pub of perhaps 100 people. "No she's not," I said. And there it was: the reassuring return to normal service. |