God Bless... Britannia?

The latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey indicates America's popularity continues to slide. According to The Economist, two years on from Iraq not only has hostility hardened, but when asked: "Suppose a young person who wanted to leave asked you to recommend where to go to lead a good life what country would you recommend?" nobody except the Indians picked the US first. Indeed, even the UK scored higher, and the funny thing is this kind of makes sense...

I'm certainly no Anti-American - in fact I grew up dreaming of the US I glimpsed on the Brady Bunch and Starsky and Hutch. America to me was the land of plenty... of TV channels anyway which, stuck in three channel Britain along with its three day week and power cuts seemed about as close to the Promised Land as one could get.


 

As I grew older and, naturally, angrier I was still never really Anti-American. I never got the imperialism thing and grew up too late for Vietnam. If anything I saw the US as a classless land of opportunity and dreamed of getting laid, like the guy in Love Actually, because of my English accent.


 

As it happened when I finally washed up on American shores in the mid-Nineties... I didn't get laid. But honestly, I don't hold that against the US. In fact, following that and subsequent visits, I came to quite like the place: the people were nice enough and the country itself was... ok, if all a little bit new. A big Milton Keynes if you like, along with a New York Theme Park which just happened to be, well... New York.

Then came 9/11, after which to me the US lost its aura of invulnerability, its status as the Exceptional Nation, Gods Own Country. It was no longer the City On The Hill, the New Jerusalem. It was no better than the rest of us...


 

And of course we are far less forgiving of those we once placed on a pedestol. So now when I think of America I don't necessarily think of Bush, or Iraq or global warming, but I do remember how tricky it was to get a drink, the poor public transport and health systems, how little holiday they have, what long hours they have to work... and all of this in, well, Milton Keynes. Meanwhile we Brits no longer have to put up with three channels, day-weeks or social classes...

So if a young person was to ask me where to go, while I might not actually say the UK, I probably wouldn't recommend the US either. And do you know what? Part of me finds that kind of sad.