LETTERS Departing shot
Sir: As an American journalist departing Britain after three and a half years, I feel a need to respond to the surprising diatribe by Michael Lewis (`Oh, not to be in Eng- land', 23 May). His experience in England, however distressing it might have been for him, has little in common with mine, or that of many other expatriates I know.
Mr Lewis's painfully self-conscious assessment of British attitudes did reflect a tendency among some Americans to inter- pret native behaviour as chiefly a response to themselves — i.e. a reserved or distant Briton is seen as anti-American or unfriendly to foreigners.
Americans represent an unusually extro- verted culture. Our uninhibited pursuit of professional and personal connections gen- erates considerable energy, and contributes to the flow of ideas, deals, and enthusiasms. The same extroversion, in its more compul- sive and mechanical manifestations, can also lead to a rootless, provisional way of living, in which products, affiliations, and friendships are energetically acquired and quickly thrown away, since they are all ulti- mately replaceable by some more efficient or prestigious substitute.
American extroversion also leaves its devotees at a loss in understanding a cul- ture where private, idiosyncratic arrange- ments are valued. Britons are tradition- minded, which makes them slower to acquire new gadgets, new friends, and new ways of living, and more reluctant to throw away what they have adopted and grown used to. Transplanted Americans, uprooted and in need of fast reinforcement, some- times find this emphasis on continuity to be an affront.
The pluses and minuses of American consumerism and British traditionalism could be discussed at length. Both have their strengths and their perils. The sadden- ing message of Mr Lewis's farewell is that what the British really need to do is become Americans. Undoubtedly that would make Mr Lewis and many other Americans more comfortable during their sojourns in Lon- don. But it would come at the expense of a culture that, through its reserved and idiosyncratic ways, remains rich in charac- ter, subtlety, and self-knowledge.
Tim Carrington
The Wall Street Journal (London Bureau), 76 Shoe Lane, London EC4
Previous page
