Protesters in Poland, which is 0.05% black and where police kill on average just two people a year (Photo by Attila Husejnow/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“When the US sneezes,” it has often been said, “the world catches a cold.” The quote, originally used by Metternich about France, is true about America economically, and in terms of foreign policy, but it is also true in terms of culture. In his sunny book How the World Was Won, Peter Conrad wrote:
“Runaways and detractors find that America is inescapable. William S. Burroughs lived abroad from 1948 to 1974, but never defined himself as an exile. ‘One can hardly say that one is in exile from the United States as a whole,’ he explained; it would be as absurd as claiming to be in exile from the world.”
This much is unarguable. Even using the word “Americanisation” feels a bit clichéd. One could talk about McDonald’s, or Friends, or Kobe Bryant — and many have — but what is more interesting is how America exports not just its products but its causes. For example, the #MeToo movement spread around the world in 2017, beginning with a tweet by the American activist Tarana Burke and ending up everywhere from Spain to South Korea. True, the concept was adapted to be relevant to the different circumstances of different countries, with local instances of sexual assault being discussed, but the phenomenon demonstrated the ability of American culture to direct the course of social change.
So it has been with #BlackLivesMatter. The protests that followed the horrific death of George Floyd have spread not just around the United States but across the Western world. This is strange, on the face of it. Whatever your stance on American law enforcement, it is at least predictable that a nation with a militarised police force and a bloated incarceration system would experience such crises. One might not be very sympathetic but one cannot be surprised, especially after lockdowns have left people to stew in their own frustration.
But why did such large, intense protests take place in Britain, where last year just three people were shot to death by the police? Why did sizable protests take place in Iceland, Poland, and the Czech Republic, which all have small or miniscule non-white ethnic minorities? No doubt, people in these countries could point to local factors to rationalise the demonstrations. But there are more structural factors at play.
Both #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter began life as hashtags, and their global reach can be explained partly by the international nature of social media platforms. Through Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube et cetera, people, and especially young people, across the world are plugged into the same conversations. “Influencers” like Charli D’Amelio — with 60 million followers on TikTok — and Logan Paul — with 25 million followers on YouTube — speak to a global audience on a scale that stars of radio and television could never match.
Their opinions — and those of many, many others — not only shape their followers’ perceptions of world events but, like their clothes and music choices, become status symbols, signifying contemporary, cosmopolitan tastes, especially in nations where the cultural mainstream is more traditional and conservative. “Influencers” become sales representatives of woke capital, for which social rather than economic causes are a useful means of prettifying one’s brand image without threatening one’s bottom line.
Even the aesthetics of protests in the non-English speaking world often take their lead from English-speaking media. I recall seeing photos of a climate march in Warsaw, where young people carried posters bearing slogans like “The Earth is Getting Hotter Than Shawn Mendes” and “Let’s Fuck Each Other Instead of Planet”. These seemed like the kind of posters which had a good chance of going viral on US Twitter and no change of convincing a Polish family to convert their coal-burning furnace into something more environmental.
Yet the global adoption of US causes has a more explicitly political function as well. As James Hunter, the first theorist of the “culture war” has argued, a culture war is also a class war, built around the controversial accumulation of status by educated and urban representatives of cognitive-cultural capitalism. Some form of contest will always occur when industry and agriculture decline, and when higher education swells in response, as there is so much status, and wealth, waiting to be claimed. But American media directs these contests onto battlegrounds of cultural values.
#MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter are essentially memes, and the US culture war provides effective memes around which international members of the progressive classes are able to construct their identity. When a twenty-something European representative of the creative industries attends BLM protests, they are not just explicitly supporting black people but implicitly defining themselves against elements of society associated with parochialism and neophobia. It is an expression of self-image as much as a meaningful protest.
Some might call this a cynical interpretation, and instead argue that protesters are expressing solidarity with victims of authoritarian governance, where they happen to live. Doubtless, some at least intend to do that. But an interesting question is why the Chinese state does not inspire half the outrage of that of the US. After all, if foreign instances of racial prejudice demand our opposition then there can be no more striking an example than the Chinese government locking up to a million Uighur Muslims in re-education camps.
A simple explanation for this not being a fashionable cause is that China is not an English-speaking country. This makes events in China less globally explicable, but also less relevant in a world where, as I have written before, English is not just the global language but a class signifier, denoting wealth, education and awareness of popular culture.
But it is also explained by censorship. Chinese people could not build an online presence accessible to the Western world. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter are all blocked in China, and even TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, was not made available in China. If a Chinese person tried to start a #UighurLivesMatter campaign they would be arrested before you could say “hashtag”.
Moreover, the Chinese government even endeavours to limit the extent to which Westerners can criticise its policies. TikTok, unsurprisingly, removes videos which are critical of the Chinese government, and even Western organisations bow in the face of Chinese soft power. Zoom deleted the accounts of pro-democracy campaigners in the US on behalf of the CPC. Blizzard Entertainment suspended a Hong Kong gamer for supporting protests. LeBron James felt obliged to offer cringe-making criticisms of the Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey for his “misinformed” endorsement of the protestors.
The English actor John Boyega speculated in his speech to London’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations that he might lose his career over participating in the protests but criticising the Chinese would have been considerably more dangerous for his career prospects. LucasFilm loudly applauded Boyega for speaking in London but did not raise a squeak of protest when the Chinese casually erased the black actor from Star Wars promotional materials in China. My point is less to beat a snare drum marked “hypocrisy” than to point out that this censorship works. “Free Tibet” was a prominent cause in the 1990s, but almost no one in the West spares a passing thought for Uighur Muslims today.
To restate the arguments over the values that underpin culture wars would be pointless. It is done enough elsewhere. But the Americanisation of culture wars deserves resistance in itself. It homogenises national priorities, obscuring cultural and political differences, to such a ludicrous extent that British people end up arguing about police violence in a year when, yet again, it was revealed that the police had sat back and done next to nothing as a gang of men had groomed and raped young girls in Britain. Police brutality and overzealousness might be a particular problem in a Midwestern US state, while not being a priority in a northern English county; the globalisation of politics obscures local conditions.
It also distorts our understanding of the world, limiting our awareness of international affairs to those which are the focus of the narrow spectrum of social media trends. Whether you are a progressive or a conservative, you should be so in the terms of your national circumstances, and with broader frames of references than those which have been provided by social media monopolies.
Ben Sixsmith is an English writer living in Poland. He has written for Quillette, Areo, The Catholic Herald, The American Conservative and Arc Digital on a variety of topics including literature and politics.
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SubscribeWell written article and not a bit cynical. Young people have got themselves all worked up in the ways only young people can – on slight evidence and even less knowledge. But unlike the peace movement of the 60s or the environmental movement of the 80s which nudged the world in a new direction, this movement is so large (thanks to social media) we are in severe danger of doing great damage to our society before these youngsters realise what fools they’ve been.
It is more imperative than ever that right now politicians and older people stand up and criticise and put a huge break on the wokery. What we really don’t need is politicians and older people joining in with the foolishness.
Well said. I couldn’t agree more.
You’re right, but these young people have been brainwashed since they entered school at the age of five, and they have been raised by parents who were brainwashed before them when the decay that began in the sixties engulfed everything. They will never realize what fools they’ve been, or listen to older people’s criticism of wokery. And tragically, many older people and politicians have already joined in with the foolishness.
Shows what weak foolish cowards they are. Its easier to virtue signal than face the reality of the destruction they are creating.
Same reason that no one cares the 3 gay men stabbed to death in Reading this is about stopping Trump getting re elected nothing else
This article mainly seems to state the obvious. And anyway, you will never get this rabble to understand that the Chinese represent a far greater threat to their freedoms than Trump or whoever it is they’re complaining about today. They are simply too dumb, having sat in the West’s schools, colleges and universities for up to 20 years.
Well, indeed. But when neither politicians, the police or most of the media seem able to notice the obvious, it needs to be continually rammed down their throats.
Young international hashtaggers might boost multinational woke capital but they are degrading their own national economies upon which they depend. The longer they continue to kick away the props which have underpinned and sustained our culture – equality before the law, basic scientific objectivity, deep seated ideas of personal liberty emerging out of Christianity etc. – then the easier it will be for other countries to drive a coach and horses through our economies and freedoms.
“Equality before the law”? I bet that chap who was sacked for daring to proclaim that ” White Lives Matter” would like some of that
The criteria for equality differs depending on who is calling for it
Too many graduates, many of whom not suited to Higher Ed, taking superficial non-scholarly degrees in grievance and resentment studies. As stated elsewhere, they’re thick and short of humility, civility and any sense of their own culture beyond their university. The fact is it’s much easier and simpler to blame something closer to home than understand global complexities.
Yes, here in the West we now have an education system in which many or most people are virtually from the age of 4 to 24. And after 20 years of incarceration and indoctrination they leave knowing precisely….nothing. It’s an incredible achievement on the part of the educational establishment – to be paid fortunes for churning out hordes of people who know nothing about anything. Nice work if you can get it.
Quite frankly, the West deserves to fall.
Hang on! We still have an excellent Public School system that is the envy of the world. As I write, hordes of Chinese, male and female students are clamouring for entrance, which is laudable, although unsettling.
The appalling grovelling by the Eton head the other day, was just an aberration and does not represent the feelings of most of the school or the system in general.
Whilst the rest of England may have “gone to the dogs”, the Public Schools remain the bastion of common sense, fair play and old the virtues that made us the greatest Empire on Earth, since Ancient Rome.
Do not despair even if only 7% of our children have the luxury of a Public School education, it is enough to lead the way, eradicate the cancer of Wokedom, defeat the Asiatic peril, and return the land to sanity.
Sadly, a lot of the wokes seem to have come from the private schools.
Yes agreed, that will have to cease, there is no excuse! I suspect it’s due to ‘upwardly mobile’ pushy parents dictating the agenda. The staff must stand up against such nonsense and stop ‘kow towing’ to Woke drivel.
If parents really want Woke, there are literally hundreds of State Comprehensives only too willing to poison young minds, and they have the inestimable advantage of being free.
Dont agree. Many teachers are concerned about kids learning right wing sentiments at home that may override the left wing marxism taught in schools. They are looking for ways to combat this
That is quite a conundrum, the battle for the soul of the youth.
How did we get it so wrong? Too busy stuffing our faces, planning Tuscan holidays, and heading for the Alps perhaps?
Off course if you were fortunate enough to afford private education you ignored everything else. A valid reason but not a reasonable excuse. Now we must reap what we have sowed.
Even those who are otherwise suited to University, are products of a huge indoctrination machine that so narrows their outlook, that they become visibly agitated even hearing views contrary to their taught dogma. And the academic establishment is now so badly infected that even our once great universities no longer merit the name.
Klemens von Metternich (1773 ““ 1859) coined the phrase “When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold.” I don’t think he was that concerned with the US.
He was probably concerned with the source of European cultural hegemony though.
Yes, I thought that quoting Metternich here was a bit strange given that the US was hardly a Great Power – and certainly not really interconnected with Europe – during Metternich’s time.
Hello Roger and Fraser, do pay attention. The author states that he has ADAPTED the phrase he borrowed from Metternich to make it apply to the USA. He was not implying that Metternich was “concerned with the US,” much less that the original quote referred to the US (in fact he clearly states that Metternich’s original line was about France).
Indeed, where did Ben Sixsmith pick that up. Surely Metternich’s dates were the obvious clue?
In 1859 the US was a Pygmy as far as Europe was concerned. They had ‘chastised’ the Japanese in 1853 but had done little else of note. Slavery would soon catapult them into a brutal internecine Civil War.
Some form of contest will always occur when industry and agriculture decline, and when higher education swells in response, as there is so much status, and wealth, waiting to be claimed.
Too many graduates, many of whom not suited to Higher Ed, taking superficial non-scholarly degrees in grievance and resentment studies. As the earlier comment makes clear, they’re just really really thick and lack humility, civility and any sense of their own culture beyond their university. The fact is it’s much easier and simpler to blame something closer to home than understand global complexities. The young international hashtaggers that Mary identifies might boost multinational woke capital but they are degrading their own national economies upon which they depend. The longer they continue to kick away the props which have underpinned and sustained our culture – equality before the law, basic scientific objectivity, deep seated ideas of personal liberty emerging out of Christianity etc. – then the easier it will be for the likes of China to drive a coach and horses through our economies and freedoms.
We, the older generation should stand up and be honest enough to admit that it is our cohort that has permitted a lot of the problems to arise that we so frequently hear about such as higher education where there is insufficient work places at that level, the clear rise of mob rule and not forgetting the self appointed thought police we see in action so often in the news. I have tried writing to my government rep but they have now seemingly walled themselves off after organisations like 38 degrees totally destroyed the process with their templated email campaigns. The scariest thing we see every day now but do not possibly recognise it for what it is, is the real world power the Twitter mobs wield or more correctly their shadowy promoters or leaders, with seemingly no checks or balances in place at all. Fancy losing your job, your friends, being physically attacked or potentially worse, no problem just make a statement online that someone disagrees with… the late night knock on door so feared in the ex-soviet countries has been replaced by the quiet repeated chime of your news feed being updated or tweet update arriving or perhaps an email from work that HR would like a word, and yes best bring a friend or colleague with you.
Once we can get past the denial phase and accept that we are part of the problem, only then can we start to consider and drive for solutions. Our kids are only working with what we have given them.
It is interesting that talking about a town called Reading when discussing incidents like this gets your comment deleted
Deleted
Too many graduates, many of whom not suited to Higher Ed, taking superficial non-scholarly degrees in grievance and resentment studies. As the earlier comment makes clear, they’re just really really thick and lack humility, civility and any sense of their own culture beyond their university. The fact is it’s much easier and simpler to blame something closer to home than understand global complexities. The young international hashtaggers that Ben identifies might boost multinational woke capital but they are degrading their own national economies upon which they depend. The longer they continue to kick away the props which have underpinned and sustained our culture – equality before the law, basic scientific objectivity, deep seated ideas of personal liberty emerging out of Christianity etc. – then the easier it will be for other countries to drive a coach and horses through our economies and freedoms.
This is an excellent article, but leaves unanswered questions: how and why are all these supposedly spontaneous demonstrations happening so quickly? The answer is the large and well-funded national and international protest organization industry. For example, when Greta Thunberg advocated for international children’s demonstrations the millions of children in numerous countries didn’t suddenly walk out onto the streets without parental knowledge. Likewise with Black Lives Matter demonstrations, even in countries where there are very few Black people and few if any reported incidents of killing by police. It isn’t that the citizens of these countries are mesmerized by US culture, but rather, they are organized by branches or chapters of the same multinational protest organizations.
These organizations can use social media followers and past protest attendees to organize protests on short notice. They design the memes like “No justice, No peace” and “Defund the Police” and distribute the signs or organize their preparation in several countries. TV and social media then present these well-organized theatrical demonstrations as spontaneous displays of public support.
The purpose of organizing demonstrations in such countries is for media coverage of this political theatre. This gets the organizers more donations and more political influence. While people all over the world are opposed in principle to racism, most people outside the US wouldn’t ordinarily be sufficiently motivated to go out into the streets in protest. This is especially true where police racism is minimal to nonexistent (in countries like Iceland, where most people are of the same race).
Of course political theatre cannot exist where the government won’t permit it. Greta supporters and BLM protesters were not organized to protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Theatre requires an audience and a media chorus that is available only in certain countries. So racism is seen as an evil only where demonstrations are permitted, and everywhere else it is RAU — racism as usual.
The accompanying photograph of white college-age children taking a knee with fists upheld for BLM, in Poland, with 0.05 percent black population and about 2 people (most likely white) killed by police each year, is ludicrous. One one hand it’s hilarious in its absurdity. On the other hand it’s tragic that the world has been so deeply infected by mindless wokeness.
Some form of contest will always occur when industry and agriculture decline, and when higher education swells in response, as there is so much status, and wealth, waiting to be claimed.
Too many graduates, many of whom not suited to Higher Ed, taking superficial non-scholarly degrees in grievance and resentment studies. As the earlier comment makes clear, they’re just really really thick and lack humility, civility and any sense of their own culture beyond their university. The fact is it’s much easier and simpler to blame something closer to home than understand global complexities. The young international hashtaggers that Mary identifies might boost multinational woke capital but they are degrading their own national economies upon which they depend. The longer they continue to kick away the props which have underpinned and sustained our culture – equality before the law, basic scientific objectivity, deep seated ideas of personal liberty emerging out of Christianity etc. – then the easier it will be for the likes of the Chinese to drive a coach and horses through our economies and freedoms.
Is it me or are you repeating yourself?
Yes! It’s the dratted comment-censoring software having its way again.
Does make reasoned ‘discussion’ quite hard doesn’t it! Everything gets out of sequence, in ones mind, anyway! Maybe we need to earn the trust of the ‘forum police’ before being allowed to post almost live!
Yes it does. Nearly all of my unremarkable comments on this site never appear. I’ve basically given up.
each and every comment of mine is met with this: “Hold on, this is waiting to be approved by UnHerd”.
Is it just me?
Too many graduates, many of whom not suited to Higher Ed, taking superficial non-scholarly degrees in grievance and resentment studies. As stated elsewhere, they’re thick and short of humility, civility and any sense of their own culture beyond their university. The fact is it’s much easier and simpler to blame something closer to home than understand global complexities. Young international hashtaggers might boost multinational woke capital but they are degrading their own national economies upon which they depend. The longer they continue to kick away the props which have underpinned and sustained our culture – equality before the law, basic scientific objectivity, deep seated ideas of personal liberty emerging out of Christianity etc. – then the easier it will be for other countries to drive a coach and horses through our economies and freedoms.
Too many graduates, many of whom not suited to Higher Ed, taking superficial non-scholarly degrees in grievance and resentment studies. As stated elsewhere, they’re stupid and short of humility, civility and any sense of their own culture beyond their university. The fact is it’s much easier and simpler to blame something closer to home than understand global complexities. Young international hashtaggers might boost multinational woke capital but they are degrading their own national economies upon which they depend. The longer they continue to kick away the props which have underpinned and sustained our culture – equality before the law, basic scientific objectivity, deep seated ideas of personal liberty emerging out of Christianity etc. – then the easier it will be for other countries to drive a coach and horses through our economies and freedoms.
Shawn Mendes is Canadian, not American, the pride of Pickering, Ontario, but it is delightful to here that he has a following in Poland. I hope Ben is aware of this; I noticed in the paragraph where he brings up Shawn he suddenly starts talking about the “English-speaking” media rather than the American media. Unfortunately, Canadians are easily conflated with Americans, because there isn’t much difference between Canadians and Americans in accents or vocabulary, certainly less than between Brits and Americans.
Social media is a cancer eating away at society. Historically and culturally illiterate “hashtag” campaigns and “influencer” culture will destroy everything. It’s especially sad to see how these US-based phenomena and pathologies are also doing such damage to Europe as well.
Our global Internet is like a virtual human brain 😊
Has anyone read The Aquarian Conspiracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…
I often get the feeling this movement was influential in shaping the birth of a global network society. Maybe this movement merged with the civil rights movement with ‘rights protectors’ trying to claim higher virtual status.
The Internet is like a virtual world that we inhabit but one which can have real life consequences as we know only too well.
To think we are all influencing each other in our global virtual brain is quite mad really. However, it seems to have taken human competition over resources to another mental level with the virtual society facilitating virtual wars rather than physical ones, if you know what I mean.
Hopefully with a global virtual brain, we can sort out our human growth crisis before it is too late.
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“It is an expression of self-image as much as a meaningful protest.”
I would change “as much as” to say “much more than”. I know Sixsmith is trying not to be cynical, so I’ll just pick up his slack.
These kids do not have a bone of principled consistency in their bodies. They march for the virtue signal photo op. If it wasn’t so, they would be shouting from the rooftops about the Uighurs. But they do not give a sh*t because this cause contains zero social clout.
What’s more, is the featured image used for this piece is of polish protestors, which of course is dominated by white girls, which for some reason seems to be the global trend. As the caption bluntly states, Poland has 0.05% black and their police kill ~2 people per year. What the hell else could these white girls be doing except harvesting content for their instagram feed?
I wonder if these polish protestors have ever raised a placard for the fact that a disproportionate amount of sex slaves in Europe”including children”are taken from Poland. I would wager a large bet that the answer is no.
Does anyone recall the Free Speech Movement, started I believe at Berkeley about 1968? The induction of young men to fight in Vietnam was clearly in the background. It went other places, including Frankfurt according to a friend of mine. It certainly did not have the mega- phone of the internet and I believe things settled down quickly. Were there massive marches or confrontations in classrooms?