In America, There Are No 'Little People'

One thing that always strikes me about Europeans is their willingness, nay, eagerness to call attention to their own insignificance. In interview after interview, they willingly describe themselves as "little people" (in German, kleine Leute). Needless to say, you only call yourself one of the 'little people' when you're complaining, which little people do constantly in Europe: "How are we going to cope with 1.233% rise in our pension instead of a 1.344% rise? We're just little people!" or "This new carbon tax on plastic lawn chairs is going to hit us -- the little people -- hard. Of course, the kind of expensive teak furniture bought by the high and mighty (die da oben) gets no tax at all!"

I still have enough American cultural DNA in myself to feel an urge to say to these people: "If you don't like how the little people are treated, you spineless nonentity, then get big." If course, my American cultural DNA has been epigenetically modified by Europe. Discretion! And yes, my head knows that the European attitude is more realistic and socially responsible: most of those little people will remain little people until they die, and it's very sensible for them to favor government policies that help people like them. Blah, blah, you know the rest.

However, there's still a part of me that admires the American refusal to revel in the role of the helpless, impotent pawn of fate. It may be delusional for lots of Americans to believe they're in control of their own destiny, but dammit, it's exciting. 

Here's where the immaculately-tailored, condescending Scandinavian executive screwed the pooch:

On Wednesday, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told reporters in Washington: "I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people."

...Justin Taffinder of New Orleans was not amused.

"We're not small people. We're human beings. They're no greater than us. We don't bow down to them. We don't pray to them," Taffinder said.

"Said"? Shouldn't that be "roared"? Thwack! Whump! Svanberg, you Swedish shithead, how could you have made such an elementary gaffe as to call any American one of the 'small people'? First of all, have you actually been to the gulf and taken a look around?

Second, unlike your countrymen -- tiny, naked piglets fighting to find their own teat on the bloated udder of the Swedish welfare state -- Americans don't plan to work in whatever meaningless job they currently occupy forever. Anyone who admitted doing so will be the target of brutal mockery. No, all Americans, even the most insignificant, have big plans. They're going to start their own martial-arts academy, or invent a new kind of exercise dance, or kill Bin Laden with their bare hands. And if all that fails, they can still open up their own church. They're gonna make it big, or die trying.

And if the church fails, they can always file a lawsuit against some giant company. Preferably one run by condescending Eurobourgeois twits.

Comments

[Fregattenkapitän zur See]

IRGENDJEMAND hat mal geschrieben, jeder Euro-Amerikaner, der nicht gerade unter einer Brücke nächtigen muß, rechne sich reflexiv der Mittelschicht zu; woraus folgt, daß "middle class" im amerikanischen Sprachgebrauch ein ethnisches ("Middle America") und erst in zweiter Hinsicht ein soziales Phänomen bezeichnet.

In Deutschland hat vor einem guten halben Jahrzehnt das Wort "Unterschicht" in den politischen Sprachgebrauch Einzug gehalten. Im Politikdiskurs des neuen Jahrtausends dient das Wort "Unterschicht" als ein Chiffre für: schlecht qualifizierte, integrationsunwillige, zu Radikalisierung aufgelegte Ausländer - ein Chiffre, das verdeckt, was es ausdrückt; das den ethnischen Charakter des von ihm bezeichneten Phänomens geschickt eskamotiert. Ein Palimpsest-Begriff, wenn man so will.

[Lisa Schulz]

Bravo. Your analysis of Euro-American socio-cultural hilarity is always spot on and *hilarious*.