Hell is Europeans
From David Mayger
Sir: What is this to-ing and fro-ing among your correspondents about Americans with or without passports? Yes, there are more things to do and see here than in other countries, but that misses the point; you don’t want us over there and have never disguised that fact. The popular prints throughout Europe have bemoaned American manners, mores and the American presence since the French and Indian war (oops! the Seven Years’ War, to you). Simultaneously, you have all by and large aped the behaviours you decried, or committed worse, but, of course, managed to delude yourselves that your gaffes were somehow ‘different’. When the time finally comes to write our history, perhaps we can all agree that Woodrow Wilson was America’s worst president, for it was he who threw over Washington’s wise warning about foreign entanglements. And further agree that Sartre was only partly correct: hell is not just other people; hell is Europeans. Meanwhile, I promise to stay on my side of the ocean. Be a pal and stay on yours, will you?
David Mayger
Alexandria, Virginia, USA
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