American Backlash [Hardcover]

 

 

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Michael Adams' American Backlash is the sort of non-fiction I like to read: it presents an atypical argument, it's fairly easy to read and it avoids unnecessary jargon. Unfortunately, the initial promise is never successfully met as the book unfolds.

Adams' main point, or so it seems at the beginning, is that "there are, in fact, three kinds of people [in America]: Republicans, Democrats, and those who don't vote. The third group is the largest" (7). This gets your attention. You don't normally think about a three-way cultural split in America, and it's clear Adams is about to present a different kind of argument. He goes on to say, "The values of politically engaged Republicans and Democrats look virtually identical. It is between voters and non-voters that the real chasm lies" (ibid). In many ways it is the result of a generational shift: "America's youth are leading the country toward values of hard hedonism and unscrupulous individualism", whereas American voters (both Republican AND Democratic) are becoming more attracted to "order and authority". While the voters still define America's accepted definitions of the American Dream, they are diverging "from the net trajectory of social change in their country" (11). The new group - the politically disengaged - is increasingly interested in thrill-seeking and large social gatherings (from rock concerts to mega-churches). They are more sexist and xenophobic, and significantly more willing to accept violence and the doctrine of just deserts (part of what Adams calls Darwinism). Finally, this "third way" is much more oriented towards consumption and status seeking.

However, as I said before, the interesting elements of the opening chapters are not sustained. At a methodological level, I generally accept his social values research. Environics is a respected polling company in Canada, and I think Adams does a good job of explaining the literally hundreds of values (and their questions) that were assessed from 1992 to 2004. On the other hand, the four quadrants that organize all of the responses on a two-dimensional grid (Authority vs. Individuality, and Survival vs. Fulfillment) are NOT well explained. In fact, we have to go to an appendix to understand his choice of these four uber-values, and all we're told is that they're the "most explanatory and interesting dimensions when explicating our findings" (188). And that's about it for his explanation of their organizing powers. He does go to great lengths to explain these four values individually, but even then "Fulfillment" remains problematic. It represents the values of progressive Democrats, who score high on things like abstractions, idealism, tolerance, cosmopolitanism, community involvement and personal growth (a la Maslow). However, to me, "fulfillment" usually connotes the sort of crude materialism and hedonism of the opposite side (Survival). Moreover, if it's supposed to represent Democratic values, it is more intuitive for "Fulfillment" to be placed on the left than the right. So I find it irritating as a short-hand label. In the end, I accept his three-way split on values, but the macro-organization is confusing and just plain odd.

Another major shortcoming is that Adams' main point (the three-way split) is eventually abandoned. The second half of the book focuses largely on region and gender, and the differences between Democrats and Republicans. The hedonists largely disappear from view, and along with them a lot of my interest in the book. Indeed, by the end of the book, Adams spends most of his time comparing hard-core Democrats and Republicans. They DO have significant differences, and one is left to wonder about his earlier claim that "the values of politically engaged Republicans and Democrats look virtually identical". The worst chapter in my view is "The Great Backlash", which seems to be where Adams gets his title. It's an overview of the historical ascendancy of modern Republicans and the decline of progressive values. Unfortunately, it is riddled with clichés and shallow analysis, and Adams tends to direct most of his barbs at Democrats. I see little irony when Adams says that, "if the '60s hadn't provided enough evidence, the '70s were proof positive that America was veering seriously off track" (144). <Yawn>

The last major weakness, and the one most fatal for me, is Adams' refusal to see the close relationship between Republicans and the hedonistic anti-voters. In Chapter Two, where Adams compares the two types of voters to the non-voters, most of the issues placed in the 3-way charts are ones where social conservatives have, quite conveniently, clear and unique positions. But we see little comparison on economic issues, where modern economic conservatism affects a wider range of people. Economic conservatives (actually, old-fashioned liberals) follow the neo-classical economics of Milton Friedman et al.; their theories harken back to the 18th and 19th centuries, where belief in economic Darwinism was pervasive and wide-spread. And this is the problem: Republicans love this brand of unbridled capitalism, but so do the hedonist anti-voters. Thus, the new third group that Adams identifies is really the bastard child of Republican economics. How parent and child relate to each other is something that Adams doesn't even consider.

The author seems to be one of those knee-jerk anti-American types who would sooner boo American hockey kids or blame the United States for a Toronto shooting than look into any facts that get in the way of what he wants to get across. As an American I've read a lot of bashing of my country from our neighbors to the North, but usually there is at least a grain of truth to it. This book is 240 pages of errors and mischaracterizations by someone who may as well have gotten his "facts" about America from the al-Jazeera website.

For example, Mr. Adams claims that America "wants" to be judged by its positive exceptions, as in "forget the millions of blacks we have in prison, judge us by Oprah." Nothing could be further from the truth; the typical American doesn't make excuses for putting criminals of any race behind bars and wouldn't want anyone to judge us by any celebrity. Mr. Adams clearly hasn't bothered to speak to any typical Americans, though, instead choosing to search for data that fits "conclusions" that he wants to support.

Mr. Adams' thought process while writing the book seems to be this: "Canadians take pride in their differences with America. As such, I'll bash America by using the age-old Washington Post method of sifting through polls full of leading questions until I find one that has results I like, and then I'll run it as indisputable fact." To read Mr. Adams' book, one would come to the conclusion that my country excludes pretty much everyone - and yet its citizens all march in lockstep with the government, hate the poor, hate the elderly, hate kittens, want to destroy the environment, seek to enslave children for cheaper jeans, consider themselves to be a higher life forms even though they're too stupid to know how screwed up they are, hate brown people and think that anyone who doesn't speak their language should die.

Mr. Adams further passes off every difference as evidence of the superiority of Canada's social system, completely glossing over facts such as Canada not needing to spend any real money on defense or the fact that the number of illegal aliens in America is about the size of half of Canada's entire population.

If Canadians want to be told that they're special, and / or want to read America-bashing, there are many cheaper and more entertaining sources than this. I give this book two stars in terms of its value to Canadians needing a boost in self-esteem, but would give it a minimum grade in terms of accuracy in its descriptions of America.

I'm sure Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac would love this book. Unfortunately, the book is little more than errors and spite. If you want to really enjoy mocking of America, turn on Rick Mercer or Peter Kelamis and watch people who at least have an idea of how to do it in an entertaining manner.

This book received an excellent review in the Globe and Mail (November 26, 2005) from an award-winning American historian - quite the accomplishment for an outsider's perspective on the sociocultural evolution of the United States.

Michael Adams is the president of Environics Research Group, one of the top polling firms in Canada, which conducts social values research around the world. His previous book, Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values, discussed the social values trajectories of both Canada and the United States. It made the point that whereas Canada (along with Western Europe) is evolving into a more inclusive "postmaterialist" society focused on quality of life, since 1992 (at least) the US has been (d)evolving into a society which is both more exclusionary (winner take all) and more focused on animalistic intensity, thrills, jolts and immediate gratification. In November 2005, the Literary Review of Canada named Fire and Ice one of the the three most important Canadian books of the 21st century.

In American Backlash, Adams gives a very detailed description of exactly in what the American devolution consists, and its various stages since 1992. Not surprisingly, his research finds that after September 11, 2001, the US took a pronounced turn toward authoritarian values, in an understandable (though arguably counterproductive) quest for a feeling of security.

Perhaps the freshest contribution to the "culture wars" debate presented in American Backlash, is Adams' comparison of the values of Republican voters to those of Democratic voters, to those of disengaged non-voters.

Given the bitter partisanship of political discourse in the US, some will be surprised by the high degree of agreement between Republican and Democratic voters on a wide range of issues. The real difference in values, Adams shows convincingly, is between American voters and American non-voters.

Despite its end of year appearance, the Globe & Mail (November 26, 2005)has named American Backlash one of the best and most influential books of 2005. Its influence remains to be seen, but it is easy to see why it would be judged as among the best.

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