Doyce writes an interesting bit about the view of Americans abroad, and the perils of taking Government Positions as being the actual positions of the populace therein. Worthwhile reading.
I have heard that there’s something of a backlash against French wine these days. Which will no doubt be used by some folks back there as more grist for the mill. “Those simplisme Americains … zey not only are wild cowboys, zey a are out to ‘arm ze French farmehrs and ruin zeir own palates! Incroyable!“
These things, over time, pass.
Still, Doyce’s comments on the infiltration of American Stuff into the British cityscape are worth thinking about. One of the things I noted the last time I was in Britain is that chain restaurants were virtually unheard of, except for the relatively rare American fast food place in London, or the innumerable Burger Kings, KFCs and (home grown) Little Chef joints along the Motorways.
Doyce is right. There’s a lot more McDs and BKs and Starbucks visible than their used to be.
But let’s also remember that it’s not American tourists making that happen. (Tourism, especially from the US to the UK, is still very down; most tourists in Britain are either from the Continent or from within Britain herself.) It’s the Brits themselves, deciding that they want a quick Big Mac instead of fish and chips, or that they’d rather read a Newsweek than the Sun.
Ditto for those McDonalds in Paris, which French radicals so love to burn down. Even if they managed to wangle their way into the City of Lights through some underhanded payoff of politicians by American Big Business Conglomerates, they’re being supported by the ordinary French (or British) man-on-the-street. The bland predictability of franchise fat and salt and gristle is apparently something people want — and if there’s no French or British business ready to step into that evolutionary niche, then McDonalds wins.
I can see why people resent it. Heck, I resent the ubiquitous-throughout-Shadow Starbucks — except when I actually want a caffeine-and-sugar pick-me-up, and I know what it is that I want.
Which ties back into this post, earlier today.
I don’t know. I’d hate to see a Starbucks in the British Museum, rather than the cafe they have there. On the other hand, I’d hate to tell the Brits they can’t drink a Fudge Brownie Frappacino if they really want one.