Topic: Must Read
European anti-Americanism is no recent phenomenon. It has quite a long pedigree, as I was reminded recently upon rereading Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future. This remarkable novel, which appeared in 1930, traces the history of humanity from Stapledon’s present to a future two billion years hence. It describes the evolution of humanity through eighteen species, of which our own is merely the first—and the most primitive.
Last and First Men is today considered one of the seminal works of modern science fiction—an ironic honor since Stapledon, a British philosopher, had no contact with the American writers of the so-called golden age of science fiction. Reportedly he was quite startled when he did learn of the existence of the genre, and of the huge popularity of his novel in SF circles.
The opening chapters of the Last and First Men depict the decline and fall of the First Men—homo sapiens—who only achieve global unity after the intelligence and initiative of the race have been undermined by generations of war. The world-spanning society that is founded in the aftermath of a long, destructive conflict between America and China is corrupted from the start by stereotyped scientism and religious fundamentalism. After 4,000 years of intellectual and spiritual sterility, this world society is destroyed by an energy crisis.
In some ways Stapledon was eerily prescient. He foresaw the problem of energy, the decline of Europe and Russia, the rise of China, the confusion of science with religious faith and much more. But what is particularly notable about the scenario described above is that it makes America the villain of the piece. It is American scientism and fundamentalism that ring down the curtain on the First Men. The author's mordant description of the First World State is titled "An Americanized Planet."
Last and First Men is very strongly marked by an apprehension that Europe’s older (and superior) culture will not in the long run prove capable of standing up to American power, or to the large-scale export of American vulgarity. To read this book is to receive an intriguing lesson in the sources of contemporary European anti-Americanism—and to realize that for all its tone of moral superiority, this prejudice is rooted primarily in hatred, fear and despair.
