Coercive Joking?


I like David Warsh's Economic Principals website. I started reading him a long time ago when he was still with the Boston Globe. He can make theoretical economics an interesting read and that is close to miraculous.

But this latest column stopped me cold:

THE FRENCH HAVE A WORD FOR IT: hyperpuissance, meaning the American tendency to throw its weight around in the matter of Iraq. The Americans, of course, have a joke. They have a lot of them. This one is usually attributed to Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf, US commander during the First Gulf War.

"Going to war without France," he says, "is like going deer hunting without your accordion."

It is a good joke. It’s an even better illustration, though, of the power of humor to put down, to dismiss, even to suppress discussion. Relentless humor is almost as coercive as the Paix Juste boycott Israel petition, or the fierce demands of the Israeli game theorists that the journal editor be fired.

It is possible to support the general aims of US policy towards Iraq — I do — and still think that the world is better for the reservations that the French have expressed. All those jokes making the rounds, and much more besides, are another example of American hyperpuissance."

I could agree with him except for two things:

1. France's objections are only useful if they are the sincere concerns of a true ally. But as Steven Den Beste has pointed out over and over, they are probably just the posturings of a greedy, cynical power trying to make a buck and raise their international standing.

2. The dismissive/suppression thing should cut both ways. Yes, we joke at their lack of military prowess. But, much of the French argument seems to come down to "your president is dumb and his administration is a bunch of cowboys." That hardly calls for a carefully reasoned argument in response. It certainly doesn't after it has been repeated 30 or 40 times.