Much has been written recently about one of our citizens, a motion picture actress (descended from a mother who is herself an acting person) who spends time there in Great Britain attempting to escape the burden of having to talk about money at dinnertime.
It seems she much prefers instead to pretend to be part of the Soddy Olde upper class who never talk about so crass as money, where it's taken as a given that if you are able to afford homes in America and Britain and expensive pretty things, that you obviously must have money. Which is different than here in the awful United States, where even people without money seem to be able to live it up pretty well and don't seem to feel the need to stay within their class strata. Always aping our betters, we are.
Wretched souls.
ANYway, this damsel appreciates a place where the lower classes have some decency and mind their place, and where the rich do the same, and everyone is happy and civilized, and she is free to speak without irony of her disdain of capitalism, despite the fact that capitalism itself is how she is able to pretend to be part of the English upper class. Oh, sure, she says now that the Portuguese paper mistranslated her, but as others have noted, she said the exact same thing back in February of this year to The Guardian, (apparently some sort of newpaper there in the UK which enjoys interviewing Americans who hate America).
[...] "I love the English way, which is not as capitalistic as it is in America. People don't talk about work and money; they talk about interesting things at dinner parties. I like living here because I don't tap into the bad side of American psychology, which is 'I'm not achieving enough, I'm not making enough, I'm not at the top of the pile.' It's just kind of like, I am." [...]
Wow--just like Popeye! Or God!Well, maybe she was mistranslated there, as well. Being an American, English is obviously not her first language, and so surely she was misinterpreted. Or maybe it was simply a botched joke. Seems to be a lot of that going around amongst all of the better sorts of people.
IN ANY EVENT, I think it is high time Americans gave thanks to the United Kingdom for allowing us to purge ourselves--much as a willowy starlet upchucking the latest creation from a preciously trendy SoHo eatery--of our chuckleheaded celebrities. Only a kind and decent, and yes, civilized, people could ever put up with such inane chittering and act as gracioius hosts and caretakers, protecting her from mockery and derision.
Please, carry on!
Posted by Terry Oglesby at December 5, 2006 10:39 AM