Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself. - Jean-François Revel

The United States is the only country where these revolutions are simultaneously in progress and organically linked in such a way as to constitute a single revolution.

As immigration trends suggest, anti-Americanism is not deeply rooted as a popular prejudice. In Europe, anti-Americanism is much more a hobgoblin of the political, cultural, and religious elites. According to a SOFRES survey of May 2000, only 10 percent of French feel dislike for the U.S. After September 11, according to another poll, 52 percent of French people interviewed said they had always felt warmly toward the U.S., against 32 percent who said the opposite. Historian Michel Winock concludes that "anti-Americanism is not an attitude of the average French person; it is typical of a certain segment of the elites."

Anti-Americanism thus defined is less a popular prejudice than a parti pris of the political, cultural and religious elites.