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Americans | Don’t Give a Damn or Don’t Know Jack?
Written By opinionist on Mar. 9, 2007.
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The United States of America is an unwanted protagonist in a world that finds itself stewing, quite contentedly, in the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. You can decide which nations I cheekily fail to mention; some are quite obvious, others more subtle.
For the most part, America confuses the world with its contradictions. America appears deeply introspective and yet it tries to fix the world, sometimes without invitation but always with gusto, until it grows tired and walks away to another cause or short-term fix.
The American abroad bears the label “ugly American” with pride and brandishes his bravado and bullhorn confidence like a drunk with nun chucks. What is fascinating is the conversion process that sneaks up on American ex-pats and slowly overcomes their senses as they gradually transition from stalwart patriot to weary apologist for frequently perceived but rarely requested American imperialism.
Like I said, Americans abroad are a fascinating dichotomy: likeable but difficult to fathom, disgustingly proud yet blissfully ignorant, generous to a fault yet cocky and boastful.
I must add, with great relish, that I am perfectly comfortable making these somewhat slanderous generalizations. I’ve worked for U.S. corporations my whole life - at financial institutions in London and technology companies in the U.S. - and I leaped at the chance to cross the pond to America at the first whiff of an opportunity. Who wouldn’t?
My first week in the United States of America went very well. Who doesn’t like Chicago? It’s clean, wonderfully affordable (by British standards!), polite to a fault, and - as I’d later come to understand and truly appreciate - built on the foundations of good Midwestern values. Of course Mayor Daley keeps the riff-raff busy with a bountiful supply of city contracts but, after all, what is a city without a welfare system? But I digress.
The British are immersed in world news and current affairs, particularly stories that emphasize global pain and suffering. It is almost as if the evening family meal can’t be served until the household is spoon-fed a healthy dose of African famine, American condescension, French skullduggery, and terrorist propaganda. Ah! The BBC! Not just Benny Hill reruns!
My efforts to gather news outside the rather large borders of the United States - the bigger world beyond Hollywood, gay marriage debates and Jerry Springer - were frustrating, to put it mildly.
Then I hear the frequently and annoyingly overused excuse: “But the U.S. is so big!” So is the bloody world! Yet little Europe is aware of the global angst from sunrise to sunset.
FoxNews, the bastion of lightweight jingoism, delivers 24x7 coverage of a missing teenager in Aruba but the world only gets 80 seconds. MS-NBC tackles the claptrap of Washington politics with a wonderfully snide bedside manner. And so much for CNN! There’s CNN International for those outside the insular walls of the United States and CNN-Lite for those trapped within the twilight zone of myopic news editors.
Fresh off the plane and into my first week in the U.S., I came to the painful realization that it’s not America’s fault they’re so blissfully ignorant of the world beyond the 50 states. Americans are so conditioned to the notion of a four-time-zone world that they just gave up wondering about the other missing 20 hours!
It’s only when the American travels that he realizes, “Holy cow! You guys speak American also, but could you pick up the pace a little? Where’s the hot water? You call that a sandwich? Where’s the ice? Listen, pal, I’m an American, dammit!”
I’ve truly, passionately, enjoyed the 10 brisk years I’ve lived in Chicago. Two years ago, I measured the depth of my love for the U.S. and eagerly became a citizen of the aforementioned lands of opportunity. But it’s like a “senior Kremlin official” said in a recent New Yorker article on modern Russia (The New Yorker, “Letter from Moscow | Kremlin Inc. | Why are Vladimir Putin’s opponents dying?” by Michael Specter).
“Why are you watching TV? People like you should go read the Internet if you want information. TV is not for you. It’s for the people.”
The problems: Russia has an increasingly dictatorial leader, nationalized news media, centrally owned newspapers, and spotty Internet access. What is America’s excuse?
For the past two weeks, this country has gorged on a tepid grog of Anna Nicole Smith, a bald Britney Spears, Clinton-Obama squabbles, and the Scooter Libby freak show. Meanwhile more than $200 million has been spent daily on a failed policy in Iraq. A resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan is enjoying a record opium harvest. A rapidly arming China is reaching near-superpower economic status. The U.S. continues its plunge into Cold War relations with Russia. The increasingly Marxist Central America and a plethora of nasty “evildoers” plot against American interests across continents and around the world. But there’s nary a mention on TVs or newspapers near you!
America needs only to look beyond its navel to recognize its fortune and, therefore, its responsibilities. Americans either don’t give a damn or don’t know jack! To be both is to be president!
RightOn
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
Soooo was this a juvenile jab at President Bush or was this actually an attempt to discuss something.
You had me until "Americans either don’t give a damn or don’t know jack! To be both is to be president!"
Sorry but I DO give a damn and I DO know Jack so I'm not sure what your point is.
Oli
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
Who's Jack?
RightOn
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
You don't want to know... he smells weird.
stefani
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
I dont believe there is a point to this. If you want to "rant" hit up Craigslist....what a stupid post.
bgilham
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
I concur with my associates.
Ozone42
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
It's interesting you praise Chicago. I've always found it to be one of the rudest and most ignorant large cities in the entirety of the US. I'd only put Detroit higher on a list of cities I never want to live in.
I would agree that a large chunk of the US population doesn't give a damn about the rest of the world. I'm not sure that's any better or worse than say a large chunk of the youth in spain, both muslim and not, caring and wanting to change the world desperately but being completely impotent to do so because they can't even get a job.
We are arrogant, and some of us are willfully ignorant. The thing is, the average midwestern American will likely never have any impact on a global scale, nor will world politics influence them in a meaningful way. Aside from cataclysmic events, that is.
Success and high standards of living breed complacency. I would love more people to get interested and involved in a true global culture, but from their point of view I can't blame them much. They're happy, they have everything they need for health, comfort, entertainment. They can take care of themselves and their loved ones. Only those of above average intelligence have the drive and motiviation to work for/seek more out of life.
That's not all of us though. I doubt anyone here is remotely like that. People you've interacted with in business may be self focused, and apathetic to many world causes, but that doesn't mean they're inferior. They just have different priorities.
Nicole
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
Obviously, he missed the memo that stereotyping rants about how Americans are misinformed and shallow are SOOOO last season.
At least it was a well-composed rant, though.
Oli
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
Apart from when they all vote for Bush. Goddamned hillbillies.
Ozone42
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
I voted for Bush too :)
Alday
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
The rest of the world is populated with whiny, effeminate idiots. The majority of us don't care for you or your culture unless it directly benefits us, which is rare.
Oli
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
I know... See:
=D
Was that an serious reply, Alday? Or were you just working the stereotype? I'm going to run away now before Alday starts taking pot-shots at me with his "boom-stick"!
RightOn
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
I voted for Bush as well but I HONESTLY believe... even with the abysmal job his administration is doing in specific areas, we're FAR better off than we would have been under Gore or Kerry.
Ozone42
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
It's sad when the vote is chosen as the lesser of two evils, but that's the same reasoning for my votes in the past two elections.
Alday, you're unecessarily abrasive and confrontational, but I don't disagree with you on your key points. I'm interested in the rest of the world only for my own gain, but that's the only reason I'm interested in anything.
I think a large portion of the world is horribly deluded, violent, or lost, and don't want to have anything to do with those aspects. There are a lot of other aspects to some cultures I enjoy and value.
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Edit / Report /
I was confused as to your points.
I agree with some of what I thought were your points in that this is a fat lazy and at times ignorant country at times and they should ban all pundit news shows.
But maybe I didn't spend enough much time in London but the few months I spent there there seemed to be an inordinately large number of people concerned with what I would call "National Enquirer" type non news, and I can't say I noticed a whole lot of interest in international affairs accept by the people I stayed with and they were American.
I also have heard much from my friends in Italy and France as to their basic feeling that their countries are blissfully ignorant or knowingly complicit in regard to a lot of the horrors that take place in the rest of the world, as a matter of fact one has only to look at Darfur and see that the European Union has failed miserably.
The list is much longer but you only have to look to history to see exactly what Europe has not done.
Alday
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
Life's too short to beat around the bush, why equivocate and pussyfoot around? I don't care one iota for "enlightened" Europeans and their two-facedness.
RightOn
Written Mar. 9, 2007 / Report /
I will agree that a large portion of Americans fit your stereotype but like others I can bet the SAME personalities can be found in a MULTITUDE of other countries as well... you just hear about America more because we happen to be the "super power" at the moment.
rbilson
Written Mar. 10, 2007 / Report /
So what's your point? Your entire argument is based on stereotypes and generalizations which makes it extremely difficult to discuss.
If I had the energy or need, I could do the same to the UK or any other country for that matter. After all, I've spent quite a bit of time traveling/living abroad so that must qualify me as an expert on the diverse cultural, political, and economic histories of each. Not to mention future aspirations.
Your argument is a perfect example of your accusation.
dook
Written Mar. 10, 2007 / Report /
AD.HOMINEM.FTW.
dook
Written Mar. 10, 2007 / Report /
Also, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and advise you to brush up your essay skills, and learn more about American culture besides what you see on TV or what bad experiences you as an individual may have had.
I'm going to spare you the colloquialisms and equivocations as well, that was a VERY brain-dead thing to type man.
Oli
Written Mar. 10, 2007 / Report /
It's hard to know whether you know the full story when your media is as appalling and biased as it is in America.
I'm not suggesting ours is perfect, but you've certainly been bombarded with liquid crap for the last... well probably 50 years or longer.
nicnichols
Written Mar. 30, 2007 / Report /
London is my favorite city in the world, hands down. I am an American, and aside from living in Germany for a while when I was younger, I have lived in and have been a proud supporter of America.
It wasn't until I spent MayDay in London that I realized just how clueless Brits are to the REAL world out there. Thousands of youths protested "Anti-Globalization" yet drunk mass-produced can beer all day. They bitched about Americans ruining the world, and when ask for an Example, they just looked at you with a blank stare. If Brits don't want American Stores, simply don't spend money there. If enough of you do that, eventually the store will go away.
Remember who always bails you out when you get over your head England, its us- the US. I am not saying we are perfect, but your post doesn't really make much sense, and you haven't really backed it up.
What do British Kids do to protest the US? Click Here!
RightOn
Written Mar. 30, 2007 / Report /
I'd love to hear thier 'arguments' against capitalism.
I love sitting down with "kids" and discussing the "evils" of capitalism.
They're usually just needing something to gripe about while listening to their iPods.
phantomdata
Written Mar. 30, 2007 / Report /
nicnichols; Brilliant.