Moving to the US
The day before I moved to the US, a news program in England talked about how most Americans don’t believe in evolution. They showed a protest where one guy said, “I don’t want my children to think they came out from a bunch of monkeys.”
The first car sticker I saw: “She’s not a choice, she’s a baby girl.”
Now, in other countries, Americans are considered the joke of the world, culturally able to do nothing but produce extravagant shows (on ice). On my first visit back to England, an old friend told me about a new reality show where regular people go into an island and try to survive. I said, “In America there’s also a show like that, only there one person is voted off the island every week, and the one that stays at the end gets a million Dollars.” Men, did they laugh. America, turning every interesting concept—like the testing of human endurance—into a game show.
So it took me a while to understand.
It took me a while to understand that a place where people have a right to protest against evolution is not necessarily a bad place; just a funny place. And that some people stick their beliefs on their cars and it’s not for me to judge, even if they’re wrong. And that screw that other show; the first season of Survivor was great because a bunch of people fought each other to become millionaires, and who cares about people stuck on an island for no good reason. Simple endurance’s got nothing on greed and competitiveness.
So I ended up liking this place. So what if people watch O’Reilly? What’s that got to do with me? So what if people buy Coulter’s books? So what if Buchanan preaches xenophobia and Limbaugh is a racist? A place where people like that succeed must, by definition, also include the best of humanity, with people doing what they can to end the war, and people working in small communities to pull children away from crime, and people making great music and great art because half of their country is insanely conservative.
And it’s true what they say about the American Dream: it’s been only seven years since I moved here and I’ve already become Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. The land of endless possibilities indeed.
13 comments:
Good points but I get frustrated with this place. Honestly we could do better here in the US of A. It's not an issue what people thing in the US so as long as it does not start hurting others or, at home, hurting us. That's been happening here since 9/11. This nation has become highly paranoid and bullying.
BTW is that you in the pic next to the dog?
I've been to the USA four times now and whilst it has the badsides, it's also a beautiful country, I can almost understand why most Americans don't hold a passport.
Ricardo, that's me. One of the benefits of having a Pit Bull who feels no pain is that he can be used as a pillow.
Now, this country and its people can do better, don't get me wrong, but that's also one of the points I'm making. As long as Utopia hasn't been discovered, any country can do better. We have paranoia and we have bullying, and Bush was reelected, and abortion clinics are bombed, and kids do heroin, and other kids get arrested for smoking pot, and Atheists are ignored by all Presidential candidates, which makes the whole political process absurd.
But this is also a great country because so many people are trying to make it better. People expose the paranoia and the bullying, and people volunteer in drug treatment centers, and the government often helps people get into rehab, and nothing stops the kid who was arrested for pot from becoming a leading advocate for legalization, and as for Atheism--these things take time, I suppose.
And Bush was reelected, but so was Blair. And in Canada, a pro-US, pro-war Prime Minister was elected. No to mention the Fascist in Australia.
Spooky, I do have issues with the passport thing. There's some arrogance in people thinking they know enough about other cultures by ordering Chinese once a week. And when most people actually leave the country they tend to try to experience other cultures on their own terms. But that's not necessarily just an American thing.
And it is a beautiful huge place, but the only way it might explain the lack of passport is if people actually traveled. My neighbors, however, go to Ocean City once a year, and to Atlantic city every few years. New York might as well be on the moon, and Los Angeles is a magical land where movies are made, before finally being screened in Baltimore (the center of civilization).
PitS, I'm kinda over this place.
I was at a symposium (on sexual orientation law) a few years back where a panelist, an attorney from Canada, said that the most conservative person in office (in Candada) is more liberal than the most liberal person in office here in the U.S.
My husband and I married in Canada, and I couldn't believe how no one really cared about our same-gender loving relationship unlike our U.S. counterparts.
Do I want to wait for the inhabitants of the United States to get over themselves? Or will I leave as soon as I can.
If it were up to me (if I didn't have a family) I just might be out like 80's rock.
Durante, I understand what you're saying, being forced to listen to the dimwits debate and question your life on entertainment/news TV, and worse, people making decisions about your life for small political gains. It's absurd and it's hurtful.
And I understand if you say that although the fight worth fighting may be over here at your home because the un-evolved are taking over, you have a family and a life and you don't want to fight for something you will not have to fight for if you simply move. My sentences are too long.
I'm just saying that over here, for every Focus on the Family there's also a Human Rights Campaign, for every Rush Limbaugh there's also a Nadine Strossen, and for every O'Reilly there's an Olbermann. I personally don't think I could live without the struggle for justice.
But I don't have a family, so I can't really feel the way you do, having to explain to your kids why people on TV fear you. Good luck.
As a fellow immigrant, I must say that I do love this country but struggle with certain things, but the cool thing is people are less afraid to voice their opinion than people are in a lot of other countries.
In terms of art and music and writing, the US has been very strong in those areas, especially in the last century. So I don't consider this place to be a cultural wasteland... although it's easy to get that impression at times!
Plus, just look at France, look at all the people that voted Le Pen, there're wackos everywhere, not just in the US. I think people expect a lot out of the US and they expect this country to do better than it does, but in the end it's the same as every other country, it makes it's decisions based on what power can be gained or lost, it's the way of nations...
Hey! I said I liked your blog, and I ended up liking this post, too. You were able to make clear that HALF the country are not your stereotypical conservative Bush-loving morons. Thank you.
I like what the other commenters have said here as well. As for being a cultural wasteland, heck, we've only officially existed for a little over two-hundred years, give us some time!
I agree, Sebastien. It's easy for English people to make fun of Americans for being culturally dead and for not understanding the concept of standing on the right on escalators, but in the end it's not like English people recite poetry in their free time. The same crappy top 10 songs and TV shows here are also hits over there. Their favorite TV series is a soap opera and people's accents determines their future. And they voted for the war just like here. And the same is true for other countries. French people enjoy criticizing American Imperialism while France continues to test nuclear bombs on the shores of other countries. (Similarly, French Newspapers criticize Israeli Apartheid-like policy while maintaining immigrant ghettos in the outskirts of Paris).
Now, I'm not defending American (or Israeli) foreign or domestic policy but I am saying other countries are no better.
Annie, first of all I didn't think you hated the blog, and if you did that wouldn't have made me upset. I put my blog on italk2much because I enjoyed reading them destroy other bloggers' self-importance, not because I needed a tap on the back. Thanks for commenting there and thanks for making the journey over here.
Now, as I've said, it took me a while to stop thinking American culture is insanely bad. Actually, I think there is something the profit-driven culture in the US can teach us. If the market forces have shown that more people care about who becomes America's Top Chef than about who will become America's Top Poet maybe we shouldn't think we live in a culturally dead society but that people enjoy competitiveness in a cathartic way while they watch a diverse group of people who hate each other holding sharp knives. At the same time, we can think the fact that my post about my aunt walking around naked brought the most Google hits to be slightly weird and depressing, but instead, we can also rethink our own values and views of humanity. Basically, I'm saying profit-driven culture doesn't kill culture, but helps us learn about ourselves through the culture it promotes and the type of culture market forces leave behind.
I think the US gets a lot of bad press. The passport issue became an issue here because of George W Bush not holding one at the he became president, but there are plenty of American travellers out there.
It's on the travel map for me one day, certainly. I think if a person doesn't travel to the United States (ever in their life), they're missing out. At high school, I remember thinking (in geography)of the vastness, then there is the multi-culturalism as well (even though this is hardly shown, or discussed at length, say here in Australia, because they focus on the political spectrum), and then there are achievements in art,literature and music within the last century alone, and really, the US is a young nation, compared to European nations, so a faux pas here or there, aren't really the huge deal that they're made out to be.
The only beef I have concerns original films, that are remade by Hollywood. That's the only thing that gets me, because it's like some directors steal a concept from a European or Asian foreign language film, they dilute it, add or subtract a couple of scenes to dilute the story to a perfect stereotype, and market it to millions, who then can't be bothered seeing the original film, or don't read about the original film, or had no idea the original film existed, in order to appreciate the original film.
If I was fully degree qualified, I wouldn't be (still) working here in Australia, that's for sure.
You're right about the movie adaptations. I grew up in Israel, where culture was about half-local and half-imported. Actually, my favorite show as a kid was an Australian one, called "The Lost Islands." I even remember the theme song. When you grow up watching a lot of TV with subtitles you tend to realize there's a big world outside your bubble.
Now, obviously some foreign movies or TV shows won't work in the US unless they're remade to fit American culture, but there's also some kind of subtitle-fear here. the US is a huge place with very different local cultures, but most people think they know enough about other cultures if they go to Epcot Center for a day.
"Simple endurance’s got nothing on greed and competitiveness." - So very true!
Americans to have a nack for pushing past the barrier in every sense.
Its not enough to trap em on the island . . . oh no, we need to evoke the drama and tears also.
Im guessin that your talkin about Survivor.
Yes, but you see... I was being serious. In the first season of Survivor we saw betrayal and need for acceptance and pain and regret and all in the name of greed. If for us to have the ability to examine the extremities of humanity we discover we must throw in a million Dollars into the mix, then I guess that's what we have to do. Nothing inherently wrong with that, I think.
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