The United States is an interesting place from a thousand miles away.Since arriving here at Land's End at the southernmost tip of Baja California six weeks ago, the view north has changed considerably.
Having just come from the news business, I spent a fair chunk of each day combing resources, looking for different angles and perspectives about what was going on in our world.
"Our world" has a whole new meaning to me since moving here.
If you live in the United States the "our world" concept pretty much begins and ends at the U.S. border. People in the U.S. are suspicious of the Canadians because they are so liberal and dislike the Mexicans because they believe they are trying to over-run the country. These decades-old mindsets have created a mentality of "what's good for the United States is good for the world." Put a little distance in there, experience life in a different culture and see how quickly your perspective shifts from the tired old cliches to a new reality, a larger world view.
Now, the U.S. is, without doubt, the power hitter in the lineup. It has military might and despite some economically disasterous decisions the last decade, still wields some financial clout. Not as much as the Chinese, but enough to still sit at the big stakes table. There are freedoms in the U.S. that are not enjoyed everywhere and, well, it's a pretty groovy existence, right?
In some respects, yes. The standard of living is greater than in many other nations. There are more freedoms, but there is also less tolerance of others, less willingness to embrace individuality. Just because the United States was once considered the world's melting pot doesn't mean it really was. All it means is that all of the different cultures, traditions and styles have been boiled away to a tepid broth. When compared with the rest of the world, the United States is a bologna sandwich on white bread with mayo. I mean can you really tell much difference between most cities and towns in the U.S.? They all have an Olive Garden, McDonald's, mega-mall and cineplex theaters. There is really nothing indiginous to any particular region any more and except for the various accents, little to differentiate the people. There is a real identity crisis, which is why foreigners are viewed with so much suspicion.
Move away or visit some place where the little towns and villages are independent of each other, the people have different regional traditions, historic districts are treasured instead of razed and rebuilt into shiny concrete and glass fortresses. But, they think on a grander scale, even if they are living in a village where their great-great-grandparents were born and raised.
I remember the first time I referenced "Americans" in a conversation down here. The person I was speaking with was very, very polite, but I could detect a bit of body language that made me, immediately, stop and rewind the tape in my head to reconsider what I had just said.
Ahhh...there it was! I used the word "Americans" as if the only "Americans" in the world were from the United States. It was a lesson quickly learned.
People from the United States tend to be a bit myopic. They don't see far beyond their borders and, now that I am in a place where I have more access to international news and rely more on the Internet than other sources for my information, I can understand why. They have been spoonfed so much they have become shallow thinkers, which explains why there is no real independent political movement in this country. The Left hates the Right; the Right hates the Left; and they both hate anybody who comes up with an original thought. That's why even with all of the First Amendment freedoms in place, there is a sense, when watching, reading or listening to news from the United States, that there is a lot of propagandizing going on.
The story angles I see taken by the international media are broader and have deeper context than what is reported in the United States. That's not something totally new to me, just something that is more apparent as I seperate myself more from the traditional sources so many people rely on for their fix of current events. I find more of my questions answered on the foreign broadcasts where more time is spent on the story than in chasing a few hollow soundbites; where there is less sensationalism, fewer histrionics (think Olbermann or O'Reilly).
Don't believe me?
Tune in to CNN International. Check out the BBC news broadcasts. You will get a much different story than what the homespun media pitches your way.
We were here only a short time when the Navy SEALS took down bin Laden. Most U.S. reports had to do with celebrations in the streets; revenge for the terror attacks; snapshots of gleeful, happy people. Few, save for the Washington Post, New York Times and L.A. Times, ventured beyond all that with pieces on what this could really mean in worldly terms. While homegrown media gave you timelines, photos, and offered television the excuse to rerun the sickening videos of the Twin Towers under attack, there were questions asked elsewhere that remain unanswered. Some wanted to know if this meant the United States would soon remove its troops from Afghanistan. Others asked if the nation ever came up with a legitimate answer for invading Iraq in the aftermath of the terror attacks while some had the audacity to ask the White House and military why its stories about how the deal went down seemed to change every few hours.
Sitting in a foreign country, I can't help but be embarrassed at how some U.S. political figures are perceived. Although I have not had many political discussions down here, I gather that George W. Bush was thought of as a moron, people think Barack Obama is untrustworthy and the voters are pretty dopey for electing so many Congressional leaders who are, as we said during the '60s, are so "plastic" (think Mitt Romney).
U.S. politics is pretthy well looked upon as a freak show, so how do I explain Sarah Palin riding in on the back of a Harley and crashing a biker run to raise funds for the Missing in Action families other than to use it as an illustration of why bikers call the second seat "riding bitch."
And, without the many buffers I used to go through each day, it becomes increasingly clear to me that the Huffington Post thinks Jon Huntsman, Jr. has a legitimate shot at the GOP presidential nomination. Why? Because they have been butchering him on the website, launching a smear campaign against him with pieces that are not terribly well balanced or credible and are filled with pejorative, inflammatory prose. On the other side, it becomes increasingly clear that The Drudge Report thinks Newt Gingrich is the Savior, here to deliver the United States from all evil. The only thing they agree on? Both believe Barack Obama is the anti-Christ.
There's a lot of anger in the stateside reporting and a lot of closed minds doing the reporting, nearly every one with an agenda in their hip pocket. I'm not talking columnists and bloggers here, I'm talking reporters.
This is a very big world we live in and, like it or not, the United states is part of a global community it simply does not dominate any longer, no matter how many second-rate dictators it bumps off or has deposed.
The world no longer needs a big brother. There are no world wars to fight, only guerilla insurgencies that we have no concept of dealing with and we don't make a damned thing except for some automobiles and trucks people don't seem to like that much any more.
It's a different world, a different time. but it takes a different mindset to understand that.
