Gringolandia
This post has me frightened for several reasons. It is the first one I am writing from home; home being Minneapolis. Which means that this log is crossing the line from being a way to share photos and stories from my time abroad, to being more of a journal, or a place to air my thoughts in hope of them becoming more clear in the process of written down. It also means I'm veering ever nearer to the line which most blogs cross, that is, becoming self-indulgent diaries based on the assumption that the writers life is interesting and important enough to validate putting in the public realm for all to see and read.
As I said, I've returned home. It was almost 11 months to the day that I was away, and up to this point (I've been home for 24 hours) the fear I was feeling when leaving Santiago was unjustified. At one point I spent about 20 minutes telling a mormon girl in the airport how it should not be allowed that a person may return home after so long away in plane. A much more kosher and sane way would be to go in boat, or in car. That way the person is prepared for the return be physically entering their country, city, neighborhood, street and house/apartment. Whereas, with a plane one gets in an airport in one part of the world and gets out of the airport on the other side of the world, with a few in flight snacks and prepackaged chicken bits in between.
Aside from more keenly noticing the uniquely "gringo" qualities of the people I have talked with and being able to laugh at the fact that I now understand everyone, the culture shock I was so anxiously, almost egotistically, awaiting has not come. After all of the pride I felt at divorcing myself from my gringo roots and immersing myself in another way of life, the transition back has been a smooth one.
The are several reasons which I feel are important to note, not only for my one sanity but as observations on the greater human community. One: The differences between chileans and americans are details when one zooms out for a minute and considers that we are both capitalist societies based on production and consumption and were originally established by europeans at approximately the same point in history. Culturally, yes there are differences, but in the end any changes that occurred within me are alterations to my way of living and personality that are made over a base which I in part maintained and in part shared with the chileans. Two: This could be a grace period in which I'm still buzzing on being home and having lots of things to do. Projects are always a good way to keep ones mind from focusing on what is happening on a deeper level. There I would have like to say al fondo but there are still some phrases I don't know how to translate. Another is menos mal. I would love to have a translation for that. At the same time, its nice not to, and to be able to have them for myself.
What I've gathered from the questions people have asked me about my time in Chile is that on a whole americans are an ignorant lot. This I already knew. However, at this moment it seems to me that the majority of the world hates americans, and by association americans. I spent a lot f time in Chile trying to force the point that there is a difference between a government and an individual. I agree the american government can be a hateful thing but it is a hateful thing acting on principles that have been fundamental in America's development ever since its founding. A sense of national pride and at time a sense of egotistical superiority. Elbowing and pushing to get its way and climb to the top, and a fierce protectionism of national interests. These are the same things that we have been doing for over 200 years, the problem is the rest of the world is changing. The problem of this change comes back to american ignorance. It is not that america hates the rests of the world or wants to break them in half to get their way. Americans just want to be comfortable and are ignorant of the rest of world. It is very easy to force change on a thing you do not understand. It is much harder to force your will onto an entity, such as a state, for which you feel compassion or empathy.
This series of facts compliment each other very well, and create a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. The american government acts in the will of the people. What the people want more than anything else is a continued and growing feeling of comfort and success. America is over-developed. For America to continue to grow above and beyond the levels of the rest of the world, certain regions must be kept artificially underdeveloped. Thus, the "American" will is exerted over weaker nation-states (ie, the rest of the world). The rest of world resents this power and sees it as unjust. Thus hating the american government and the people that government is representing. If any one of these things were to change, the system as we know it would collapse and be forced to change. An increase in education would drop american consumerism and tank the inflated world economy, a change in government policy would infuriate the american masses while uniting the government with the rest of the world, most importantly Europe. A change in the world opinion towards the US could further the spread of capitalism and consumerism pushing al the more quickly towards the breaking point of our natural resources, and creating more and more reaching the threshold of development maintained by the countries in power which those countries currently developing will never be allowed to pass, by virtue of instruments such as tariff barriers, agricultural subsidies and migration laws/brain drain, not to mention the digital divide, which is further widening the disparity between those who have and those who have not.
I do not hate americans. I can not hate a person who is acting without hatred and with all good intentions based on the best of their knowledge. The rage that boiled up in america after 9/11 was a knee-jerk reaction whose flames were fed by ignorance and the media. There are many people in america I do not respect and feel the world would better without. These people are those whose actions are based on a hatred formed from a combination of ignorance, lack of self-confidence, and the need to blame some "other" for the problems surrounding them. This combination of factors is not new and has been often exploited by governments in the past. Hitler is a notable example. It is hard to hate those who act with good intentions out of ignorance, however it is hard not to hate those whose actions wreak havoc on an entire planet.
Some encouragement may lie in the knowledge that on a geologic time scale we have been but a blip and with luck may end as a dash, on the timeline of the planet. Any good or evil we may perpetrate, and any damage done to our earth will in time be forgotten and possibly recreated by the next group of moral-rational beings who come along.
As I said, I've returned home. It was almost 11 months to the day that I was away, and up to this point (I've been home for 24 hours) the fear I was feeling when leaving Santiago was unjustified. At one point I spent about 20 minutes telling a mormon girl in the airport how it should not be allowed that a person may return home after so long away in plane. A much more kosher and sane way would be to go in boat, or in car. That way the person is prepared for the return be physically entering their country, city, neighborhood, street and house/apartment. Whereas, with a plane one gets in an airport in one part of the world and gets out of the airport on the other side of the world, with a few in flight snacks and prepackaged chicken bits in between.
Aside from more keenly noticing the uniquely "gringo" qualities of the people I have talked with and being able to laugh at the fact that I now understand everyone, the culture shock I was so anxiously, almost egotistically, awaiting has not come. After all of the pride I felt at divorcing myself from my gringo roots and immersing myself in another way of life, the transition back has been a smooth one.
The are several reasons which I feel are important to note, not only for my one sanity but as observations on the greater human community. One: The differences between chileans and americans are details when one zooms out for a minute and considers that we are both capitalist societies based on production and consumption and were originally established by europeans at approximately the same point in history. Culturally, yes there are differences, but in the end any changes that occurred within me are alterations to my way of living and personality that are made over a base which I in part maintained and in part shared with the chileans. Two: This could be a grace period in which I'm still buzzing on being home and having lots of things to do. Projects are always a good way to keep ones mind from focusing on what is happening on a deeper level. There I would have like to say al fondo but there are still some phrases I don't know how to translate. Another is menos mal. I would love to have a translation for that. At the same time, its nice not to, and to be able to have them for myself.
What I've gathered from the questions people have asked me about my time in Chile is that on a whole americans are an ignorant lot. This I already knew. However, at this moment it seems to me that the majority of the world hates americans, and by association americans. I spent a lot f time in Chile trying to force the point that there is a difference between a government and an individual. I agree the american government can be a hateful thing but it is a hateful thing acting on principles that have been fundamental in America's development ever since its founding. A sense of national pride and at time a sense of egotistical superiority. Elbowing and pushing to get its way and climb to the top, and a fierce protectionism of national interests. These are the same things that we have been doing for over 200 years, the problem is the rest of the world is changing. The problem of this change comes back to american ignorance. It is not that america hates the rests of the world or wants to break them in half to get their way. Americans just want to be comfortable and are ignorant of the rest of world. It is very easy to force change on a thing you do not understand. It is much harder to force your will onto an entity, such as a state, for which you feel compassion or empathy.
This series of facts compliment each other very well, and create a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. The american government acts in the will of the people. What the people want more than anything else is a continued and growing feeling of comfort and success. America is over-developed. For America to continue to grow above and beyond the levels of the rest of the world, certain regions must be kept artificially underdeveloped. Thus, the "American" will is exerted over weaker nation-states (ie, the rest of the world). The rest of world resents this power and sees it as unjust. Thus hating the american government and the people that government is representing. If any one of these things were to change, the system as we know it would collapse and be forced to change. An increase in education would drop american consumerism and tank the inflated world economy, a change in government policy would infuriate the american masses while uniting the government with the rest of the world, most importantly Europe. A change in the world opinion towards the US could further the spread of capitalism and consumerism pushing al the more quickly towards the breaking point of our natural resources, and creating more and more reaching the threshold of development maintained by the countries in power which those countries currently developing will never be allowed to pass, by virtue of instruments such as tariff barriers, agricultural subsidies and migration laws/brain drain, not to mention the digital divide, which is further widening the disparity between those who have and those who have not.
I do not hate americans. I can not hate a person who is acting without hatred and with all good intentions based on the best of their knowledge. The rage that boiled up in america after 9/11 was a knee-jerk reaction whose flames were fed by ignorance and the media. There are many people in america I do not respect and feel the world would better without. These people are those whose actions are based on a hatred formed from a combination of ignorance, lack of self-confidence, and the need to blame some "other" for the problems surrounding them. This combination of factors is not new and has been often exploited by governments in the past. Hitler is a notable example. It is hard to hate those who act with good intentions out of ignorance, however it is hard not to hate those whose actions wreak havoc on an entire planet.
Some encouragement may lie in the knowledge that on a geologic time scale we have been but a blip and with luck may end as a dash, on the timeline of the planet. Any good or evil we may perpetrate, and any damage done to our earth will in time be forgotten and possibly recreated by the next group of moral-rational beings who come along.
posted by Jay Boren at 11:15 PM
7 Comments:
Well said, Comandante Justin!
By the way, what should we do with the troops that you left settled over here? Disband? (For more on this subject, look for Bananas, an early Woody Allen movie.)
No more entries since June, which is OK, because you are right about journals being self indulgent. Just keep it going with some pictures, from time to time. Landscapes or skylines are allright.
Regards!
p!
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