It's a great question. I had to think about the answer, with bourbon and a hot tub. I came up with this: 1) Of all the countries I've been to, America is the easiest to strike up a conversation with a stranger, and that stranger is most likely to be friendly. This may be a function of my American heritage, but no matter how long I would live abroad, I'd always be "the American" so in the end it doesn't matter. 2) America is a rigged game but it's not so rigged that I don't feel that I've been given my fair shake. I fully understand that it's rigged less towards people better off than me and rigged more towards those worse off, but I have a nebulous understanding of the rigging and am used to the gradient. Your mileage may vary. All prices plus tax, title and license. Not valid on Indian reservations or predominantly African American neighborhoods. 3) It's possibly the least homogenous place I've ever been. New Mexico and Arizona have more in common with Mexico than they do with Massachusetts and Los Angeles has more in common with Bangkok than it does with San Francisco. There are great swaths of the United States that I do not care to visit but the United States is so vast that I've found truly lovely places that don't require a visa, passport or even giving up my fruit. 4) Americans, as individuals, are generally lovely people and Americans, as a group, devolve to individuals faster than any other country I know of. We just suck at mobs. Riot when the Kings win the Stanley Cup? Front page news. Riots when Arsenal wins fuckin' anything? "Soccer hooliganism." Look - li'l story. When I think "France" and "Muslim" I think "banning the hijab" and "race riots." When I think "Denmark" and "Muslim" I think "cartoons of Muhammad." But when I think "United States" and "Muslim" I think about the molotov cocktail some shithead threw through the window of the mosque in my old neighborhood. And I think of the immediate vigil every old white man and old white lady launched around that building. And I think of the flowers and potted plants that occupied the stoop for the next six months, and I think of the rotating watch of old codgers playing checkers on the steps so that the muslims could go to prayers without worrying about some fuckin' inarticulate redneck who thinks "Islam=hate" because he can't think past generalizations. And I think about the fund raiser the neighborhood did to pay for an expanded parking lot rather than bitching about the mosque in city council meetings, and I think about the vigil the mosque held five years later when some other shithead shot up a synagogue. The place ain't perfect. There are prettier. And there are all sorts of things that frustrate the fuck out of me. But holy shit, young'uns. It's a fuckin' miderm during a lame duck presidency. walk back with me 10 years to when we were hoping John Fucking Kerry would win and talk to me about despair. This too shall pass. Give the old girl a break.
But this is the most important election of our lifetimes! Actually, I was just discussing with mk yesterday about election despair. We both agreed that the only times we've ever felt a large emotion over an election was 2000. That was a hard pill to swallow. And, despite the fact that we're always told elections matter, that one actually mattered. Fucking Iraq. I want every young person to go back and read the history of how Cheney became president (or, wait, who was the main guy again? Some artist or something, right?). Free and fair elections died at the hands of Katherine Harris and the Court. I remember waking up for several days after the final say by the Court, and thinking that something had to give, that something could be done. The whole thing was surreal. And I'm not sure most people remember how despised W was for the first 9 months of his term until Al Qaeda gave him his lifeline. I hope that there will never be another election that leaves me with that feeling (I suppose not, even if more underhanded dealings are afoot, as I was 18, and that was my introduction to participatory democracy). Kids, think of what that $3T could do for your education. All was wasted, and everything was in vain.But holy shit, young'uns. It's a fuckin' miderm during a lame duck presidency. walk back with me 10 years to when we were hoping John Fucking Kerry would win and talk to me about despair.
I was driving home in the rain, listening to the news, when NPR announced that the recount had been stopped by the supreme court simultaneous to being cut off by a beat-to-sit beige Aerostar with Florida plates. Fucker nearly caused an accident. I remember thinking "fuckin' Florida" and that's pretty much where I've been ever since.
> When I think "France" and "Muslim" I think "banning the hijab" and "race riots." When I think "Denmark" and "Muslim" I think "cartoons of Muhammad." But when I think "United States" and "Muslim" I think about the molotov cocktail some shithead threw through the window of the mosque in my old neighborhood. And I think of the immediate vigil every old white man and old white lady launched around that building. And I think of the flowers and potted plants that occupied the stoop for the next six months, and I think of the rotating watch of old codgers playing checkers on the steps so that the muslims could go to prayers without worrying about some fuckin' inarticulate redneck who thinks "Islam=hate" because he can't think past generalizations. And I think about the fund raiser the neighborhood did to pay for an expanded parking lot rather than bitching about the mosque in city council meetings, and I think about the vigil the mosque held five years later when some other shithead shot up a synagogue. As an Aussie who's previously lived for a couple of years in Europe and recently spent several weeks in your fine country, I believe this this paragraph sums up your country more aptly than anything else on here. I reside, allegedly, in the world’s most liveable city. And let me be clear: I know that I live in one of the world’s most liveable cities. That said, I could move to the north east of the United States tomorrow. You’ve got an optimism and a can-do attitude, a positive sense of entitlement, that seems to be damn near universal amongst your population - an attitude that is not only taken for granted, but is fucking expected of you as a citizen – that just isn’t there in a lot of other countries.
It’s a bizarre thing, and a paradox, that I found these attributes as frequently among the obnoxious, flag waving, marine-loving crowd as I did among the vegan, latte sipping crowd to which I belong. Even when you’re at odds with each other I feel as though there are these basic principles you agree on that underpin your success as a country. And you’re all as friendly as fuck. Sure, you’ve got a lot of problems. Holy shit there’s so much wrong with your police and your prison system and your drug laws. I’d hate to be born a minority in the US. But there’s a lot wrong with every country, and the only reason that you think there’s more wrong with you guys is because you spend more time in the centre of the world’s attention. Look at the treatment of indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory and northern Queensland, or domestic violence and alcoholism in regional NZ, or the eternally alienated welfare class in north east England. We’re all of us rooted to some degree, and these are all countries at the top of the spectrum, as far as standards of development go. You do need to do something about your health care system, though.
Immediate sweeping changes I would make: 1) A conscript military. Don't want to serve in the military? Americorps. Peace Corps. Medicins sans Frontier. But I want every mother's son to spend 4 years out in the world, with a gun or without, and I want politicians to stop voting other people's kids out into danger. 2) A higher top marginal tax rate. Let's shake a little money loose, shall we, and increase upward generational mobility while we're at it. Capital accumulation is bad for humanity. 3) Nationalization of primary and secondary school budgets and standards. 4) Single-payer healthcare. 5) Abolition of the electoral college. 6) Election finance reform such that 33% of all funds collected must be disbursed to your competitors. My king-for-the-day list, anyway.You do need to do something about your health care system, though.
Ha! And if I'm not mistaken, your recent trip was to NYC, no? That's the least friendly place in the USA, as far as I've seen (although I haven't spent much time in Boston). The South is the most friendly, if you're the right kind of person (and I mean white; let's not be euphemistic; I've been to the Deep South many, many times, and I've heard terrible things from otherwise decent-seeming people). The Midwest and West are populated by generally good-natured people, and are fairly inclusive. What about Australia. I've met Aussies while traveling, and though I've never been there, they always seem like friendly sorts. I've always assumed being former British colonies, that the US and Australia had a similar makeup, culturally speaking.And you’re all as friendly as fuck.
Not a fan of the TSA, the GWOT or any other Bush-era acronyms, but it's important to point out that you're talking regions and ideologies, not religion. Ask the Israelis why they have so few terror problems at the airports and they say "racial profiling, duh." Mention racial profiling in the United States and everyone freaks the fuck out. Which is not to say they don't do it. We're good friends with a married couple. Both are American citizens. Her parents fled the Shah; he emigrated from Morocco. Whenever I hear their travel stories I thank my pink skin. But it is to say that we have to do it sub-rosa lest the shame undermine 'MURICA.
A region is where you come from. An ideology is something you ascribe to. A religion? Something else. You can be Moroccan, you can be conservative, and you can be Islamic... but you aren't necessarily conservative just because you're Moroccan and Islamic.
I'm still not quite sure what you mean. I was talking about the incidents we associate with the words for a certain nationality and religion, like you did when you associated "Denmark" and "Muslim" with "caricatures of Mohammad". I was just pointing out what I personally associate those word pairs with, as a foreigner of the countries you were talking about.
So check it: For the most part, when Americans get their panties in a twist about Islam, it's "radical Islam" or "Islamist radicals" or "fundamentalist clerics" or "jihadists." And for the most part, when the French or the British get their panties in a twist about Islam, it's about Islam. We had that embarrassing bit with the mosque near "Freedom Tower" or whatever but by and large, Americans at least pay lip service to the notion that not all Muslims are bomb-throwing, sword-wielding, Koran-quoting zealots. There's a presupposition of sanity, albeit a thin one. France? France just up and bans the hijab. England? England calls a voluntary Muslim arbitration a "Sharia court." I'm saying there's a difference.