In a Sense, Abroad

It's good to be abroad. Just ask Bea Arthur.

Kidding. I kid.

My family and I are taking a trip to Europe! Five weeks outside the crammed, sweaty air space of Fox News, talent shows, the steady, thick stream of pharmaceutical commercials and low-brow, presumptive nominee sniping.

From England, America's more verbally acute doppelgänger, the view of the states is much clearer than the one enjoyed by Americans themselves, whose faces are pressed into Old Glory like hostages' noses pressed up against a chloroform-saturated hanky. Distance allows one to see the plum jitteriness that animates the 300 million or so dots scrambling from the car to the curb to the McMall back to the car and finally to the couch. As you may have heard when it was carelessly leaked into our consciousnesses, the goings on in The Big A are maddening to the rest of the world and more so to this temporary defector. I have to say, there is so much to be gained from adopting an altered perspective, in this case being in a different longitude and latitude than George Bush, that international travel should be encouraged despite the prohibitive airline fares. The outright outlandishness of the ride the American people have been taken on is apparent in ways that might even awaken the heaviest cultural somnambulist. In England, once a most vocal supporter in Bush's cottage industry of a war, history, culture and independent thinking is not subsumed for political or capitalistic gain as blatantly as it is in America. Brits don't wear Union Jack lapel pins or resist reference to their historical leaders and policies either good or bad, for fear that Britons will stop consuming material goods. In fact, the news here (discounting, of course, the legendary scandal rags) is delivered more somberly, more soberly, with fewer slick animations and emotionally jolting stings to signal what kind of reaction the viewer should have in advance of any germinating, independent response to what is doled out. For England, bordered by the living, writhing world as opposed to being geographically separated from it, unfettered perspectives are pretty much available all the time. And there's a maturity and sophistication that goes beyond the preternaturally entrancing accent (My wife is from London. I rest my case.) to British culture that the preening upstart America lacks, wrought from its many years of having ruled unwisely, having wielded its imperial arrogance in much the same way corporate-controlled America does now except without having absorbed the bitter lessons of such self-defeating folly that England has.

At my most pessimistic, there's something that suggests America won't go the same way, that there's little or no chance of relatively humble introspection where its true identity will be found among the ruins of its failures and that its redemption will be thwarted by the same powers that visited her current miseries upon her in the first place.

Is there any irony in watching an entire country other than Sweden exhibiting Stockholm Syndrome? There would be, if Americans possessed a sense of irony, something that's been effectively amputated from them by the shrewd surgeons who have wielded their scalpels knowingly, by the corporate cabal that has purchased the complacency of its leaders and exploited the masses' pride in nation by creating a nation in which they would, if they were in their right minds, never be proud of.

Americans subsist on the echoes of its nation's greatness while Britons live amidst theirs, their history and all its lessons achieving relevance and retaining power from their reverence for monument and tradition and for knowing all too well what their place in the world once was and what is now.

England is spiritual yet secular, strong yet humble. It has its rogues and its rotters, its gossip and its greed. But it also has an abundance of self respect that is not hindered by hubris. England wasn't always this way. Finding itself took generations. So perhaps there is hope after all for its rowdy relation, born in rebellion, its distinction as a beacon of democracy hewn from the rich and fertile land it journeyed thousands of miles to settle, but who is now currently distracted, off course and at sea. It's possible if there's time. Distance, measured in years or nautical miles, can bring clarity. To see the USA, maybe you have to travel far away.

Comments

[4U2consider]

I don"t think Brits are all that and I"d rather have Reba read the news than a Brit with a particularly constipated accent, but I agree with you on the value of perspective. Let"s get Bill Gates to use Warren Buffett"s money to start an "Americans, It"s Not All About You" travel program! Work out some of the details over there before Bank Holiday, would ya?
Now you know, doncha, when a Brit says "Right," that"s not necessarily a form of agreement. If they"re looking at you from the side of their eyes, chin raised so they"re actually LOOKING DOWN AT YOU, even if you"re taller, "right" means, according to my British/American-American/British dictionary, "Not bloody likely, you freakin" Yank"! They"re punctilious little snots, some of them, and thus believe our "failures" to comply are due to stupidity; that makes them easy to recognize, though, so feel free to play them! (Americans do need to grow up but not to wrongfully inflict imagined superiority.)
I enjoyed the reference to Bea Arthur; is that from "Mame"?
Ta.

[HUstudent]

if only some of us could find the cash to go abroad and buy a better worldly perspective.
:(

[squander123]

I like America (or at least, some aspects of it), and I have never, ever believed in patriotism as a worldview (it's just not rational).

But for many years now, I've realised that my most important possession is my EU passport. I wouldn't swop it for a US passport for anything at all...

[Tulka2]

Tivo BBC news. It comes on at five in the morning in Washington state. I record it and am always amazed, news junkie that i am, how much news about the United States i get. News, it must be said, one doesn't hear anywhere else. Come on, how much news can Keith Olbermann cram into an hour when he is required to tell us what body part some teenage girl is flashing....?

[heal57]

Great article. More and more people are talking of actualy leaving the US. They go sometimes for a while, and return, but the wealthier ones are ticked off about taxes; no matter where you live and make your money, the US will be able to tax you if you hold US citizenship. We are becoming a global world and unfortunately Europe will become more like us thanks to the old money citizens of the global world who just take everything from everyone and continue to amass more and more wealth; oil companies, drug companies, int'l congloms; we're talking about you....even while our infrastructure goes to hell and the so called 'war on drugs' keeps making so much money for so many people; yes, money for our governement too while the poor get thrown in prison for doing the drugs that the elitists do in their homes;
We are seriously considering leaving the US within a year, at least half the year at first. I'm sad to see what's happened to our country. I was a child and teen in the 50's and morals and values were strong and people were not bogged down it debt. I have a little hope left for America, but not much I'm sorry to say. Obama is our last hope but it may be too late even for him.

[bushlies]

If some of our clueless citizens would just step across the border to Canada, it would be an enlightening experience for them. These are lovely people who are always courteous and considerate to their rude southern neighbor. They are scared to death of our government and especially Bush and Cheney, but they never seem (in my experience) to blame U. S. citizens for the failings of our corrupt leaders. (I have not been to Quebec. Have heard things are different there, but I have no firsthand knowledge of this.)

Traveling a lot around the world is extremely eye-opening. I have been on every continent except the one with peguins. (That one's on my personal "bucket list", too.) It's just too bad that our dumbass President, our wussy Dems, and W's fellow dumbass Republicans have our currency in the toilet so it extremely expensive for any of us to go much of anywhere these days.

[gevan]

Plumb jitteriness is that deeper sense of what makes you jittery. Plum jitteriness is something you get from too much sugar in your overendulgence in ripe fruit. If you want to see Union Jacks, wait until 2012 and the London Olympics and the queen's Diamond Jubilee. Or maybe a royal wedding if there are to be any in the near future, but not on lapel pins but on porcelain teacups.

[CindySue]

A way of catching the same view from within the borders is to find oneself in Shoes that are *under* the Barrel clawing desperately to just get back inside to even be able to claim you're at the bottom of same said Barrel..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock.. :wink:

[BBackSoon]

I believe we (The United States of America) are a once great civilization in decline. It took the Greeks and Romans what 1000 years to peak and descend and it only took us some 230 years. Isn"t technology grand?

It is time like this that we have to remember the Sinclair Lewis quote:

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."

Sure sounds familiar doesn"t it? We have mainly a corporate owned Media, and corporate owned politicians and a corporate owned government. So the 10% of people that own 90+ % of everything are in control and have no intent of letting the unwashed masses have any say in the direction of the country. It would take a bloody revolt much like the French Revolution to change anything. And as long as most people listen to Fixed News or any of the Main Stream news channels they will remain happily uninformed.

[Garvagh]

I readily agree that a clearer understanding of the role the US plays in the world, is found from reading the British press, and not from reading the American press. I would go farther and say that one cannot understand American today without reading British newspapers and magazines.

[paixa3]

..and other foreign journals. Many are in English, but, it is truly mind stimulating to learn new languages. You willl learn some truth and exercise that gray matter more along with gaining truth.

[celticgods]

Gee, Weber! what original trenchant observations!!! Your missus is from London, huh? Did she vet this before submission?

We used to have independent media in this country (USA). Newspapers now are going the way of dinosaurs, and the television networks are all owned my multinationals who benefit from an apathetic uninformed populace. The one exception has been PBS and most of us know what repeated Republican admins. have done to that. Enjoy your retirement Bill Moyers.
Now, it is necessary to search for information/news it is not handed to us at 7pm anymore.

Instead of leaving, why stay and fight for your country? Why hand it over to the oil companies, Rupert Murdoch and Starbucks?? You can post on here, why not write your senators and reps and you local papers when you feel strongly about something.
The BBC still has it uses, though it too is a shadow of its former self, The Guardian has become the London New York Times (in other words, dreadful), the Independent has its moments and for right-wing balance, The Times.

Maybe try getting a bit more adventurous--read the Irish Times, the Scotsman, Le Monde, Figaro, Der Spiegel etc...?

[Schallvain]

So, just because you have to look to various sources for information on current events and it is not "handed" to you at 7pm, the press isn't free? What a crock. We have more access today to various forms of information than we have ever had in our entire history. I will agree that it is in a new format but all of those channels and new agencies (including the BBC, Al-J, Xinhua, atar-tass, etc. are all available to us either through the internet and our media providers. In one day, you could get the perspective on one issue from just about every developed or developing populous on the planet. Even in the "height" of our glorious Broadcast News, you did not have that available. Freedom of the Press does not mean that the new will always reflect your view. Also, if you think that the papers and news sources that you have sited do not have their own perspective on the news than you, my friend, are hopelessly naive.

[horus07]

some of us are stuck in a bedlam-not of our own making-stuck all the same.

[shinxy]

Way to give the English a bigger superiority complex than they already do.

[DasBoot]

I think the only question for America is: will it decline gracefully or pull the whole world into the abyss? I don't count on a reasonable course.

[Raemond]

Did you visit England alone or take in the rest of the United Kingdom too? Whilst it may be considered pedantic to comment on it, there is a tendency for American writers to use "England" interchangably with "Great Briatin" or "United Kingdom". Even Great Britain and United Kingdom aren't entirely interchangeable, as one version includes places like the cahnnel islands and one doesn't. But since most residents couldn't tell you which is which it would unreasonable to expect foreigners to know.

There are three constituent Nations in Great Britain , England, Wales and Scotland (Both Wales and Scotland have their own national bodies of governance based in their respective capitals, the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh - which is pronounced ed-in-bruh for some bizarre reason) and when you add in the territory of Northern Ireland (I'm sure most people on here will have at least a vague familiarity with all the problems that particular protectorate, or whatever we call it, has caused) you're talking about the United Kingdom.

Wales is clearly the superior of these constituent parts, having given the world Tom Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Shirley Bassey, Christian Bale, The Manic Street Preachers, one of Motorhead, Rugby, a whole lot of coal, the NHS, Max Boyce, the first dedicated university department for the study of International Relations (true fact, founded in Aberystwyth and still going strong) and of course, My Mum.

Scotland's not bad either.

[indypete]

As an englishman I can compliment you on some good points there. After 35 years in the States I've long given up on explaining all that stuff and, to be honest, didn't know about the Channel Islands loophole in the nomenclature. Your Mum's Wales also gave us one of the nicest accents ever to grace the English language. And rugby (which, although born in England, was perfected by the Welsh) is the reason you never want to argue with a Welsh cop!

[LJeanne]

AMEN! This piece is brilliant.