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July 05, 2003
I'm embarrassed to be an American, but at least I know I'm free.
That was meant to be sung. I went to a fireworks show last night at Crowley Lake. We all had a good time and the fireworks were incredible. Crowley is 10-15 miles south of Mammoth. Most of the people there were from Mammoth. There's only one way between Crowley and Mammoth. You drive on the 395, get off on the 203 (on the right side of the road) and you're home free. The drive home took 1.5 hours to go the 15 miles home. The behavior of so many of the drivers was indicative of what I've accepted is American social norms. It starts with a few drivers who believe they are more important than the others and refuse to let others in as we all merge to get out of Crowley. Then, on the 395, there is a huge line of cars in the right hand turn lane, waiting to turn right. Again, it started with a few drivers who believed they were more important and decided to race up the left lane and cut back at the last minute. The second wave of important people sees the first wave cheating and decides to cut around themselves. They are probably thinking that they WANTED to play nice, but since the others ruined it, they've been forced to cut as well, or they'll end up waiting even longer! This causes a slow stream of people to start cutting. Finally, the last group of important people can't stand seeing so many people cut them off, so they too decide to cut. The only cars left are those decent enough to realize what is going on and 'do the right thing.' Of course, in the end those courteous few that 'do the right thing' are penalized, while those that cheat are rewarded. This does not escape any of them, I'm sure. It would also be naive to assume that even a few of the people cutting didn't know what they were doing. They knew that everyone on that road was going to turn right, and that by going in the left lane they could pass most of them and cut in at the last minute. I'm sure if you asked them, many would say they just saw an open lane and took it and didn't even realize they were cutting people off. This would be a lie of course.I made one other observation, though I don't want to come to a conclusion as to its meaning. The majority of the vehicles who passed were SUVs. You can come to your own conclusions, it may be nothing.
Some may think I make too much out of too little, but I can't help but think of the larger implications of observations like these. There is so much that can be taken from this experience. First, there are a good number of people who, without prodding, made the decision that, even given the consequences to others, they had some reason to believe they had the right to cut ahead. Second, that so many people so quickly threw out any sense of civility or community courteousness once they felt others were being selfish. Somehow the fact that others were being selfish at their expense made it ok for them to pay the selfishness forward to others. The Irony that this all occurred on July 4th, a day when we're all supposed to celebrate our common heritage did not escape me.
Back to my title. I AM embarrassed to be an American. Most of the world does not like us anymore and for good reason. How far we've strayed from the country that wrote songs like America the Beautiful. Now when I hear all of this pro-American propaganda on the radio during the 4th, I sense that many people see through it. But part of being American is keeping your mouth shut while you smile. We are not nearly as patriotic a people as we used to be, but after Sept 11, its a HUGE no no to say anything anti-American or even question 'America'. I think this attitude just makes people like me even more cynical. How can anything be fixed if we can't talk about it.
The most telling thing I took away from this observation was with the second group. The ones that cut once they saw others cutting. There will ALWAYS be selfish people EVERYWHERE who believe they are more important, but the speed at which so many others gave up trying to be nice. To me, this seemed liked a microcosm of our American culture at this time. So many people have given up trying to be civil in the wake of so many who never intended to try. And so the dominos fall. We may find some answers in the tipping point theory. It may be that America is unique in our level of selfishness because we are the first country to pass that tipping point. I saw it on the 395. Once a certain number of first mover selfish people could be observed, there were a flood of others who went after. In our country, once a defined number of companies laid off people just before retirement, or health insurance companies screwed truly sick people, a flood of others gave up trying to maintain a sense of community. I'm sure if you could quantify it, you'd find we've passed several tipping points over the last century. Each one signified by a wave of people, exponentially larger than the previous wave, giving up. Its probably impossible, and pointless to try and find the first tipping point. More important is what began the move away from community values and what has exacerbated it over the years?
Its too bad too, because, as I said in the title, at least I know I'm free. We do have one of the freest nations in the world. We can do what we want when we want, even go into enormous debt or give up on our neighbors. Would another country with the same freedoms end up like us? Is it a foregone conclusion that humans are innately selfish and given the freedom to do so will exploit each other to the fullest? Or could our culture have made a right where we went left and ended up different. I'd like to believe in the former because at least then, even if its too late for our culture, some other culture has a chance of succeeding. Our empire has only been here for a blip of civilized history. There is no reason to believe we will defy history and survive as a culture forever. Another society will surpass us, it is inevitable. But will they learn from our lessons?
Posted by wonko at July 5, 2003 02:47 PM
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Tracked on July 7, 2003 10:55 PM
Comments
You're talking about what's commonly referred to as "Justifictation". People like to think they have ethics or morals, but it really comes down to if they can justify a set of actions for themselves. If they can, they will. This can be on a "sheep" level (Everyone else is cutting in line/stealing bread/overthrowing aristocracy, so why not?) or on a more personal level (I'll pay for Photoshop when i finally sell a picture i created with it.)
This sort of "grabassism" is partly the fault of our competative culture, but a great deal of it is hard-wired into our brains though eons of ancestors who faced extinction if they weren't able to grab at every opportuninity. Barring any sort of severe resource scarcity, I wouldn't expect any other culture to behave any differently.
Posted by: Turd Ferguesson at July 6, 2003 05:16 PM
On the whole, the world may not like us, but I'm finding, quite to my surprise, a lot of people in western Europe quite sympathetic to the American cause... It's rather disturbing how many "Don't mess with Texas" t-shirts I've seen on this trip ;)
Posted by: kasei at July 6, 2003 05:22 PM
Why are they so sympathetic? Are they trying to emulate 'Americanism', with our cool Nikes and large debts? Ok, that was biased. Seriously, you're traveling abroad Kasei, why are they sympathetic? Whats there to be sympathetic about?
Posted by: Wonko at July 7, 2003 06:54 PM
"I'm embarrassed to be an American, but at least I know I'm free"
Me too. I have a blog entry going now that I hope to have up and the end of the week witch has quite a few similarities with what is being said here. I'll comment more to this is my blog.
Posted by: obigabu at July 8, 2003 01:08 PM
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