Mal Du Pays...Historique? Part 2

What I say only scratches the surface. I will cover all of this more in other posts.

The "Mommy France" and Sonny Boy America' allegory was of great assistance in dropping my reistance to homesickness. Thinking that homesickness was a sign of  unhealthy regret, moral weakness, and a buy-in of 2006 America, I realized that my case is not your typical 'I Miss Mommy' homesickness (or perhaps it is because I DO miss my Mommy that I am here). In fact, this brand of homesickness does not require one to leave the country. My homesickness has something to do with what Mommy France, student of History that I am, taught me.

Although the Clinton impeachment saga planted the seeds, I think I've been full-on homesick for America since the 2000 US election. My country of birth has become unrecognizable. Of course, there are most definitely aspects of the American past that are not sorely missed: segregation, sexism, and the like – those all are still on the downswing, despite legions of selfish, misguided, and fearful hangers-on.  What I mean, and what I miss, is what Mommy France misses: the world's humble hero and the world's creator of magic.

Sonny Boy America has slowly shed its humbly heroic identity. Like all stupid things, the aspects and details are remarkably simple: Instead of approaching its own dominance responsibly with sense of collaboration and humility, which benefits all parties involved, America has incited the ire of governments and (moreso) populations across the globe. The Sonny Boy America of the past six years has been belligerant, uneducated, disrespectful, stubborn, and disinterested in most anyone else but himself. The list of active examples is endless: the foolish denial of shunning the Kyoto Protocol, the hypocritical rejection of Hugo Chàvez' leadership in Venezuela, and, of course, the destructive and divisive folly in Iraq are only the beginning of a list of depressing and daunting examples.

A victim of quarterly profit targets, of judicial violence, of placing value upon money and the power of money above all values, Sonny Boy America is so hooked on materialism, world dominance, and amusing himself to death while his own citizens starve, are discriminated against, swim in debt due to exploding and unnecessary healthcare costs, have an education system whose last aggressive national improvement scheme was in reaction to Sputnik, and work 60-80 hour work weeks with 2 weeks of vacation per year (see last Sunday's 60 Minutes). The population, on the whole, was entirely too self-absorbed to embark upon an honest, mature, and constitutional national discussion about homosexuality, and the issue of acceptance of homosexuals instead was used to maneuver what history will show as one of the United States' most ineffective Presidents into a second term. In the meantime, a gay community that was once more vibrant and more connected has deluded themselves into thinking they have rights, with 21-23% of gay voters in 2004 election exit polls thinking that voting for a President that interrupted national television to announce his intent to interrupt gay rights was a powerful idea. The cries of New Orleans and the Gulf region were met with a credit card swipe and a few weeks in the news cycle, while Americans fail to understand that their crumbling government structure, in some cases better in African countries that I have visited, is what caused the mess. But how can you blame them when American Idol is so good to watch after a 12 hour workday and your last true vacation was years ago?

The popular cultural expression of ourselves as human beings, emitted from Sonny Boy America, the global capital of media, has for the most part stagnated. An American 20th century that was a neverending flow of aesthetic era after era has become, to me, a 12-15 year stream of pre-fab, plastique, and soulless media (with US cable TV series being the grand exception – but how much of that is because they can smoke and say 'fuck' on HBO?).  In the 70's, 80's, and early 90's, popular music may have been in some respects silly, but the disco years, the punk rock years, the art rock years, the early rap and hip-hop years, and the grungy and electronic early 90's all had a clear and distinct style of its own that were clear expressions of culture. The One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Midnight Cowboy, The Godfather-esque brilliance of combining salient social issues with compelling enertainment in film has given way to decades of soulless, lackluster, risk-free cinematic heroin, market researched and focus grouped to death, designed to drive 12-18 year-olds to the box office. Gossip culture has exploded to the point that a gang of celebutantes that produce no creative product whatsoever make millions and dominate headlines and web discussions. Even the culture of illicit drug-taking, once focussed on the communal, creative hallucinations marijuana, LSD, and later Ecstasy has given way to the selfish speedy pursuits of cocaine and crystal methamphetamine.

They say America is all about having a multitude of choices. However, the inherent problem with having so many choices is that the Sonny Boy America has deluded himself into thinking that anything, including experiences in and of themselves, can be bought. The responsibility of creation, by and large, has been handed over from the individual to the corporation; and the scores of dissatified wait and hope for corporations to once again make available those magic, culture-building choices that never come. Magical America is irrevocably dead, and Sonny Boy killed it by forgetting that some things are more important than money.

In many ways, I I think I am in France because I feel like any other mother would in this situation, loving her son but hating his actions. There is something to driving a car across the country and seeing unparalleled landscapes and cultures, even if you do it in a polluting SUV. There is something unique about I Love Lucy reruns, even if there has been nothing that compares on network telelvision since Seinfeld. There is something to the diverse personalities you'll see in high schools, in neighborhoods, and all over the country; even if they have been reduced to niche markets. There is something to that glass-half-full mentality that people tend to have. And I will, to quote a seemingly forgetten Thoreau 'live deep and suck the marrow' of American life when I visit often – until Sonny Boy inevitably reaps what he sows. After all I have seen so far, I do not think my heart can take it.

Comments

[adam]

I believe that we are experiencing the waves of the small ripples that started when the Berlin Wall fell. The end of the cold war brought the fall of the Soviet Union and communist controlled eastern europe. America no longer had its great post war foe to compare itself to and to be its relative moral foil. We don't have the large oppressive machine of the Soviet Union to say "that is what we're not supposed to be like." The reality is that we were always similar but the spectre of America resembling anything like communism kept us from letting our true nature out.

I'm not saying that the soviet union should be brought back, in fact I think we're doing a damn good job of emulating it ourselves. Perhaps this is the cycle of things, perhaps its America's turn to be the example of what is wrong and the rest of the world can have the opportunity to progress the way we did for the past fifty years. I think its unreasonable to expect that the USA would always be #1.

[Mizez Slocombe]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Without the "other", we have no identity.

[Azure Te]

Funny, Miz : you're so nostalgic and disgusted at what your country has become that you're settling at Mommy's. I'm so nostalgic and bitter and disgusted at what my country has become that I'd gladly settle at Sonny's. The grass IS greener.

[Trudaine]

I do think you are flagellating yourself, and your country, a bit too much. Seen from Europe, the US is not doing that bad, especially economically. And Mummy's present situation isn't really rosy...

[Mizez Slocombe]

@Trudaine

Perhaps you are right in some senses, but the wounds are still fresh, and they are continually reopened from afar.

I disagree with you about the comnparatively better economics of the US, as there is an "other America" that is not seen in the rosy pictures broadcast worldwide (Katrina gave a tiny glimpse at what America think of the "other America"). But ask yourself these questions:

Where is that money going? Is it going to lift up the poorest and most disadvantaged in society, the underemployed, those that are bankrupted because they don't have health insurance – or into the hands of already-prosperous corporations (especially defense and petroleum), stockholders, and the US department of defense? Are you aware that China, as the holder of a majority America's multi-trillion dollar bond debt, holds the future of the American economy in its hands?

Are the governments of Europe (save Poland) and the European Union actively, publically, digustingly pursuing discrimination against gay people? Do you have any concept of what it feels like to have your life and your rights be a pawn in political game of chess? Are the European people as apathetic and illogical as to let what has happened in the US happened here?

[Trudaine]

I know that. I know about the income discrepancies in the US, about the fragility of the present economic growth, largely fueled by the willingness of foreigners to buy US debt, about the indebtedness of American households, the fiscal and commercial deficit, etc. Still, I find it great that a majority of your fellow citizens usually think the glass is half-full, as you noted.

One usually talk about the extremes, the rich and the poor, but I wonder about how the US middle class (if it still exists) feels. Does it experience a relative decline in wealth, purchasing power, social status as in some other industrialised countries?

I am not aware about stronger discrimination against gay people in the US. I always thought the legal system protected against all discrimations, despite the changes at the Supreme court.

From a broader perpective, we all hear in Europe about the "conservative revolution" in process in the US, with all the "isms" : fondamentalist evangelism, creationism, anti-abortionism, anti-intellectualism, anti-Europe-something-ism, etc. Without denying the reality of those phenomena, which are not new ones, what is the part of (European) media hype? How does it affect US society at large and living in the US today?

Concerning the ill-fated CPE, I liked your post on France and capitalism. Each society has to be judged according to its own standards. As a pro-CPE person, I think the French system produces unequality in the name of equality.

I was a bit surprised by your parabole on America's mom and dad, I always thought that, although France played a role in helping the colonies to conquer their independance, the English enlightment and protestantism are more at the roots of US values, and its political and juridical systems.

Sorry for this long and a bit disorderly message. A frequent lurker on your blog (I found it through Salebête), I like it. It may be against the policy of the house, and I would understand you might not wish to step out of your internet persona, but, as I live in Paris, I would be happy to meet you some day for a drink and a chat.

And congratulations for having survived the first six month in Paris...

[Mizez Slocombe]

Merci, Trudaine, and comment anytime. Anyone is welcome in this house. I'll reply to your last comment as a post.

[Otir]

I enjoyed this note very much. You voiced most of my own concerns about the America I am living in.