In these times of self-flagellation in America, visiting abroad can give you perspective and make you see immediately the good things you left behind, as well as the bad.
Here goes:
1. Americans have a strong civic sense. There may be only handful of expats in a city, but you can be sure they already have a weekly meeting set up, a forum on the web, everyone’s emails and phone numbers, and a network of support and advice.
2. Americans – at least the ones I meet abroad – are helpful. They talk. They exchange ideas and emails. They are more cooperative than many other groups, it seems. (On the other hand, this could just be because I’m most at home with English…)
3. America is one of the cleanest societies around.
Poverty, over-population, and poor infrastructure can certainly explain some of the filth in India. Maybe even a lot. But ultimately, there’s a failure of culture. I know this because I’ve seen even middle-class Indians, who have money for elaborate decoration in their homes, display complete indifference to minimal standards of hygiene when it comes to public space. Cleaning up after yourself in public space and respecting the other fellow’s right to be free of noise and filth are things noticeably absent. Curiously, this goes hand in hand with quite a high level of personal cleanliness, even among people on the street.
In Buenos Aires, even middle-class neighborhoods that ought to be immaculate have litter on the streets. Yet the people dress fashionably for even small outings to the store. People often decry Americans as too informal. But to me there’s something wrong-headed about putting on make-up to go to the store, but dropping litter on the streets…
4. Americans are organized. America may be the country with the most..and best..signs. It seems like a trivial thing. Try living some place where you can’t tell where you’re going for miles. Every road in the country has clear and comprehensive information about every possible turn, angle, and destination on the way. Buildings are labeled clearly. Streets and numbers makes sense. At least, mostly. It’s something we take for granted in the country, but it’s actually probably one of the main reasons why it’s easy to run a business here. The same systematic approach characterizes the office desks, the filing systems, the realtor’s networks, the business directories. It’s easy to find you way here..and it’s easy to find whatever it is you’re looking for. America is the great connector.
5. Americans are genuinely multi-ethnic and PC. Why does PC count as a good thing? Well, there’s bad PC and there’s good PC. The fact is, in America, you can be practically any race or color. People aren’t going to stop and stare – at least not in major cities. Not unless you wear something terribly different from ordinary street wear.
On the other hand, an American traveler who’d just returned from India was telling us how many stares she provoked when she was traveling…and not just stares (which might be understandable), but hassles…scams…
And a young Guyanese friend told me she was stared at constantly in Montevideo when she walked out. There is an African population in the city – in Barrio Sur – so you’d think people would be used to a different look. On the other hand, my friend is a very pretty girl, and it’s possible she mistook admiration for rudeness or uncivility…..
Food for thought for libertarians on the run..
Totally agree with all of your commentary! My husband and I relocated here a few months ago and have concluded many of the same things. By chance are you one of the writers for this site also http://landingpadba.com ?
Great insghts. While cleary America is in a period of decline and or crisis its ascendancy was possible by many positive attributes. A genius of the american system was taking in people and ideas of all sorts and putting them into a productive and dynamic amalgam. Sadly, it seems that many dangerous ideas and in true non-pc sense millions of functionally illiterate amerindians, millions of entitled and obese debt junkies and short sighted greedy politicians and elites are all conspiring to undo many positive things……Always good and bad in all societies the issue is when the bad or merely the stupid begin to dominate.
Hi –
No…
I only write for my own site..
I am not in Buenos Aires right now…I wander..
L
Hi Robert –
Well – bad and stupid are very closely connected too.
I am just realizing it after reading Doug Casey’s attack on charity..by which he means business philanthropy..
Which is of course only one part..of “charity””
So much confusion of terms..so many questionable assumptions
And so much assurance that what he’s saying is so very brilliant..
It was a disappointment.
Filled with arrogance…
This assessment has nothing to do with the plagiarism issue – which I don’t hold against him, since I know Bonner just does this all the time, actually putting his colleagues at risk for copyright infringement (he did this to Wiggin too)
They may all hold hands and sing kumbaya for public consumption but they’re at each others’ throats too..Now, so far I haven’t spilled the beans on what I know of them, but since I am assured by libertarian theory that anything told in confidence or Implicit trust can be freely used..and it would anticivilization not to do so, well – dear me, I must shore up civilization, mustn’t I? So I feel quite free to tell you these things, whereas before I felt constrained by the fact that however I felt about the outfit, I had once worked there…
But dear me, ethics, propriety, inner law, outer law – perish them all, we’re libertarians – a great unwashed mass of yahoos who feel it’s ok to do just about anything because – blimey – Doug Casey, latter-day scholar of ethics in between land speculator has just discovered that the best thing we can do in life is to do whatever we want – because that’s all life is about..
Oh yay.
How did I miss that..and all those idiot moralists and artists who thought differently – various nonentities who didn’t amass wealth through speculation..why, they’re just envious, fools who got what they deserved..
Bonner – vainglorious pilferer that he is – is at least, despite himself, a talented writer, so occasionally his talent as a writer will improve on his failings as a thinker and his metaphors will contain a sense that his own thinking and actions lack…
Very nice, I agree with you…without any pause, but lets work together to make each and every country of the world beautiful…not only Americal but all the country.
it looks like you are assuming america was always this clean or PC or whatever virtue you ascribe to americana. please read about ny/chicago etc from the turn of the century. juxtapose with the elaborate public hygiene systems/drainages of ancient india. public hygiene was something new to the western world till as recent as 100 years back.the umbrella -brolly-a quintessential british/emglish product was used to protect people from the spittle of the high society ladies and not just the weird weather.
maybe you need to investigate why this change of fortunes occured and the accompanying decay in public hygiene.
civic sense/sense of community?. look no further than the patels in the US.
methinks you just bought into the propaganda of the whiteman’s innate superior hygienic standards
Hi Dyslexic –
I haven’t bought into any theories of white man’s superiority
Latins are white..I just pointed out that their cities are quite littered for no conceivable reason than can be blamed on race or color but on CULTURE..
I pointed out that Indians are very inconsiderate in public spaces…
This is often true of well to do Indians who have in no way been exploited and are very far from colonialism to blame it on it..
I know all about Indus Valley and our ancient system of hygiene
As long as Indians keep their heads in the sands of the Indus and ancient glories, they will never come to terms with present day failings and problems..
The fact is whether the white man was running around in a loin cloth while Indians wore purple and gold is beside the point..
I am not trying to establish anyone’s racial superiority..I am trying to suggest that culture’s have good points that can be imitated..
Indians have a high sense of personal hygiene as far as bathing and so on> Even poor people with little access to water clean themselves…
but they have no civic sense in general..
are very antisocial in the way they make a racket at all hours without consideration for others, throw their garbage in other people’s yards, wander around on the street without paying attention to anyone else..
eat, defecate and urinate on the street as they please..now I understand, there are very few decent public toilets that poorer people can afford…but even if they’re forced to use the great out doors, there are ways to do it – so it seems to me – that could show more awareness of hygiene and ethics..
Indians know how to ape the dumbest things about the west, from hip hop and break dancing to brand marketing and aggressive nationalism..they imitate the tawdry sexual more and rancid popular culture of the west..why can’t they imitate the good things about the west..or if imitation is beneath them, why can’t they imitate the good things about their classical culture?