Someone Asked Me...
Sep. 24th, 2008 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3"What is your general impression of Americans?"
Which is a hard one. I don't have a general impression of Americans anymore. Probably I haven't had since I graduated from Cowboy movies to Marvel Comics in the early 70's. When I was very young, I had the impression that all Americans were rich. Rich in wealth, rich in goodies - as Nail Gaiman points out somewhere in Good Omens (for some reason I'm sure it was Neil, not Terry), Americans had 20 flavours of ice-cream: maybe even more.
And then I started reading Spiderman, and the Fantastic Four, and The Silver Surfer, and Americans were these liberal, JFK democrats, who wanted a fair shake for everyone. Then there was Richard Condon, with his satirical take on Watergate, and Steve Gerber, who had Howard the Duck run for President, and again, it was the liberal conscience, the belief in freedom, that came across most strongly.
I could run it up through Dave Sim, and Steve Earle, and Warren Zevon till 1992, the first time I travelled in America. Where everyone, from SF to Chicago, was friendly, open, interested and good company.
Through the 90's I worked for American companies, with lots of Americans, and visited and vacationed there. I still haven't found a generalised feel for the place, never mind the people.
If I take a step back, I guess I see Americans as the right sort of people - they believe in equality, democracy, and free speech. The thing is, as I get older and learn more, I still believe in that impression, and feel that it's shared by most people in the world.
Which is a hard one. I don't have a general impression of Americans anymore. Probably I haven't had since I graduated from Cowboy movies to Marvel Comics in the early 70's. When I was very young, I had the impression that all Americans were rich. Rich in wealth, rich in goodies - as Nail Gaiman points out somewhere in Good Omens (for some reason I'm sure it was Neil, not Terry), Americans had 20 flavours of ice-cream: maybe even more.
And then I started reading Spiderman, and the Fantastic Four, and The Silver Surfer, and Americans were these liberal, JFK democrats, who wanted a fair shake for everyone. Then there was Richard Condon, with his satirical take on Watergate, and Steve Gerber, who had Howard the Duck run for President, and again, it was the liberal conscience, the belief in freedom, that came across most strongly.
I could run it up through Dave Sim, and Steve Earle, and Warren Zevon till 1992, the first time I travelled in America. Where everyone, from SF to Chicago, was friendly, open, interested and good company.
Through the 90's I worked for American companies, with lots of Americans, and visited and vacationed there. I still haven't found a generalised feel for the place, never mind the people.
If I take a step back, I guess I see Americans as the right sort of people - they believe in equality, democracy, and free speech. The thing is, as I get older and learn more, I still believe in that impression, and feel that it's shared by most people in the world.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 08:55 pm (UTC)Maybe it is right to castigate America for its failures, because its promise is so much greater, but to do that is to ignore that in absolute terms it is a more equal society, a freer society and a society with less hunger than almost anywhere else on earth.
Maybe biology teachers are being refused tenure for not sucking up to the religious orthodoxy, but very few of them are being killed for it. Again, to say that America does not have an informed public discourse is nonsense - covert censorship and overt lobbying do not amount to fatwhahs and corruption.
Discrimination - racism - doesn't amount to death squads and genocides. I don't think the US is perfect - far, far from it, but in terms of aspiration and practice there's more to admire than condemn.