Sep 172008
Jayne got me started on Randy Newman this morning. I know he’s got a new record, which I have heard very little of but, somehow I missed this entirely. According to the info at YouTube, some of the lyrics for “A Few Words In Defense of Our Country” appeared in a NY Times op-ed piece in January of last year.
Newman, just returning from a trip to Europe says…
“I would like to reply to their scorn..in a song.”
As always, politely press the pause button on the music player located in the side bar before, playing the YouTube.
I tend to think I have a semi-unique viewpoint the USA.
It took me 18 months of living in the States and nearly 8 years in my own international relationship with a (nee) mid-westerner to even start to even get the glimmer of an inkling of how the American psyche operates. Even though I probably understand Americans better than most, my viewpoint is still narrow. I’ve travelled extensively within the US, but the folk I’ve interacted with have mostly been southerners or mid-westerners.
I’ve met an awful lot of really, really stupid, naive, ignorant Americans who think America is the best place in the world, bar none.
But then again…
I’ve also met an awful lot of really, really stupid, naive, ignorant Europeans who think that Europe is the best place in the world, bar none.
Neither opinion is based on all the facts. There are places in the US that I’d consider living, but they’re few and far between. Same goes for the rest of the world. My ideal would probably be to go native on an island in the Mediterranean, living off goats cheese and olives.
I’d probably go as far as to say that pretty much globally, ignorant, stupid people are in the majority, and most westernised countries are run on majority rule. Now, if that’s not a scary thought, I don’t know what is.
I like Americans… for the most part. Most are a bit too quick to run into a fight, guns blazing. Very competetive and easily riled. I blame cartoons on TV. I’m certain the old European nations used to act the same way, but for the most part we’ve had our teeth pulled so we just get to gum the kids with the big toys these days.
I like goats, but not if they’re running a country. Plato’s Republic seems a slightly better idea at times, but I still have a problem with kings/dictators and the tendency to regard them as infallible, regardless of how philosophical they are. You can’t judge a book by its DNA. People is people and governments is governments. You can plot ‘em all out on a bell curve and say “this one is close to the norm” but it doesn’t usually change things. Orwell’s “Animal Farm” aside, I’ve never known goats to be very good agents for social change.
Lately I’ve been thinking of societies as being like different types of transport for getting from one place to another.
Dictatorships and prescriptive regimes call to mind freight trains. They can be very powerful but are very slow moving, almost static, constrained by the rails. Unless someone decides to blow up the engine you’re pretty much just going to just keep creeping forwards. Not much progress but the system’s reliable in its own way. Not much fun to ride but you don’t have to think too much… you’re just a passenger, and you ride.
Free societies are much more complex, flexible, dynamic and ultimately unstable creatures… much like high powered sports cars or fighter jets. The more they are tweaked to achieve maximum velocity the more dangerous they get. They’re by far the most exciting and rewarding to be in, but they have a habit of skidding off the road, hitting trees etc.
A bit of a stretch…?
Or maybe free societies are more like the Citroën…
“staying alive with technology”
*insert goat noise here*