My wife and I recently spent a few weeks travelling in America and it was certainly an eye-opener.
We spent time in New York, Las Vegas, Northern California, San Francisco and Miami. We did some excellent things and saw some beautiful country, but my general sense was – frankly – a bit sad. Something is definitely wrong with the USA.
We started with a week in New York and my first impression was of how dirty it was. There was crap everywhere and no-one doing anything about it.
The second thing I noticed was how loud and angry everyone seemed to be – despite the constant clouds of hash smoke that should’ve been keeping them mellow. People on the street, people working in shops, people working in museums and galleries (FFS) were all shouty and aggressive – especially if you queried or sought clarification of their instructions, which were delivered in the manner of a warden addressing new prisoners.
You will line up in an orderly manner. You will leave all bags in the cloakroom. You will proceed to the left and keep moving. You will look at the paintings and then you will go to the gift shop! Is that clear?
Most surprisingly, these were people – apparently – mainly working for tips. I was shaking my head in frequent bewilderment at the attitude of people who expected me to pay them extra for shouting at me. I felt like saying: “Here’s a tip… don’t treat me like shit if you want a tip.”
I have no evidence for this, but my suspicion was that I was dealing with people who hate their jobs and hate the system they feel is oppressing them, so much, that the only way they can strike back is by bullying their customers and then feeling vindicated in doing so when the customers give them little or no tips.
After New York we went to Las Vegas for a few nights. I’d always been curious about Vegas – America cubed – and we deliberately stayed at one of the famous old casinos to get the full Vegas schtick.
Big mistake. The casino advertised itself as having seven pools – all of which were closed for the season (we love swimming). The whole place stank of cigar smoke and everything was designed somehow to crowbar cash from the punters. They actually wanted to charge us $75 for using the bar fridge to keep our own water cold.
Mind you, the helicopter ride out to the Grand Canyon was utterly spectacular and we very much enjoyed kayaking on the Colorado River. It was a crisp blue morning as we paddled upstream… lovely green water, interesting birdlife, no dead bodies. But half an hour into the journey, we found something floating in the water…
Yep.
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…
Our next stop was Northern California. I loved the snow (even though it closed Yosemite and we had been looking forward to that), but as we moved closer to the coast I was struck by the downtrodden tiredness of houses, cars and people. All of them flying their flags.
California is a state that is so wealthy that if it were a country it would be in the top ten economies of the world. I expected the whole place to be rolling in money and magnificence, but instead it looked like a series of giant trailer parks or shanty towns adjoining highways. A very high level of working poor seemed to occupy the towns plus hordes of illegals waiting for day work. The American Dream is very much alive for illegals – at $5 an hour.
Our next stop was San Francisco and if we thought New York was sleazy, it was nothing compared to the Tenderloin district which was like a cyberpunk nightmare. People have simply given up there and the crime, dysfunction and downright despair is deeply disturbing. And yet it is obviously tolerated. If the locals and authorities wanted something done then surely it would be done. Very odd.
I know that I am sending something of a negative message so far, and yet there is hope.
America has some fine traditions and has been, in its time, a bulwark of democracy and freedom. There is still evidence of this everywhere you look although I wonder whether proud patriotism has been mostly perverted into a confused jingoism. MAGA anyone?
There is also evidence of mega-wealth everywhere you look although it mainly exists at the top of skyscrapers or behind broken-glass-topped walls where most shall never enter, unless as servants.
The American Dream has never been as elusive as it is now, but the Dream persists. And maybe that is itself becoming the problem. People are told they can “make it” in America if they work hard, or have enough “good ol’ American know-how”. So how do you feel when you try to work hard and get nowhere?
I suspect you begin to feel that failure is your own fault.
Meanwhile the TV screens, computer screens, phones and billboards are full of beautiful, young things apparently doing nothing and getting paid squillions for it.
If you’re not at least one of “rich and famous” then somehow the American Dream has passed you by and spat you out. You are just a member of the underclass required to service and clean up after the neo-feudal elite.
So how did it get that way?
America has always been such a prosperous, advanced society – and in many ways it still is – but there are pockets of ghetto misery as bad as anything you’ll find in the developing world. Worse, in fact, because these communities regard themselves as failures whereas developing world communities never had their expectations raised in the first place. This must lead to a profound depression, both personal and communal. Throw the easy availability of guns into the mix and you have one hell of a cauldron.
It seems to me that the USA’s tragedy is competing / conflicting visions of where the country needs to go, massively exacerbated by misinformation and a guru on every corner trying to claim his/her own piece of the narrative to exploit. (Influencers, anyone?) Combine that with a ramshackle economic infrastructure and expectations raised to the heavens by overuse of homely aphorisms like “good ol American know-how” and the “American Dream” and you have a desert of the soul getting hotter and drier every year.
So what is to be done about it?
The western world needs America to be strong and prosperous, but we need all countries to be strong and prosperous. I feel that if America wants to be a respected world leader, again, it needs to lead. Not just lecture or admonish or arm against those people with whom they disagree.
The first thing Americans need to do is decide what sort of country they want to be and have everyone pulling in the same direction. This requires a vision – something the Americans have been traditionally good at – inspiring words and actions that all can be proud of and feel part of. It won’t be easy given the conflicting agendas and so many thought leaders making cash from all the chaos.
It would need to be a powerful vision indeed. Even better than E pluribus unum.
But if they could unite themselves, why not the world?
America is still strong and before that strength is frittered away on internal division and personal agendas, it could be used to inform and empower – both their own people and the world.
Education is by far the best way to empower people to make their own destiny and the internet is the simplest way of reaching all people since the dawn of time. Putting to one side the internet as the worst offender when it comes to the spread of misinformation, a focus on these tools could be an excellent first step towards establishing some common goals, or at least some common understandings.
At the same time, America could try harder to understand the condition of other countries and do whatever they can to redress grievances. There are many, and the situation isn’t helped by so many Americans assuming that anti-American feeling is simply inspired by jealousy.
It’s not. No-one is jealous of the Tenderloin.
Just making the effort could start a productive dialogue and even open opportunities for American business that don’t currently exist. And if those new businesses operated in a way to enrich both themselves and those other countries – teach them to develop their own resources and businesses – then we could see the green shoots of a whole new world paradigm.
Not just a United States but a United World.
Now that’s a vision.
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