I’m
deeply confused about American culture. Let me cite two incidents as
examples and then talk about some attitudes I hear about from my son's
reports on visits with friends. Perhaps readers can explain this
contradiction between the effete and the brutal.
Arriving
in the United States, I go to the nearby Trader Joe’s food store. It is
of course very PC. At the checkout counter, the clerk asks, “Have you
returned anything?” I did a double-take. Is this a bid for higher taxes?
A taunt to the 1 percent who shop there?
No,
he explains that they have some kind of program about bringing back
bags. “The people in Bethesda,” he smugly asserts, “are the smartest!”
By
coincidence, I had just heard some article saying that using returned
bags is potentially dangerous since there can be some food remnants that
rot and may breed bacteria. (I certainly don’t know what is true
scientifically.) Unable to resist, and out of curiosity, I said, “Maybe
they are not the smartest,” and explained my concern.
Instantly,
he changed his attitude, snarled and said, “They’re the smartest!” No
contradiction would be tolerated. Anyway, he started it. But given all
the waste involved in a supermarket business--let’s start with the
packaging--the small but highly right-thinking-people gesture of reused
bags strikes me as a laughable symbol. Not to mention the fact that
Trader Joe’s isn’t giving out food to the poor or opening stores to take
big losses in what Michelle Obama calls, “food deserts.”
Is
this salvation on the cheap, like those in wealthy California coastal
cities that take away the farmers’ water to save some obscure fish and
then congratulate themselves on their enlightenment?
About
the same time, I sit in a sandwich place and a song comes on the radio.
My jaw drops. A female singer repeats the lyric, “I said drive, bitch,”
apparently it’s a car-jacking? She just keeps going over and over
again in a very aggressive tone. At the end, the sound effect indicates
that the female driver has been shot and fell down dead.
I
sat there speechless. I simply couldn’t believe what I was hearing. If
there is a “war on women” isn’t it actually waged most vigorously in
certain sectors of popular music? The same could be said of the music of
the much honored Jay-Z or many others.
Now
perhaps this is a silly taking of two extreme phenomena, and I’ll
accept that verdict if that’s what you think. But it symbolizes perhaps a
bigger thing. On one hand, American culture today (should I say popular
culture?) is one of watch your language, goody-goody, we are just so
virtuous. There is rap music and the message given to children in
Politically Correct lessons.
On
the other hand, though, on film, television, literature, music, and
public discourse it is intolerant and at times proudly brutal. Is that a
valid observation? And if so how is this tension reconciled?
During
a visit to the United States, conversations among young teenage boys,
who in school were subjected to intense indoctrination, run like this:
--They
make fun of alleged gays among them, flinging the charge as insulting
but then quickly adding, not that there's anything wrong with that.
--They
show very vile disrespect toward girls of their age. It doesn't seem
that there is any change over the decades, but there certainly isn't a
reduction of "sexist" attitudes. They discuss them far more openly. The
concept of gentleman or even restrained behavior is gone, perhaps in
conjunction with the musical examples. Attitudes that would once have
been derided as "low-class" by the elite have now become common place.
So how is there then an elite setting a good example?
--They
use far more racial epithets and negative stereotypes of others than my
generation, though it is covered by frequent accusations that this or
that is racist. Dubbing of something as racism is used as a weapon, a
description of something one doesn't like.
--They
see themselves as part of some downtrodden class even though they are
financially well-off. For example, they talk about rich white people but
when pointed out that they live in big houses, they say the houses are
bigger in some other neighborhoods.
--They assume that nobody could possibly consider not voting for Obama.
--They
said that "rednecks" and "racists" should be sent to fight in Iraq, not
recognizing any merit in the military or in the people who serve in it,
whom they look down on. A baby is punishment, as Obama (punished with a
baby) memorably explained and so is serving one's country, as Kerry did
(drop out of school, end up in Iraq). What does that serve but
producing deep cynicism; 50 million abortions and no service?
--Since
I don't want to reveal who they are, two left-wing Democrats in private
shocked me by saying bigoted statements against ethnic groups. I have
never heard this before. One told someone else that a certain child
should not speak audibly in criticism of Obama in public.
Whether
this is typical, I have no idea, but it repeats the contradiction of
giving lip service to all sorts of PC ideas but really not truly
accepting them at all. I think it is possible that this high school
generation may actually be more homophobic, racist, and sexist than
predecessors because they are so cynical about these things.
As
I said, I don't say these are typical, and I'd like to hear more views.
And of course the country is quite big and things differ in various
places. Still, I wonder if there is such a thing as vast amounts of
unseen indoctrination when I hear of a 14-year old who explaining that
his parents sold their house and moved, explained "with a sneer that "a
rich white couple" bought it.
He may see himself as an oppressed Hispanic, but his ancestors come from Italy and both of his parents are senior officials at a large bank.
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