America From The Outside
by Steve Finan
You aren't easy to explain, you Americans.
There isn't “an American”. There are just “Americans”. But then, you aren't just Americans. You are Irish, Spanish, African, WASP, Native, Asian. And yet, somehow still you are all Americans.
You have more ideas, trouble, problems and belligerence than most countries.
You are a collection of stories that sometimes don't seem to touch each other New England and New Mexico and all the Americas inbetween.
You are opposites. You don't have a class system, but then you do. You are often accused of being insular, but invade other nations. You are The Great Satan, but first to deliver humanitarian aid.
You tell the world what you are.
You are Monroe, Nirvana, Sinatra, Updike. Gated communities and children with names invented by hallucination. Race problems and the land of the free. The American Dream and projects. Nascar. Viet vets. Green ideas and oil barons. Donald Duck. Two kinds of Coke. California girls and spree shooters. Strange sports the rest of the world ignores. Obesity and the greatest Olympian in history. Drawls and fine lit. 299 science Nobel laureates and creationists. The Big Apple and bigger waistlines. It's A Wonderful Life and lethal injections. Tomorrow is another day and what we got here is a failure to communicate, Rosebud.
The world bemoans “Americanisation” . . . and rushes to embrace your every output.
The next empire to decline and fall. The best bet to send a man to Mars.
You ate Led Zep. You kidnapped Garbo. You murdered JFK and make up idiot tales about it.
Who are you? Who are you really?
I don't understand.
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Author's Note
So many of you seem to be USA-based. Your opinions are American. Your stories American. Since joining this site I feel like I've dipped my toe into a little piece of America. I've never been there, I freely admit all I know of your country is from TV shows, films and books . . . and short stories and flash fiction.
I'm trying to understand.
Great great great American energy. Seriously this is the first I’ve felt good about my country for a long time. Thank you for some perspective.
All your base are belong to us.
As an American, I appreciate this. It's stuff many of us see exactly as you do.
you take it all to a place that is great to read. Love the juxtaposition. I love how you are don't understand our sports. Are you talkin' about football? It's a religion here, like NASCAR.
America is weird. Thanks for this.
We're a damn fine mess, aren't we?
We don't understand, either.
Indeed. I have found America to be more confusing from the inside.
But I wonder if a nation of conflicting peoples is any more complex than a person of conflicting motivations--as we all assumedly are. Thought-provoking piece.
Thanks for this coincidence of opposites piece. Helps me think more deeply about America's superficialities. What can one expect from a nation bearing a corruption of an Italian Christian name? Perhaps instead of America the place should be called "Billy-Bob." And thanks kindly for being a target for my piece of Americana "Fuckanear Suicide."
I read that you have never been to America after I read this - wow. You really nail the, ahem, culture of my country. You're right, there are many dots that do not connect. It does make the image we are looking at difficult to perceive. I think America is still an experiment, and the results still vary.
That's because we are The Great Illusion. We are the Wizard of Oz. I don't think we have more problems that other countries say, in Africa, but I do think it very true that our stories don't touch each other. Everyone wants to be heard but no one wants to listen. We only pretend not to have a class system, but our class system is very well entrenched, as much as say, Britain's, we just don't have the symbol of a Queen because that would be too obvious. I resent being an "American" when abroad because of all the stereotypes, and in my heart I will always be Jewish and Eastern European first.
Oh, God, but I loved this, Steve! The imagery in "You are The Great Satan, but first to deliver humanitarian aid." is simply stunning. Bipolar Nation, perhaps. We "walk the line" (from Johnny Cash, who seems to straddle it). A very fine line, indeed.
This is one of the best, "questions-begging" set of contrasts I've ever seen, from EITHER "side of the pond"!
No, it isn't.