Being American overseas...

Ok, so everything in my many conversations with people all across the globe about their views in Americans all seems to revert back to one central theme, nationalism. I've heard a lot of different points, but the one thing everyone has told me in so many words is that Americans are just very nationalistic. People have said that it's this sort of ardent nationalism that clouds the views of most Americans when reflecting on the actions of their country. I guess people are just mostly pissed off about the fact that close to 80 percent of the world disagrees with the wars in the middle east and about 80 percent of Iraqis that think we are just making things worse, but American citizens continue to sideline the issue and continue to strut around like idiots. I've never really thought of the US being like Germany under the Kaiser or anything, but certainly there are inklings of the same kind of thought patterns in a great portion of the population. Like this guy:



I don't think Tea Partiers are the problem though, they are part of the issue to be sure, but no I think the main problem is apathy. The inability of the true American opinion to both be broadcast to our citizens and to other people in the world. There may be a lot of normal people in America, but the crazy people are just a lot louder. There is a huge discrepancy between our media's coverage of the wars in the middle east and the coverage of everyone else. It's things like this which create errors in communication when you talk to people from around the world. They see a horrible civilian casualties, we see terrorists getting captured. They see tea partiers, we understand that they're essentially crazies.

The election of Barack Obama over John McCain, whether or not you agree with his performance thus far, is a signal that Tea Partiers and their relatives are not the majority. The people who voted in Obama were effectively the ones who were trying to vote out the establishment (but unfortunately, are the victims of a two party system which creates a facade of choice).

Okay, so these last two posts have hardly been about Korea, but I hope they've given people some insight of what it's like to be abroad and talking to people who may have some preconception of what America is like. I just try to calmly explain to them, come to America and go to some dairy queens, white castles, and ride some four-wheelers and you'll see that it's actually pretty cool.

p.s. I was walking home from a bar in Shincheon in Seoul the other night, and some random drunk Korean guy to a swing at me. No idea why. I just dodged him and continued on my way home. Seemed like his boys retrained him.