[Note: This is the third of three emails that I sent back to my friends in New Zealand and Australia, while I was visiting my family in the USA in early 2003.]
—–Original Message—–
From: G.L. Jordan [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 7:52 AM
Subject: Letters to Civilisation (Three)
Dear Friends,
It is almost 1AM, Friday 21 March. It seems that there is too much going through my head for sleep. My mother sleeps with the TV on (it is almost never off when anyone is home here). The other night when there was a tornado nearby, the satellite TV went down and there was widespread panic in this household. You would think that we were in orbit and life-support had shut down. “What are we going to do now?” was heard more than once. I suggested that we talk – a bit out there, I know – and I was looked at like I was insane. It also seems that my mum and brother are collecting DVDs (DVDs they have seen and don’t intend to watch soon) – my brother says that they are for “in case the satellite goes off”.
My brother, Allen, and I went to Fort Sill yesterday to visit the place where Geronimo was imprisoned until his death. When we got to the military base (probably the largest infantry base in the USA), the country was on “Orange Alert” (between yellow and red, it seems). There were roadblocks to the base and we had to get out of the truck (ute) so the soldiers could go through the truck. After they were finished doing everything but a cavity search and we were permitted to proceed, Allen asked where Geronimo had been kept.The half a dozen soldiers there laughed among themselves and said that they had no idea. The apathy here in the state originally “Indian Territory” regarding Native Americans is not limited to those soldiers. I imagine that it is similar to what regard Aborigines were held by Euro-Australians, before the tourism value of Aborigines became apparent (not that things are much better now).
Tuesday 25 March 2003
I have had to get away from the PC for a few days. During that time, I have gone to eat at a restaurant that used to be a general store in a mountainous (if you can call anything “mountainous” around here) gold-mining area, I went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum (one of those “must do items”- note the sarcasm here), I have been to numerous truck-stop greasy spoons (24 hour freeway-side restaurants) and I have done more shopping than I would do for months in Australasia.
The shopping here is fabulous. If a person lives for such, there is nowhere else to live. Having lived in Australasia so long, everything seems so extravagant here. I had chocolate milk while shopping the other day and the container was thick glass (a quart – almost one litre). After I finally managed to finish the drink, I asked where to drop off the glass for recycling. “We don’t recycle those” (actually, they recycle almost nothing).I felt extremely guilty throwing away such – it was thicker than the milk bottles we put out in NZ for home milk deliveries. Also, I must say that I have missed the quality and sizes of clothes here. I have always hated the low quality clothes sold in Australia (especially those paper-thin t-shirts). I found myself drooling over the heavyweight t-shirts here and it was good to put on a 2XL shirt that wasn’t sized in Asia and actually was a bit big on me.
When I lived here before, I didn’t notice so many commercials regarding medications. It seems now that every second or third commercial is trying to sell some sort of medicine. I have heard for years about the “greying of America”, but this is over the top. When I was a teenager, it seemed that all advertising was geared towards people my age. That has certainly changed now, as most commercials seem geared towards retired Americans. It is funny to hear a commercial for allergies (wow, a commercial just now came on for this while I am typing this email) at the end of which there is a statement such as, “the side-effects can include heart palpations, impotence and temporary memory loss”. Uh, I think I will keep my allergies – thank you very much!
As you may be able to tell, I am trying to get my comments regarding war and the ludicrous state of American politics to a minimum. For those of you who know me well, you will realise that it is a difficult thing indeed for me to keep my opinions to myself. It is good to imagine, however, that there are people somewhere on this planet who share some of my views (read here,”are sane”), as at the moment I am surrounded by what seems mass insanity. There is virtually no one here who would have views anything like mine and even those Americans who consider themselves to the far left politically, would be considered right-wing from my perspective.
I am thankful that I am no longer an American taxpayer, as at least I can say that I am not funding this war – predicted to be 75 billion USD for the first 30 days, according to CNN. If even a fraction of the money wasted on such enterprises was put into education and social services, this country would have the highest standard of living on the planet. Instead, the Republicans try to create economic stimulation by military spending (thank you, Ronald Reagan) and in the meantime, they not only endanger the lives of all of us living on this planet, but they also create debt for future generations of taxpayers in this country. Damn, there I go talking about politics and war again!
One of the bright spots during this trip was to watch Mike Moore at the Oscars. It was good to see someone get up and actually say something of value. Of course, the press here were very negative regarding his comments. In fact, they were extremely caustic and I found myself shocked (I should be used to this by now) by the negative spin they put on his speech. To promote free speech in one breath and then call someone “Un-American” (a term I despise) for practicing that free speech is extremely ludicrous. It is interesting to imagine that journalists in America generally consider themselves to be liberal, when they are among the most conservative elements of this society (excluding the religious right, of course). I have never seen such right wing journalism and they have no right to talk about the use of the press for political means in Iraq, when they practice the same thing here.
It seems I am unable to get away from discussing politics.
Watching my fair share of news here, I have come to see a strong distinction between “knowledge” and “wisdom”. When I was an undergraduate taking a philosophy unit all those years ago, I seem to remember the professor trying to communicate to the classroom this distinction. Later, when I moved to Australia, I was shocked by how little the average Aussie knew of world events. Even Australians with university degrees seemed unwilling – or unable – to discuss world events, history, etc. Looking back on all that now and watching the news here, I realise how much knowledge is fed to people here, but how little they think for themselves. Perhaps it is easy to think that being shown detailed maps of Iraq and troop movements is to understand this war, but no one seems to be asking logical questions about why we are there. Information is not wisdom and this distinction is completely lost on the citizenry here. People are being fed information and feel that they understand, when no one is asking any in-depth questions regarding the appropriateness of this war or the effect (especially on the viability of the United Nations) of allowing a few rogue states to declare war on a nation-state who has not invaded them – actions that historically put these leaders in the same category as Mussolini and Hitler.
Speaking of Hitler, it is interesting to note “we are going to bring democracy to these people”. Of course, Americans feel that everyone on this planet would be like them, if only given the chance. We tried to impose democracy on Weimar Germany and we learned nothing from this experience, it seems. It would seem quite logical and almost unnecessary to say that people have to want to govern themselves for democracy to work. This point seems lost on Americans. Weimar Germany faded into history because Germans were not accustomed to thinking in democratic terms and when they got the chance, they democratically voted in a dictator. We only have to look at the region in which Iraq exists to see that democracy is a largely foreign concept and will be viewed as American imperialism by many in the region.
Perhaps needless to say, I am trying not to focus on these considerations while I am here. There would be virtually no one to speak to, as I might as well go around speaking in Maori here, as to attempt to have a logical discussion. So, I am trying to focus on hedonist America – eating, purchasing, etc. While it is impossible to replace stimulating discussion with such material pursuits, when in Rome, do as the Romans.
Until later, cobbers.
Jerry
P.S. I just saw on CNN that Halliburton Company (Vice-President Dick Cheney’s former employer) has gotten a contract to help re-build Iraq. Halliburton was founded about ten minutes from here (my mum’s house) and still, I believe, has their international headquarters here. Well, that will bring a lot of jobs to my fellow Oklahomans and will allow them to continue to live to the high consumer standard that they are accustomed. Some Iraqis die and are maimed to keep our standard of living high – a great trade-off, wouldn’t you say?
P.P.S. I just heard that Arabic news agencies are being squeezed out of satellite usage as they aren’t considered to be responsible journalists. Let’s bring democracy to Iraq, by controlling the information they receive. The Third Reich’s Minister of Propaganda would have been proud.
