Over the last six months I have been virtually reunited with many of my friends and neighbors on a Russian version of Classmates.com. One of my former classmates, that lived in my apartment complex in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, has asked me if I have gotten used to the "American Mentality" yet. He also wanted to know what I think about "their" self righteous confidence in foreign policy and the need to but in everywhere.
I smiled to myself, thinking of a boy I once knew, and having no clue how to formulate an answer in a way that someone in his position would understand. He is an immigrant in the European Union, one among thousands of misplaced individuals who fled a “hot point.” He left a territory of ethnic and political conflict simply to survive in the New Russia where he was neither welcomed nor accepted. After trials and tribulations he ended up in Germany as a refugee, where he made a small life for himself, unlike many “second class” citizens. In some way he has a lot in common with me. His story follows the same patterns mine did, his “what ifs”, and regrets that have also came up in our on line chat are familiar and ordinary. His point of view about the US is not surprising, at all if you think about his source of information and personal experiences, yet he got me thinking, however, what my view of America is today, sixteen years after I have landed on its soil.
To him “American Mentality” is an image of its political leaders on the Russian speaking or European news channels. It is measured by the economic impact of the US foreign policy had on his personal budget and biography. It is limited to the US involvement, or the lack there of in the current state of affairs in Georgia and Armenia. His opinion is based on the kind of things that most Americans know nothing about, and would care very little to know.
Before I could answer his question I had to define for myself, who that proverbial American actually is. Is it a soldier in Iraq or a farmer in Arizona? Is it a social butterfly in New York or a fisherman in South Carolina? How many of them share the same ideals or political views? What do we all share as Americans? How united are we in this wonderful land of opportunity? There are so many social, religious, ethnic groups and organizations to belong to. There are so many issues to take a stands on. Yet, when any of us unite based on criteria for any one common goal, we rarely share all of the same ideas and values. At the end of the day we all go home to our individual views of what American dream is for us.
In my personal experience American mentality is a bit selfish. Most people have a personal reason and vested interest in the causes they promote. A cancer survivor would march for cure, but would not give money to an orphanage. A union member would strike at his factory, but will not join Green Peace, and so on.
Tax deductions, press releases, insurance packages, and other perks usually drive people to care. This of course doesn’t come close to the open bribery that used to be a practice in USSR for about seventy years, the incentives are sometimes very subtle, they are just the proverbial pat on the back, yet they have a negative effect on society none the less. The number of people involved in anything even for the perks is decreasing with each passing year. There is much higher percentage of Americans who practice “voluntary ignorance” to the world beyond their own neighborhood, then that percentage in any other country. It is too scary to know, to sad to care, it takes too much effort to comprehend, and therefore it is more convenient to ignore it.
Voluntary ignorance is what makes it possible to create an illusion of happiness and to live a care free life. It translates to relationships, education, work practices, life styles and so on. “Voluntary ignorance” is a choice it is not a testament to the intellectual level of any group or an individual. Educated, progressive and brilliant people fall into the pattern, just because the alternative is getting progressively harder to achieve. This outlook on life translates to relationships, manners, and standards by which success is measured. Care free, easy going morally relaxed behavior in day to day life is the norm. People who are not getting wasted or loaded in bars are considered boring. Consumption of alcohol and promiscuity is a necessary prerequisite to be accepted in society, declared a friend or a trusted co worker. If you do not carry baggage of three month long relationships and one night stands you are considered old fashioned. If you are not bragging about the notches on your bed post you are a prude, because the lack of something to brag about is simply incomprehensible.
You may ask how does sex figure into the concept of voluntary ignorance. Quite logically – if we do not care about the people we get intimate with we are naturally pronged to change them as possessions that become the symbols of our success. The easier it is for people to acquire our new toys the faster they tire of them. The less they care the easier it is for them to loose our new possessions or surroundings. Gradually that translates into wide spread cultural norm for people to value each other less even if the general wellbeing is not shared by all. Some of the standards that we take for granted are quite shocking if we compare them to the “old fashioned” norms that our grandparents grew up with. The statute of limitations on past relationships is measured in months. Three months is now enough to recover from lost love and it is time to date. Heroic and romantic stories of WWII, of couples that went threw war waiting to be reunited, fearing for lives of their loved ones, are regarded as cheesy fiction. Love letters and medals are treated as museum pieces or family heir looms that lose meaning for the ancestors who translate the voluntary ignorance creed as the definition of American Dream.
I have seen teenage mothers of two who have never been outside of their little town, never cared to read anything more complicated then the sixths grade curriculum, and could not imagine life without a cell phone with a camera and an mp3 player built in. Those girls will never see eye to eye with me. After a few failed attempts to find things in common with them or expose them to the world I give up. I claim voluntary ignorance to people who ignore the possibilities of an alternative. I have seen people changing from caring kind and brilliant individuals into people possessed with the pursuit of bigger bank accounts, better homes, cars, boats and other assets. Families break apart, friends are lost and children are at times neglected as the result, but we have something to show for it and we smile to the world.
I can imagine people getting offended by the previous statements, because individuals really fit all of these negative definitions at once. I have met so many extraordinary talented intelligent people in the sixteen years I lived in America. So many of them are unhappy with certain aspects of society and are working to better it in some way. The best of them however will be the first ones to admit that they practice “voluntary ignorance” with regards to something. It may be as simple as switching the channel from the news to sports. It is as simple as choosing an easier course in high schools or college. It is as easy as never deviating from the menu of a fast food restaurant, or wearing only specific brands of clothes.
We all pick our battles and find a way to pursue the pleasures of money, and freedom that this country has to offer. We get upset with the results of voluntary ignorance when it is close to home and affects us personally. People usually notice it when it is thrown in their face. An ignorant sales person or a co worker whose work you have to do over may seem like an idiot to you. A teacher, who is unaware of your child’s cultural or physical differences or limitations in the classroom, will be incompetent in your eyes for the rest of your child’s academic career. A politician whose guts you hate or who has offended you by a phrase will not get your vote regardless of the rest of his platform. His actions were ignorant and offensive, he has lied and he has cheated. That might be true, but you have not bothered to look into the rest of his agenda or compare it to his opponent, you are basing your opinion on an incident reported in the media, brushing the rest off as irrelevant. I will not argue that some things are irrelevant in relation to truly evil acts that can be universally recognized as evil, and yet this particular example illustrates the unbreakable circle of voluntary ignorance. We are all guilty of practicing it and not just in America.
The only thing I am sure of now, is that slogans and mottos can’t really define any group or association a hundred percent. Quite a number of countries clamed, that they want Money Power and Respect; Quite a number claimed the sacrifice of the few for the good of the many. Every ruler believes his agenda to be just and good and true in accordance to his personal and unique moral compass. And every individual believes himself to be caring and aware about the things that matter. Opposing views can be justified and illustrated quite easily to get the vote of confidence of the majority, when the majority is practicing voluntary ignorance. The world slowly falls into the hands of a few individuals with the better bag of tricks. Media tycoons, oil magnates, celebrity millionaires and so on. The only way to break free is to take responsible steps not to be in the circle.
What could one person do? Probably very little and therefore the easier and maybe logical choice is to stay out of it, to ignore it, not to take any action. The thing is, the actions can be very small. Get to know a person drastically different from you. Read a book that is not in your favorite genre, read a book period for that matter. Take the time to research a platform of a politician, as opposed to his biography. Take time to look at the map of the world and Wikipedia a country you didn’t know or care existed. Take time to volunteer at a school. Take time to call your distant relatives whose name you have probably forgotten. Ask forgiveness from someone you might have offended or broke up with a year ago. This simple list may go on forever, and oddly enough it makes all the sense in the world.
So, what should be my answer to my childhood friend? I made America work for me and I am working on the American dream. Most Americans are not like the image you have of them. That would be true but it is not an answer at all. Should I tell them about voluntary ignorance of an average American, or should I tell him about the creative passionate and caring people that I have encountered during Spoleto USA festival over the years? So many American concepts are spreading the Globe that the answer today is that people are people everywhere. The odds for success are the same in the EU as they are in the US. From talking to some other classmates who are now in Russia I can say that talent and effort are rewarded everywhere. Persistence and honesty with yourself can get you your American Dream regardless of where you live. So the only answer I can really give him is not to ponder what ifs.
P.S….
The above essay, or rhetoric, was written on Friday August seventh of 2008. On August 8th, on the night that China opened the Olympics, Georgia began a Civil War on it’s own Territory, with it’s own peoples. The effects of this conflict we all will have to live with for years and maybe generations to come.
My answer to my friend and many like him becomes even clearer, but today, I am happy to see that he and many others like him are still my friends.
We are Georgians, and Abkhazians, Armenians and Greek, Jews and Russians, Ukrainians and Estonians. We went to one school, and our nationality is Sukhumian. Today we morn for our land, wherever we may be.
I smiled to myself, thinking of a boy I once knew, and having no clue how to formulate an answer in a way that someone in his position would understand. He is an immigrant in the European Union, one among thousands of misplaced individuals who fled a “hot point.” He left a territory of ethnic and political conflict simply to survive in the New Russia where he was neither welcomed nor accepted. After trials and tribulations he ended up in Germany as a refugee, where he made a small life for himself, unlike many “second class” citizens. In some way he has a lot in common with me. His story follows the same patterns mine did, his “what ifs”, and regrets that have also came up in our on line chat are familiar and ordinary. His point of view about the US is not surprising, at all if you think about his source of information and personal experiences, yet he got me thinking, however, what my view of America is today, sixteen years after I have landed on its soil.
To him “American Mentality” is an image of its political leaders on the Russian speaking or European news channels. It is measured by the economic impact of the US foreign policy had on his personal budget and biography. It is limited to the US involvement, or the lack there of in the current state of affairs in Georgia and Armenia. His opinion is based on the kind of things that most Americans know nothing about, and would care very little to know.
Before I could answer his question I had to define for myself, who that proverbial American actually is. Is it a soldier in Iraq or a farmer in Arizona? Is it a social butterfly in New York or a fisherman in South Carolina? How many of them share the same ideals or political views? What do we all share as Americans? How united are we in this wonderful land of opportunity? There are so many social, religious, ethnic groups and organizations to belong to. There are so many issues to take a stands on. Yet, when any of us unite based on criteria for any one common goal, we rarely share all of the same ideas and values. At the end of the day we all go home to our individual views of what American dream is for us.
In my personal experience American mentality is a bit selfish. Most people have a personal reason and vested interest in the causes they promote. A cancer survivor would march for cure, but would not give money to an orphanage. A union member would strike at his factory, but will not join Green Peace, and so on.
Tax deductions, press releases, insurance packages, and other perks usually drive people to care. This of course doesn’t come close to the open bribery that used to be a practice in USSR for about seventy years, the incentives are sometimes very subtle, they are just the proverbial pat on the back, yet they have a negative effect on society none the less. The number of people involved in anything even for the perks is decreasing with each passing year. There is much higher percentage of Americans who practice “voluntary ignorance” to the world beyond their own neighborhood, then that percentage in any other country. It is too scary to know, to sad to care, it takes too much effort to comprehend, and therefore it is more convenient to ignore it.
Voluntary ignorance is what makes it possible to create an illusion of happiness and to live a care free life. It translates to relationships, education, work practices, life styles and so on. “Voluntary ignorance” is a choice it is not a testament to the intellectual level of any group or an individual. Educated, progressive and brilliant people fall into the pattern, just because the alternative is getting progressively harder to achieve. This outlook on life translates to relationships, manners, and standards by which success is measured. Care free, easy going morally relaxed behavior in day to day life is the norm. People who are not getting wasted or loaded in bars are considered boring. Consumption of alcohol and promiscuity is a necessary prerequisite to be accepted in society, declared a friend or a trusted co worker. If you do not carry baggage of three month long relationships and one night stands you are considered old fashioned. If you are not bragging about the notches on your bed post you are a prude, because the lack of something to brag about is simply incomprehensible.
You may ask how does sex figure into the concept of voluntary ignorance. Quite logically – if we do not care about the people we get intimate with we are naturally pronged to change them as possessions that become the symbols of our success. The easier it is for people to acquire our new toys the faster they tire of them. The less they care the easier it is for them to loose our new possessions or surroundings. Gradually that translates into wide spread cultural norm for people to value each other less even if the general wellbeing is not shared by all. Some of the standards that we take for granted are quite shocking if we compare them to the “old fashioned” norms that our grandparents grew up with. The statute of limitations on past relationships is measured in months. Three months is now enough to recover from lost love and it is time to date. Heroic and romantic stories of WWII, of couples that went threw war waiting to be reunited, fearing for lives of their loved ones, are regarded as cheesy fiction. Love letters and medals are treated as museum pieces or family heir looms that lose meaning for the ancestors who translate the voluntary ignorance creed as the definition of American Dream.
I have seen teenage mothers of two who have never been outside of their little town, never cared to read anything more complicated then the sixths grade curriculum, and could not imagine life without a cell phone with a camera and an mp3 player built in. Those girls will never see eye to eye with me. After a few failed attempts to find things in common with them or expose them to the world I give up. I claim voluntary ignorance to people who ignore the possibilities of an alternative. I have seen people changing from caring kind and brilliant individuals into people possessed with the pursuit of bigger bank accounts, better homes, cars, boats and other assets. Families break apart, friends are lost and children are at times neglected as the result, but we have something to show for it and we smile to the world.
I can imagine people getting offended by the previous statements, because individuals really fit all of these negative definitions at once. I have met so many extraordinary talented intelligent people in the sixteen years I lived in America. So many of them are unhappy with certain aspects of society and are working to better it in some way. The best of them however will be the first ones to admit that they practice “voluntary ignorance” with regards to something. It may be as simple as switching the channel from the news to sports. It is as simple as choosing an easier course in high schools or college. It is as easy as never deviating from the menu of a fast food restaurant, or wearing only specific brands of clothes.
We all pick our battles and find a way to pursue the pleasures of money, and freedom that this country has to offer. We get upset with the results of voluntary ignorance when it is close to home and affects us personally. People usually notice it when it is thrown in their face. An ignorant sales person or a co worker whose work you have to do over may seem like an idiot to you. A teacher, who is unaware of your child’s cultural or physical differences or limitations in the classroom, will be incompetent in your eyes for the rest of your child’s academic career. A politician whose guts you hate or who has offended you by a phrase will not get your vote regardless of the rest of his platform. His actions were ignorant and offensive, he has lied and he has cheated. That might be true, but you have not bothered to look into the rest of his agenda or compare it to his opponent, you are basing your opinion on an incident reported in the media, brushing the rest off as irrelevant. I will not argue that some things are irrelevant in relation to truly evil acts that can be universally recognized as evil, and yet this particular example illustrates the unbreakable circle of voluntary ignorance. We are all guilty of practicing it and not just in America.
The only thing I am sure of now, is that slogans and mottos can’t really define any group or association a hundred percent. Quite a number of countries clamed, that they want Money Power and Respect; Quite a number claimed the sacrifice of the few for the good of the many. Every ruler believes his agenda to be just and good and true in accordance to his personal and unique moral compass. And every individual believes himself to be caring and aware about the things that matter. Opposing views can be justified and illustrated quite easily to get the vote of confidence of the majority, when the majority is practicing voluntary ignorance. The world slowly falls into the hands of a few individuals with the better bag of tricks. Media tycoons, oil magnates, celebrity millionaires and so on. The only way to break free is to take responsible steps not to be in the circle.
What could one person do? Probably very little and therefore the easier and maybe logical choice is to stay out of it, to ignore it, not to take any action. The thing is, the actions can be very small. Get to know a person drastically different from you. Read a book that is not in your favorite genre, read a book period for that matter. Take the time to research a platform of a politician, as opposed to his biography. Take time to look at the map of the world and Wikipedia a country you didn’t know or care existed. Take time to volunteer at a school. Take time to call your distant relatives whose name you have probably forgotten. Ask forgiveness from someone you might have offended or broke up with a year ago. This simple list may go on forever, and oddly enough it makes all the sense in the world.
So, what should be my answer to my childhood friend? I made America work for me and I am working on the American dream. Most Americans are not like the image you have of them. That would be true but it is not an answer at all. Should I tell them about voluntary ignorance of an average American, or should I tell him about the creative passionate and caring people that I have encountered during Spoleto USA festival over the years? So many American concepts are spreading the Globe that the answer today is that people are people everywhere. The odds for success are the same in the EU as they are in the US. From talking to some other classmates who are now in Russia I can say that talent and effort are rewarded everywhere. Persistence and honesty with yourself can get you your American Dream regardless of where you live. So the only answer I can really give him is not to ponder what ifs.
P.S….
The above essay, or rhetoric, was written on Friday August seventh of 2008. On August 8th, on the night that China opened the Olympics, Georgia began a Civil War on it’s own Territory, with it’s own peoples. The effects of this conflict we all will have to live with for years and maybe generations to come.
My answer to my friend and many like him becomes even clearer, but today, I am happy to see that he and many others like him are still my friends.
We are Georgians, and Abkhazians, Armenians and Greek, Jews and Russians, Ukrainians and Estonians. We went to one school, and our nationality is Sukhumian. Today we morn for our land, wherever we may be.
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