rant
I sat down to write about the New Year’s Eve fireworks display, which was full of acrid smoke, falling debris, smashing bottles, and general merriment. I found it all delightful and also funny. These people are crazy! I was thinking the whole time. But now it’s been a few days, and what has become more interesting to me is not how crazy Amsterdammers are, but instead why I feel they’re so crazy. And why I’m sure, if I had written about them and their unregulated, uncoordinated, uncontained fireworks, you would have agreed.
So here’s what I’ve just put together, and I know it’s not news to the world. But it made sudden sense to me.
Americans are terribly, terribly fearful. Compared to much of the world we are well fed, well vaccinated, well clothed, well sheltered. We lead long lives. But we walk around in this state of paranoia that is startling. We fear carcinogens, free radicals, car accidents, plane crashes, terrorist cells, germs, dirt, theives, gangs, drugs... the list is endless. We invest billions of dollars in airbags, home security systems, antibacterial soap, Just Say No, and smart bombs. And we are trying desperately to export our fears, so that we can sell these items to other people too.
And somehow this has become so standard that it no longer seems like paranoia; it just seems like common sense. Until you come to a place like Amsterdam. At first it appears that everyone is having a ridiculously dangerous amount of fun, but over the past few days it has dawned on me that what they are actually doing is just leading their lives without paranoia. They let their children roam around and climb things, they bring their dogs on the ferry – and yet broken children and dog attacks are not, as an American might expect, rampant. The Dutch are not actually dying in droves from their lack of paranoia.
And yet we Americans are so fearful that we mostly sit around in our living rooms getting news of the latest fear from CNN, or escaping the pressing fear with FOX. We get out of shape and unpleasant and generally condescending towards those who don’t fear the things they ought to. We legislate against gay marriage, purchase handguns, lock up soft drug users, and send thousands of eighteen year old kids to protect us from evil.
Dutch people mostly ignore each other. The trams here run adjacent to the sidewalk, and instead of demanding that miles of barriers be erected, pedestrians just look both ways. People don’t yell much or sue each other or even stare. They do not think that my blue hair will be the downfall of their wholesome society, which saves them a lot of stress and me a lot of grief. As they bike along helmetless to their jobs or homes or middle-of-the-street fireworks displays, they whistle. They whistle all the time.
Meanwhile Americans are increasingly depressed and / or violent, not particularly surprising given the forty-five years of cublicle to couch seatbelted commute that is being advertised to most of them as the safe way to go. If the truth ever got out that people can have fun in their every day lives without doing harm to themselves or others, maybe people would stop doing harm to themselves and others.
Sigh. At least we Americans can take comfort that we’ve designed a superior toilet. More on this later.
So here’s what I’ve just put together, and I know it’s not news to the world. But it made sudden sense to me.
Americans are terribly, terribly fearful. Compared to much of the world we are well fed, well vaccinated, well clothed, well sheltered. We lead long lives. But we walk around in this state of paranoia that is startling. We fear carcinogens, free radicals, car accidents, plane crashes, terrorist cells, germs, dirt, theives, gangs, drugs... the list is endless. We invest billions of dollars in airbags, home security systems, antibacterial soap, Just Say No, and smart bombs. And we are trying desperately to export our fears, so that we can sell these items to other people too.
And somehow this has become so standard that it no longer seems like paranoia; it just seems like common sense. Until you come to a place like Amsterdam. At first it appears that everyone is having a ridiculously dangerous amount of fun, but over the past few days it has dawned on me that what they are actually doing is just leading their lives without paranoia. They let their children roam around and climb things, they bring their dogs on the ferry – and yet broken children and dog attacks are not, as an American might expect, rampant. The Dutch are not actually dying in droves from their lack of paranoia.
And yet we Americans are so fearful that we mostly sit around in our living rooms getting news of the latest fear from CNN, or escaping the pressing fear with FOX. We get out of shape and unpleasant and generally condescending towards those who don’t fear the things they ought to. We legislate against gay marriage, purchase handguns, lock up soft drug users, and send thousands of eighteen year old kids to protect us from evil.
Dutch people mostly ignore each other. The trams here run adjacent to the sidewalk, and instead of demanding that miles of barriers be erected, pedestrians just look both ways. People don’t yell much or sue each other or even stare. They do not think that my blue hair will be the downfall of their wholesome society, which saves them a lot of stress and me a lot of grief. As they bike along helmetless to their jobs or homes or middle-of-the-street fireworks displays, they whistle. They whistle all the time.
Meanwhile Americans are increasingly depressed and / or violent, not particularly surprising given the forty-five years of cublicle to couch seatbelted commute that is being advertised to most of them as the safe way to go. If the truth ever got out that people can have fun in their every day lives without doing harm to themselves or others, maybe people would stop doing harm to themselves and others.
Sigh. At least we Americans can take comfort that we’ve designed a superior toilet. More on this later.
posted by tortaluga at 8:19 AM
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