Dave's America Blog -- Part 2

More by David Field

Latest Opinions

By David Field
10:22 Jun 13, 2008

America knows how to do monuments.

I'm writing this on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after ducking and weaving around the swarms of people entering the marble pantheon behind me. Within it, a monstrous stone Lincoln stares out over the reflecting pool, the War Memorial, the Washington Monument and Congress (oh, great; rub it in – ed).

Off to the side of all this are more memorials to soldiers who fought in Vietnam, as well as the heavily guarded White House and dozens of huge marble government buildings. It’s huge and, if I was an American, would really instil an unquestioning sense of civic duty and pride.

And we have TV ads that joke about none of us being able to remember the name of our first Prime Minister. It was Edmund Barton.

A plague of 20-ish year old students, clumped together into ad-hoc groups of five to ten, scales the stairs like a crowd to the second stage of the Big Day Out ten seconds before the end of a set on the main stage. Each is wearing a putrid lime green shirt with a “Real Leadership Training” logo emblazoned on them.

Ignoring the delicious comedy of the situation for a moment, I thought back to the bookstores and newsagents (my Kryptonite) that I’d stopped in since I arrived. The most prominently displayed books were “Where have all the leaders gone?”, books about leadership from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as well as some crap by Bill O Reiley -- liar and the world’s worst journalist, person and everything.

America seems to have an unhealthy obsession with leadership. In the wake of globalisation, leadership seems to have become the revised edition of the American Dream. But what the hell is the American Dream anyway? It’s always been such an abstract concept to me. Has it changed since global events of the last however many decades? And if so, what was it before?

Author’s note: the chronology segues here for several paragraphs.

I’m editing this in a sandwich shop in San Francisco. I stared at my grilled cheese and onion sandwich until it cooled while trying to work out exactly what the American Dream meant. The obvious answer was to get a beer and ask the bar staff to define it in one sentence in their own words. One said he didn’t know how to answer. The second said she thought it was “The ability to do anything you want”.

I’m sure some Americans out there want, like me, to travel on an aircraft without having to wait in line for an hour to clear security, only to have their shampoo, shaving gel and toothpaste that they brought in their carry on luggage ~~stolen~~ confiscated by airport security.

Hunter S Thompson wrote (and I hate to summarise this, I really do) that the American dream meant being just another freak and getting away with it. So the American dream is having enough obscurity to be able to bend the rules. But right here, right now, there is very little bending room and many, many rules that most people seem to have become accustomed to.

Author’s note: We now return to Washington DC.

One American woman I've run into really made me wonder if Americans are totally in tune with the messages of the monuments. I was walking to a tour bus, and like the jaywalking-as-a-way-of-life Sydneysider that I am, didn’t follow the designated path to the bus from the bus stop and inadvertently cut a small queue. She said something abrasive, and I responded with “the shortest distance between two points is a straight line”. Noting my accent, she said “Oh, so you’re an Australian, huh? Well you disgust me already”.

If only I hadn't been so shocked, I would have responded with: "Wow, that was easy. I didn't even have to mock the World Series, call you a Communist or violate your son." And then I would have walked upstairs, chosen one of the several dozen empty seats and let them deal with it.

Timing is everything, you see. And most important part of any speech is the end. You finish on a memorable note that summarises your feelings so that people walk away with your point in their mind. It's why I don't remember what the American woman said, but do remember her last line.

Lincoln’s second term speech ends with a call (and an emphatic wish) for national and international cohesiveness. And as the people swarm up and down the stairs, I wonder what percentage of them have read, or better yet, comprehended Lincoln’s speech. From watching the sheer number of people come and go before I had time to read the three columns of text of his second speech, it can’t be many.

Luckily, the rest of the people I’ve chatted to were very civil, and appalled at the reaction of the woman at the bus stop. This world is full of different people, and we don’t all have to look for and try to understand every cultural nuiance. We just need to be civil. Luckily, the fundamental values of one of America’s most revered presidents call for people to be just that. Let’s hope the message doesn’t get edited out and lost in the noise. By Bill O’ Reilly. And others.

I’ve rambled for far too long. The cameras up in the outside corners of the Lincoln memorial are probably zoomed in on me, wondering how I can effortlessly sit in this heat for so long.

I’ll leave you with words uttered by Benjamin Franklin: "People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.”

-DAVE.

Ads by Google

Latest Competitions

Thermaltake kicks off your gaming year with a BANG
Thermaltake has started off the new year with a bang by giving away a Tt eSport Theron Laser mouse to not one or two, but TWENTY lucky Atomicans!

Atomic Magazine

Issue: 133 | February, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.

What's in this issue?