That brings me to my second observation about America. Inequality has a corrosive effect on society. It leads to distrust, suspicion, hostility. To broken social bonds and a sense of alienation between people. And you feel all that in America, viscerally. It’s a deeply weird place. Just to be in. This is hard to describe. It’s kind of a sociocultural thing. A kind of…let me just give you an example.
So there I am, walking into this café, or the other one, every single day. It’s not like I’m exactly easy to miss, I’m the guy in the sunglasses and leather jacket and boots, no matter what the weather is, because the light can (gulp) kill me. And all the people at the cafes — these were both busy cafes — would do this incredibly weird thing which only ever happens in America. They’d feign ignorance.
Oh, hey, what would you like? Can I get a name for that order? My man, this is literally the fourteenth time we’ve seen each other this week. Why are we playing this game of make believe. I know who you are! And I know you who I am. And I know you know that both us know who each other are. What the hell is even…
It’s bizarre. This is social norm in America, and it’s a surreal one. We got back to Europe, and went to the little café we go to, and the little shop next to it, and after a year away, everyone recognized us, and said an enthusiastic and friendly hello. We had fun and interesting chats with all of them about what had been happening over the past year. Note the contrast.
Umair Haque
Interesting anecdote about daily life in the Unites States. While I can’t confirm the American side of this story (I have never travelled to the US, nor do I intend to), I do have a similar experience from Paris: during my time in the French capital in 2012, I regularly went to lunch in an Asian fast food run by a small family, mom and dad and two teenage kids, a boy and a girl. It was very close to the office, the menus were cheap, the food good and in large portions. Two years later, I returned to the city and the same office, and went looking for the same fast-food place at lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they remembered me and offered rice as a side-dish without me saying anything – I always chose rice before, as I tried the noodles once and disliked them.
From the outside, American society certainly seems in a sorry state. From its polarized political and electoral system to the unchecked militarism at the expense of social welfare and infrastructure investment, from the pervasive and horrifying mass shootings to less visible, but equally pervasive culture wars and ‘cancellations’, I’m not sure why anyone would want to live in a toxic environment such as this.
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