I used to wonder what that word meant. Admittedly my dictionary is an old edition but it has taken on a new meaning over the years since 1977. I think it's because the Chinese used to use it a lot to complain about Soviet expansionist policies in the dark days of the cold war, and they also used it when talking about American influence in other cultures. Too many Macdonald's hamburger joints around the world became the symbol of 'American hegemony". The symbol of too many shite hamburgers being sold also but I digress. Anyway, are we bothered?
I was reading this on Harpowoman's blog the other day and she made me think of how I feel about America. I seem to be drawn to the subject more these days and I think it needs some consideration. I lived in the US for a year from October 2002 to October 2003. The first six months our office was in New York on W.34th Street just opposite the Empire State Building.
What a fantastic place to go to work. I lived in Hoboken, NJ, birthplace of Frank Sinatra which some call a mini Manhattan. Every morning when I got out of the PATH station and turned into w.34th I would remind myself to look up and enjoy the view of that beautiful building. You will not, I told myself, take this for granted. All around me were NYC's famous landmarks; Macy's, Broadway, the Flatiron Building, 5th Avenue, Greeley Square, Yellow Cabs, New York's Finest, Keen's Steak House, Irish Bars owned by real Irish. I used to imagine looking down at myself from a height as if I was watching the realtime movie of my life. How could you avoid that feeling in New York. You see the place so much in movies that to me it was like walking through a movie set. I loved it.We moved after six months in New York to Houston, TX. What a fucking awful place. But wait, stop here! Pull over! It's an Irish pub. The Harp on Richmond provided a welcome as warm as the Playwright on W. 35th. The Guiness was fine and although you had to drive to get to the place my apartment was only ten minutes away. But that's not the best part. The Blues. Man they had some great blues bars down there. The Big Easy was great. They had blues almost every night of the week and occasionally they hosted the monthly jam of the Houston Blues Society. There were many others; Cosmo's, The Sherlock, The Cosmopolitan. There was never a night when I couldn't look up the listing in the local free paper and find somewhere to go and listen to the blues. I was in hog heaven, to coin a phrase.
One Sunday I happened to see that there was a gig on in Mr. Gino's down on the southside. From four PM it said. Now the south side of Houston, outside of the Loop is not my natural habitat. I'll be honest, you could get mugged down there and that's not because most the people around there are black. No, it's because some of them are bad. Anyway, going on the premise that God looks after naive Scots and dingbats (both categories into which I fit) I motored down there and parked nearby a scrappy looking building with a neon sign, doing no good in the bright sunlight, indicating Mr Gino's. Inside was dark and cool and a five dollar cover was extracted as I crossed the threshold. There was a four-piece ban playing on stage and on guitar was an old guy I later learned was Mr. I.J. Gosey. The band were great and the people dancing were a sight to see. You know that kind of get down dirty dancing that looks so cool to uptight wee Scottish guys like me.
I stood at the bar and enjoyed a few beers and the guy behind the bar, Mr. Gino (for it was he) was really friendly, and the beer was the cheapest I had enjoyed since arriving in the US. So after a while I loosened my grip on the bar and wandered over to where I could get a better view of the stage and the dance-floor. I think it's fair to say old I.J. Cosey (pictured) is ever so slightly elderly, but man he rocks. They played all that good old stuff, and tunes I'd never heard before and the joint was jumping. I was on my own and being the only white person around, except for the keyboard player who I'd seen playing before with another band, I guess I kind of stuck out. But nobody bothered me and I eventually I thawed out and just enjoyed the atmosphere. When I.J. and the band had wound up Mr. Gino introduced me to them which was really nice. I went back a couple of times after that but by then my time in Houston was winding up and my live blues life was coming to a close.Fond memories which contrast with other aspects of the US which I hate. The bad does not in any way outweigh the good but boy I can get riled when I think about how some Americans view the rest of the world. And (don't get me started) when the call themselves the "finest nation on earth", or the "greatest country in the world" I could boak. And it's not just people with over-muscled necks who say this. Politicians, so-called fucking statesmen say it as well. What do they think they are? That kind of ignorance of the rest of the world just used to take my breath away. Now I'm used to it and almost come to expect it from a nation who could elect a President (Leader of the free world? Don't make me laugh) who once declared that the person he most admired in history was Nolan Ryan (he's a baseball player). The thing is a large number of Americans don't give a shit about the rest of the world because as far as a lot of them are concerned it hardly exists except as some kind of irritation that they need to just ignore and it will hopefully go away. It's not isolationism, it's ignorance. And all that indoctrination that goes on about honour to the flag. Oh say have you seen that star spangled flag wave ... There's so many stars and stripes around the place it's like the people are brainwashed into flying flags. It's not patriotism, it's zomby-ism. You know what they should do with flags. Burn every last one of them, Union Jacks and Stars and Stripes and fancy yellow fuckers with rum barrels and palm trees on them from wee far away places in the Pacific. People should be actively discouraged from standing behind flags. We should not be standing behind anything, we should be out there embracing each other.
Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.
(c) John Lennon
4 comments:
“The thing is a large number of Americans don't give a shit about the rest of the world because as far as a lot of them are concerned it hardly exists except as some kind of irritation that they need to just ignore and it will hopefully go away. It's not isolationism, it's ignorance.” Of course, you are partly right. The other day I had to attend our school senate to petition for funds for a conference I am helping to put together. On the agenda was the stating of the Pledge of Allegiance. Before I knew what I was doing, there I stood, hand on my heart, stating what I had been trained to state since I was in kindergarten. A few words into the allegiance, I was taken back at my automatic reaction. I love my country, I do. There are good things about America as your post has demonstrated. As a woman, I certainly could have done much, much worse. But why, I asked myself, did I stand without thought with the rest of the room? I was with my friend who is from Italy and she had smiled at me while standing silently, without hand on heart, by my side. She was amazed how quickly and readily we all stood and responded automatically. I whispered to her, after all we were in the Senate, how I was surprised at my reaction: “it’s all that training, you know, since I was five until I graduated from high school.” But the truth was, in high school I had stopped reciting the pledge out of some type of teenage rebellion. What I was objecting to was not the idea of saying I love my country, but the idea that I “had” to say that I loved my country in this way. There is nothing wrong with flags or with loving one’s country, but there is something wrong with blind love either for country, another human being or, even, a house plant. Blind love or blind obedience is dangerous. But please remember that for years Americans were trained to think in this way. We are never told to hate other countries, other people, or not to care about them. The love for democracy is real here. But there is an almost unconscious, or maybe conscious I am not sure, tendency not to think beyond our borders. Part of this tendency is pure logistics, that is our location, which is only connected to a few other countries. Another part of this tendency, and the main part, is our history of isolationism which was self imposed. Until the end of WWII, the US worked to keep itself separate from the world. This history of being is a history difficult to break away from. An important aspect of hegemony, within a nation, is the fact different forms of civil society (the PTA, the school systems, books and literature, the corner hangout, entertainment programming, etc.) unconsciously work together to produce and reproduce an ideology of being. This identity of being is a difficulty thing to break, and one that take conscious effort on a continuous level. I, and many of my fellow Americans, are absolutely amazed and dumfounded that president Bush was elected into office. Many of us believe he was elected only once, the first time being a directive of the courts and not a democratically, majority, of support. We have been submitted to tactics of fear since 9/11, constantly told that our space and our lives are in danger. Many folks who have been trained by the TV set and sound bites can’t see past the rhetoric that is heaped upon us day after day—the training from kindergarten on becomes reinforced and many go into the automatic mode of being. It is sad and discouraging. The good news is that many of these same Americans are waking up to the reality that what they were promised, what was guaranteed, is not coming to light. The hurricane Katrina and our government’s response is part of the reason. I am sorry for going on so. Thank you for the link and please forgive my lengthy response. And yes, the Blues and jazz around much of this nation is life affirming. Also, a sound born of protest.
Rebecca. Thank you for your comments. You are a shining light. The freedom to dissent, it seems, is being lost these days.
I don't think we need to get rid of flags, but the human race needs to grow up and regard the flag not as something to die for, or to kill others for, or to parade as some sign of superiority over others, but simply as a piece of cloth that indicates the country one lives in/was born in.
On second thoughts, some of us are still playing with our own fecal matter in evolutionary terms, so maybe you have a point.
What gets me is that as someone who has all growed up and is capable of rational thought, I am able to regard my flag with fondness and a little pride, but nothing else. Why should my fun be spoilt by the Queen and Country/God Bless The Stars And Stripes mob?
Bah!
Nice West.... just voted for you on some blog-o-the-week thing, incidentally.
Rebecca, I always say that there is nothing wrong with Patriotism. You just have to realise that Patriotism is not blind - it should see the bad as well as the good... and what's more, a true Patriot will stand up and speak out against the bad and strive to change their country for the better.... because when you love something you want the best for it, but you also want it to be the best.
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