wisdom from beyond the border.
This is from an email that one of my editors sent to me. Well, I say "one of" because it sounds better than "the only". Anyway, this is from Tony Seed, editor and publisher of a magazine in Canada that I'm going to be freelancing for. Tony lingers on maniacal with his wording, which I love, and I really enjoy our cross-border discourse on American politics. This paragraph in particular struck me, and I wanted to relay it here.
"The next generation of writers from the US who will be of any use to the people in the sense of clarifying and enlightenment will be only those, and those alone, who have consciously broke from the philosophy, culture and psychology of American imperialism, of pragmatism, of the truth is what works and the means is the end and of a-historicism. These writers will carry a deep sense of shame, a shame of what America has done to the world's people including the American people and amongst whose ranks and unquenchable aspirations they will find their voice, their subjects and their heroes and heroines, their narratives. I follow the American magazines but I find them full of nausea, ennui, self-absorption and -promotion and even self-exaltation. There are 3+ billion people in the world. What do we care about all this angst! There was writing like this that came out of the US in the 1920s and 1930s but it was suffocated by reaction the force of which was such that many capitulated or compromised."
I understand the sense of shame he is talking about, guilt for what our country has become to the rest of the world. I can't blame other cultures for turning up their noses in disgust when the main American exports seem to be Cheetos and re-runs of MTV's 'Super Sweet Sixteen'. No wonder we have a reputation for being crass, obnoxious and self-centered! And the American writers from this new political landscape who will last will be those who question, those who seek to explain and those who do it in a way that is not apologetic, but multi-layered in their approach, seeking the Americans who don't live by the creed of McWal-Martbucks. Someone has to do it. And it might as well be me.
posted by SpangledAngel @ 7:15 AM
2 Comments:
Whoaa...I think shame is a pretty strong word. In fact, a very strong one. And inaccurate too.
Pick a country that hasn't done things that harm some of its citizens. You can't. Pick a country that hasn't mettled in other countries biz...(pick one that has the capacity to take at least minimal care of its own citizens...and the resources to mettle with others). You can't. Now I'm not gonna stand here and say the US is all fab, and nobody is nearly as good. That's just not true. BUT...having been to much of the world, I can safely say that there is no place I would rather live, and there is no nationality I would rather have. Yes, we elect idiots to office. Who hasn't. Yes, we have poverty in every major city, suburb, and rural area. Most developed nations have a really rich and a really poor class. There is undeniably a whole lot of bad in this country, and in this world...but there is very little to be truly ashamed of. And, there is a whole lot to be proud of.
Word to Canadian editor--inactivity can be just as bad as taking the wrong action with your heart in the right place. It is all politics. Whether you chose to participate or chose to stay quiet so you dont accomplish much, but you dont make anybody mad...you've made a decision that has grand effect.
So, in short, one of the things I love about reading your writing is that you find all of these incredible things that are truly American--they are not Starbucks, they are not McDonalds, and they are not McMansions--but they ARE American. Nothing to be ashamed of there. Focus on the positive. Find what is truly American. And be honest that nobody and surely no country is perfect--but you were pretty darn blessed to be born and raised here.
That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Thank you so much for getting it, mysterious reader. It means a lot to me.
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