Even the above photo created controversy; stating this incredible and very powerful metaphor is disrespectful. I fail to see why but that's just me I suppose. I see it as this; father defends this flag so that the flag will protect and defend his child; now what's wrong with that? You tell me.
This is indicative of a strong and more powerful zeitgeist alive in America today though. The American Nation has lost it's way. That's my opinion. Nobody seems to truly know or agree what it means to be an American anymore. This affects us all how? Well take a good, long look at who America decided would best represent them in the world as president. Take a very good long look and think about it. This. Is. How. The. World. Sees. America. Are you proud? Tell me honestly.
I arrived in America in June 2009 and, I will be very honest, following Obama's election and what I knew about America I had high hopes. I saw America as the Light of the West, the yardstick of our society, a cosmopolitan and enlightened land of accepting immigrants. Oh how wrong I was! At a Pow-wow in Portsmouth, MA on July 4th I was told "Might be better you leave cuz you won't be popular here today". Let that sink in for a moment; yes it was indeeed 4th July; the day America won independance from the British, quite so. But recall where I was. Hardly a celebration of compemporary American culture but more a sop to the culture early America seemingly did all it could to eliminate. If anyone should have guarded rencour or been free to be upset, I think the First Nations get first word? But no, they sold their things, performed their dances and welcomed me, regardless of my origins, as one interested in what remains of their culture.. A slightl;y humourous aside is when a Cherokee recognised my accent and said to me this exact thing, "Irish huh? They took your language and culture too right? Left you with this tourist bullshit just like us? Peace man and thank you for the support!"
So my impressions of America? Don't get me wrong, for the most part I loved America, her people and her values; I had a great many friends and wonderful exeriences, I learned many valuable and beautiful lessons inside of her shores during my close to ten years living there. I did indeed love America and do you know something, it truly is impossible not to. America is extremely loveable in her natural state of being. The great cultural and ethnic melting pop and what that created is incredible and wonderful to behold. the sheer scale of the country, those gigantic skies, those long and empty roads, those incredible open vistas. There is nothing to equal a great many of America's charms; she is beautiful let's not deny that. I met friends there who will be in my heart and mind for life. I learned things there which I will always be grateful for. America opened her arms and welcomed me in and for that, at least, I will always be grateful.
Let us look at the current state of affairs in as objective and non-political a manner as possible though. Now I appreciate that I do no longer live in America; some may consider me unqualified to comment but I beg to differ, I discovered this in my time in America; it didn't matter how long I lived there, I would always be an outsider because of my accent and my manner. So I was the outsider looking in and, perhaps I can be much more objective than someone with invested bias. America lost her way and got scared, let's be honest about it. If a majority of people feel that that man repesents them, we've gone a long way from being anywhere close to a united nation a long time ago. If the people who truly felt Trump represented them were feeling so disenfranchised what exactly went so badly wrong and when?
Let me describe to you what I consider a powerful awakening for me in America. I had already lived and worked in New Mexico for around 7 years at this point and lived nicely. I was moving to Atlanta, Georgia and had come to take a little scouting mission with my then girlfriend before moving the family out here. As we were wandering about we came across the Martin Luther King museum, based in the neighbourhood Dr. King came from. To say wondering that museum opened my eyes is an understatement. Back me up here, my fellow Europeans but is it not right that, up until fairly recently, race was really NOT an issue to most people? I remember a conversation I had with a black woman while I was working at Home Depot. She was from North London originally and told me, since she moved to Atlanta she felt "I had to be more black than I'd ever been, people expected me, as a black woman to be this and that. Back in England i was just a woman." The horrors and the absolute inhumanity I saw represented in picture, and word, and video in that museum broke my heart and made me ashamed - completely and utterly ashamed - to be a white man in that place after what people like me had done to people like the woman I was here with! I cannot describe it any other way, it was pure shame. I mean look at what was done and backed by government policy over a simple varietion in melanine content of the epidermis!! It truly made me see and realise; all this was still taking place in my lifetime!! It has hardly charged. The fact that the first black man in the Whitehouse got so much anger and dissention against him was 100% because of what was left over from this very recent history. I give two quotes to explain what I mean;
"We as humans dislike fear intensely; fear of anything making us seem weak. So, we learn to hate that which we fear and destroy that which we hate..."
"When one considers the scale and the scope of what was done; first to the Native peoples of this land, then to those of African descent...there is a weight around so many shoulders...a Great White Guilt which, instead of fostering peace and commiseration and unity, fosters more division than ever before.."
So let me come back to what I mean; first is simple, fear fosters hatred, fosters denial of fear. Second is more complicated and let me break this one down somewhat;
Seeing is a member of one of the First Nations of a black person is a reminder of what America did to the ancestors of said person.
Such remiders cause us to feel guilt about what our country and people like us did,
Such feelings of guilt make us feel uncomfortable.
We don't like feeling uncomfortable.
I feel uncomfortable who is to blame?
They are to blame for always going on about what happened in the past!!
I hate those people for making me feel guilty!
It took me a great many years to learn, from another direction, that no-one but me is responsible for what I feel. No-one is responsible for how I choose to feel. No-one but me. Now there would need to another entire article for that topic but let's simplify it for now; humans don't like accepting responsibility for all that much, especially not these days! It's a lot easier to blame somebody else for how you feel than to take responsibility yourself. Much easier to play the victim of circumstance and conspiracy than to admit "maybe I'm not such a nice and decent person afterall..." way, way easier. We love it. Churches and self-help gurus make millions out of it.
So let's come back to these disenfranchised thousands - maybe even millions - who voted for this fine gentleman now safely esconced in Pennsylanvia Avenue, Washington, DC. Do you think it is accurate to say that they are all angry bigoted racists who were angry about a black man being president? Yes it would indeed be beyond facile and ignorant to say so; as ignorant as the vocal minority of bigoted racists out there. Most of them are actually decent people, I have spoken to and discussed this issue with a fair number of them and, you know what? They are not baby-eating trolls who bathe in the blood of immigrants; they are just ordinary people like you and me. "So why did they vote for that orange monster?" I hear you cry. Well let me explain;
A black man was president which, in itself is an excellent step forward, for most of us but;
Suddenly everyone became very afraid to voice anything which might sound even slightly racist or descriminatory.
Some Liberal extremists (I know that sounds like an oxymoron but if you can think a better term please tell me) took our guilt and ran with it, crying of a post racial world and making people afraid to express themselves. These people did this in order to make themselves more famous and so forth;
Suddenly a lot of people found complaining about perfectly valid concerns was seen as somewhat racist due to those who publicly esposed those views actually being bigoted racists
Today's media is as subtle as a brick in the teeth so people who had valid concerns were thrown in the same bag as the nuts and considered the same as them;
Said people felt attacked, antagonised and unable to express themselves
Along comes a slick operator with his finger on the pulse who sees these people and plays to them, who appears to take them seriously and listen to their concerns, not call them bad people for worrying about jobs and crime and such matters.
They all vote for him. Whether any of them regret that soon after is completely academic because he's there now.
You see, America of the Information Age; of the news by tweet, share, instagram and so on has become a Polarised Age in just about everything. One is Liberal or one is Republican; one is a liberal or a Racist; one is a Snowflake or a Patriot. When did politics become a team sport exactly? Well America is a very sports based culture so it's hardly surprising I suppose. There is, though, no in between, you are either for us or you are against us. So we have two camps now;
Everyone who agrees with Trump; racist, bigoted, backward haters of freedom, brown people and progress who want to take us back 200 years, kill all women except those they keep in special camps to make babies and fight lots of wars and fill their homes with assorted weaponry.
Everyone who didn't votoe for Trump; snowflakes, wimpy, Anti-American, Anti-Semitic, Muslim-loving, freedom hating, baby killing monsters who want to destroy America and take away all our rights, guns and Conferate flags and make us all speak Shareeha (sic) and suchlike.
But you know as well as I do that it's not as clean cut as that! Some of those who voted for Trump were simply afraid, unheard and concerned. Maybe now some of them regret the decision they took in the polling booth but - at least they voted! This may make me unpopular but screw it; you know one thing more than any other which won Trump the Whitehouse? Voter apathy. The fact a very large number of Americans did not even vote, handed him the Presidency. Do no complain about the result if you did not participate, matey! But back to my original point, not all those who voted but not for Trump are liberal baby murderers either.
Look around the world, look at Brexit, look at Trump, look at Putin. A whole lot of people all over the world became a whole lot of dissatisfied and voted for crazy because it promised change in a way they were comfortable with, not one they were scared of and felt no part of. Another brutally honest comment or opinion which probably will make me unpopular;
"Political correctness did not work"
It went badly, badly wrong and why? Well that's more material for another time but it's simply this; thought police are thought police and they always say they are doing it for our own good don't they? You see this is what happened, certain individuals had a vested interest in a more liberal agenda not working so they did this;
Socialism and Liberalism are Communism like Russia look,
The don't let you say what you want and cater to foreigners and lazy people who don't want to work
They want to take your guns away so you can't fight back
They want to take God away and murder little babies so they can begin removing all religion from this country
If we speak out thei put us down and call us the enemy
They are trying to take our country away from us!
And guess what? This small group of real bigots, racists and super rich, they turned the extremes of political correctness around again.
Now, there are no circumstances under which racism, bigotry, sexism, exploitation or any of those things are ever acceptable in a society, none whatsoever. The environment is important and must be considered and protected. No mistake. However when government tries to make all of those things happen, when it is seen as an organised push to force such thing to happen, well people did not all like that, a lot of people really do not like change. Slow and steady is better, gradual change, let people decide for themselves and do not label as wrong or bad people who are not changing as fast as you'd like. That is what gave Obama's movement, what gave liberalism a bad name and that, too is what allowed Trump to win! Instead of dialogue, instead of discussion, instead of addressing everyone's concerns and making a society which is fair and acceptable for everyone (which you can't do but let everyone see you're trying, that their voice matters) they left these people behind and so Trump came along and sweeped them up.
So what is the state of America now? It's trying to find itself and I think this extreme was needed to force America look at itself in the mirror and ask itself; what am I? What have I become? What do i need to be? What do I want to be? Where am I going as a country?
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