The Ugliest American

Within my “Impressions from Australia” (11/21) blog, I indicated that after I’d had some time to reflect, I would write a follow-up to that trip.  Here is what’s bubbled up as my most salient “take-away.”  Warning: it’s probably not what either of us expected it to be. It’s more about our country, and I feel out on the proverbial limb as I try to articulate my thoughts, both political and personal.  It’s also my final blog.  It was fun to travel through the blogosphere during my sabbatical, but I’ve discovered that blogging is not my preferred mode, so here’s Beyond Bell’s swan song:

When traveling through Australia in November, people I met just briefly, as well as the five people who were (already or became) my friends told me in various ways that I was not the typical American tourist.  The typical U.S. tourist, they unanimously agreed, is first and foremost loud, and secondly very demanding.  They softened this unflattering portrayal by conceding that in terms of being demanding, the United States’s standards for service are superior to theirs, so we traveling Americans are accustomed to prompt, efficient service and then frustrated when we don’t get it.  I couldn’t help thinking to myself that their explanation revealed a third unsavory trait: a sense of entitlement that we should get whatever it is we’re used to getting regardless of where we are or who we’re with.  Unfortunately, the “Ugly American” is alive and well within this modern era of global travel and interactions.

This is the lens I’ve brought to the inevitable 2017 retrospective re-caps currently crowding the media, so I find myself preoccupied with this simple equation: DT’s presidency + his prevailing attitude and practice of rude self-indulgence = the Ugliest American.  And since he is our elected leader, we U.S. citizens are both “in and of it,” to paraphrase the amazing Stevie Wonder and John 17:16.

I’m not politically well-informed enough to confidently publish more of my ideas on our president.  I leave that to the reporting and opinion pieces of our hard-working, presumably exhausted journalists at the NYT, the Post, et al. For example, suspecting that I was not the first to think of DT as the ugliest American, I came across this opinion column from August in the Boston Globe, which offers a rundown of presidential maneuvers with no-holds-barred disapproval if you’re interested.

I’m more interested in what our de facto embrace of the ugly American ethos is doing to our social contract.  You know, that fuzzy, widely-held idea that we have to give up some individual freedoms for the sake of functioning as a community?  Like paying taxes to pay for infrastructure or driving at the approximate speed limit to avoid dying in a fiery crash?  

It’s an imperfect contract, coarse like canvas, but it’s also been more or less sturdy.  One of its pillars is The Golden Rule, and while many of us prefer to follow the Platinum Rule (and this is one way to describe our red-blue ideological divide), there were still rules that most of us well-intentioned people strove to follow.  And we mostly still do, but when our president so consistently violates them because something along the lines of “noblesse oblige” (or “to whom much is given, much is required” Luke 12:48) has no place in his “sad, bad” world, they are under serious threat.

For those of us privileged enough to travel, and for all of us who interact with each other daily, I hope for 2018 that we strive to rise above the example of our ugliest American and the ugly American stamp.  I, for one, resolve to contradict it, to aim for humility and a humanist love for others. And when I inevitably fail, I resolve to get back on track and try again the next day.  Thanks for reading and happy new year! Fingers crossed!