Riding along on the bus grumbling away as only an American could or would do... In my typical self-conscious way I've grown tired of a few of my traveling companions. Whether it's the relentless and diminishing slappy humor of the Aussie contingent or the rabid quest for photos by the seasoned generation... I'm beginning to look forward to the end of this organized portion of my adventure. Three weeks is a long time.
Our group is divided into four basic factions: the English, the Aussies (with one Kiwi), the Canadians, and me (the lowly American). Normally I'd charge in and rip on my own faction, capitalism, arrogance, etc., but my feeling is that although I can fall into typical U.S. pride I don't demonstrate the America that my fellow travelers seem to loath or have taken to generalize constantly. I guess since this entire journal entry will be a set of generalizations I will concede that if my generalizations are true then theirs may be true as well... Here goes...
The English are my current favorite group on the bus... A quote says it all: "The English can't be bothered". While the English happily display their superior attitude and colonial chips, they play fair and as Tony Blair has demonstrated they are not afraid to take sides. My English friends on the bus use the language perfectly, demonstrate a respect toward me I enjoy, and yes, they can't be bothered.
I used to think Australians were the most friendly and inviting people in the world... Their appetite for adventure, their easy going attitude, and their down-under pride always made me jealous. I always looked at Australia as paradise, as Oz, and as a place I'd like to hide from the rest of the world's problems. And, even though Australia is damned with limited world impact, I always thought I'd prefer this to the U.S. global domination of thought... Now I can see that Australians suffer from a reverse psychosomatic jealousy of the Americans. Their relentlessly simple humor and inciting behavior is enjoyable to some extent, but after three weeks of unoriginal bantering I've come to two conclusions: 1) Australian humor is directly related to a suffered lack of visibility in the world. Nobody notices Australia and their personality is the result. And 2) Australian severe political correctness is just a reverse psychological way for them to get the recognition they crave. By not stooping to our (the U.S.) level they are better. Whether it's reading the right books, watching the right movies, or not falling victim to the competitive traditions of America (i.e., electing homecoming queens, tracking grade point averages, etc.) they consistently try to back into a superior stance while denying it to the end.
My guess is that I'm being rough on my Australian counterparts, but like I deserve their jest, they deserve my analysis. Even as I write this I'm listening in on a discussion of Utah polygamy and typical red-neck accusations and generalizations. Maybe the Aussies on the bus are poor ambassadors or maybe I'm just an ass. The U.S. is clearly prideful to a negligent extent and although we may not display our colors on our backpacks in misdirected nationalistic fervor, we declare ourselves "Americans" in complete disrespect toward Canada and Latin America our western hemispheric neighbors...
Main