America the Romantic

Standing in line at the Mugamma, Egypt’s towering, Soviet-era, unholy office behemoth of bureaucratic nightmares, while my girlfriend was attempting to get the right forms/stamps/signatures for her visa, I had ample time to ponder the wonders of the American system. Ah, to live again in a place where things ran smoothly, when if you read a sign that said “Tourist Visas Here” it really meant “Tourist Visas Here” and not “Refugee Status Inquiries.” For someone on the political left, the entire experience of yearning for America is not one that I often indulge in. I most certainly love my country but since the beginning of my political “activation,” so to speak, in 12th grade, I have had to consume a slew of nasty developments.

So fast-forward to last Thursday, with new and America-loving David sitting snugly in Political Science 3754, American Political Theory, looking at all the folks in ROTC uniforms and ready for one big hug-fest when the professor asked, “What is America?”

Here is a list of the words that followed, chronologically as best as I could write them down:

Democratic
Exaggerated
Fortunate
Opportunistic
Proud
Status Quo

Patriotic
Educated
Individualism
Protestant Work Ethic
Imperial
Capitalism
Ut Prosim (Virginia Tech’s motto, meaning “That I May Serve”)
Greedy
Wasteful
Hegemonistic
(Here I interjected – Opportunity! Freedom! Equality!)
Pluralistic/Diversity
Ethno-centric
Competitive
Racist And Sexist Institutions
Monotheistic
Arrogant

Excluding my injection into the discussion, I count 11 negatives, six positives (including “competitive”), and five neutral (sorry, but “patriotic” can’t make it to the positive column on my list when it was spat out like “professional waterboarders”). Further, as the conversation turned to the Promise of American Life or the American Dream, almost all the voices raised were ones of pressure, dissent, or cynicism: What are you talking about, this term “equality”? Who do we think we are?

As I’ve previously written, my non-aligned intellectual leanings allow me a good deal of emotional sway when passing from system to system, tradition to tradition. Being a part of (and a product of) the American “system” of dreaming like the whole world was my oyster, I rejoiced being back among my contemporaries here at school who felt much the same way, charging off around the country and around the globe to do big things.

Welcome to Bizarroland: David is, gasp, defending the United States to someone who previously espoused the viewpoint that the government gives too much money to people who “don’t try.”

In light of world events, I can perhaps see why college students are down on the American Dream. But they shouldn’t be.

To explain, let me fall upon the wisdom of Rami, Jordanian cab driver extraordinaire.

If you would have asked a generally nationalist, more-or-less-ticked-off-about-Iraq Arab to consider the notion of America, he would have given you a much more positive list: the first word out Rami’s mouth about the United States was “romantic.”

He would be the first to tell me this, but certainly not the last. Through our movies and our pre-Iraq public statements and our music and our tourism, the U.S.A. has infiltrated the rest of the world as an idea more than anything else. And it is the idea of America, a people romantic and free, that is our best asset (at least in the Middle East.) It is the ability to be romantic, to strive hard and do as you want, that I heard nothing but universal respect for among my Arab friends.

(I, too, have perhaps become a bit jaded: I didn’t add “romantic” to the list when I had the shot.)

I think the romantic America, the dreamy, aspirational America, holds water even with my more rationally-inclined moral leanings. And in college, aren’t we supposed to be all about this hokey stuff? Isn’t this a place that can give you a serious certification for studying something like “English Literature” or “Art History”?

If we, college students, are going to rekindle the sort of ebullient optimism that I believe has made America so great (perhaps even in spite of itself), we've got one great, eternal question: Where's the love?

By David Grant  |  January 20, 2008; 11:24 AM ET  | Category:  Southern Skeptic
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