the world is bigger than you

with all of the american election news flopping around (flop seems like an accurate verb), tensions are beginning to run higher than usual with most everyone, i’ve noticed. it’s tough when the main ways that you communicate with your friends back home are through social media outlets, like facebook, which means that we don’t usually see all of the great things about those friends that remind you why you two are friends. often, we end up only seeing the ugly. sometimes, really ugly.

this past week, a friend of ours asked my husband the following question on facebook… 

“if you live in greener grasses of europe, why does it matter who wins the US election? you’re not here anyways to deal with it and always posting how much better europe is anyways.”

now. my friends. this is not so much a post about how our democracy is worth exercising from abroad. that we do not intend to stay in the czech republic forever. that we care deeply about what happens to our country whether we’re there or not, and in fact, that makes little difference. (we are however, very favorably poised in the worst case election scenario, you might note). that we do not think that america is the best, however you’d never see us trading in our passports. 

but. after the initial feelings of anger and shock, both of us started feeling a bit sorry. and embarrassed.  i know that this person has never been outside of north america, and perhaps has never lived outside the county of their birth. their world is so small. of course, they are not the only one. i wish they could be exposed to people of different races and religions; perhaps people from a different country. i want so much for this person to get outside their own world to experience the outside world with different political and social systems than our own. to stop being fed this rhetoric that we live in the greatest country on earth! that we must accept what happens to us, politically, and just sort of roll with it because that’s what americans are supposed to do.

however, i do not wish to portray myself as all high and mighty. i liked to think of myself as an open-minded and accepting person, one who does not exist in the america bubble that is all to easy to get caught up in. but i have. and recently. 

a few weeks ago, i had a rather humbling experience hosting a pub trivia night amongst our friends. i was excited for my questions and categories i had written. however, much too late, i realized that one of my categories was particularly american culture-centric. (and we were the only americans in the room! doh!) it did not even occur to me that czechs, or brits, or irish folks wouldn’t know all of the famous american sitcom or movie characters that are completely common knowledge back stateside. result: there was a bit of ugly backlash. (what can i say, we’re probably not collectively the politest bunch… there were actual objects thrown in the air at the last trivia night!) i felt pretty foolish, and definitely regretted making the category only applicable to americans or “america-philes”.

i had another similarly humbling instance when discussing world affairs with a student of mine in a group discussion setting. he mentioned that something was “just american propaganda”. i found myself thinking, “what are you talking about? we’re the good guys! we don’t have propaganda!” and then i had to force myself from thinking about it from another point of view and oh yeah, we totally have propaganda and lots of it! so i just answered, “you are probably correct.” how silly to think that we are immune from exporting our propaganda to the rest of the world because we are on the “side of good”. (to whom?)

both of these situations really put me in my place. even though i’ve lived in another country for over three years, it was shocking to me that even i have a bit of ways to go in terms of broader thinking. having grown up in the bubble that is america makes more of an imprint than sometimes even we are aware of. i want to be clear that this isn’t only about americans. i’ve met czechs here that have not even been outside of their region and have no wish to. some have been terribly racist and xenophobic. and this can be found in many different countries and places. there isn’t only one place or way of life that can lead to this sort of thinking.

so what can we do?

well friends, i know that you too know that the answer is: travel. i would love for our aforementioned friend to spend sometime outside of the country. in fact, on a different continent. 

i remember having this experience for the first time. ten years ago, i stayed at a shared holiday flat in budapest with two (really nice and funny) egyptian guys who asked me, “why did [your country] re-elect bush!?” it was my first experience with hearing about an outsider’s view of american politics, and when i first realized what kinds of messages our actions send abroad. incredibly eye-opening.

we can meet and talk to people of different backgrounds. relating to someone and learning to see eye-to-eye must be the single best way to eradicate small-mindedness. to be open; to learn how to say, “oh wow, i think i was wrong” even though it’s hard to do. to travel to new continents beyond the western world. to go beyond the resorts but into the village where the locals live. the world is about people and only through its people can we create a dialogue and start to change our minds.

(photo via)

this post of a part of travel tuesday.