A poetry professor from Pennsylvania explains the story behind a call about a suspected terrorist on campus. Basically he (a dark skinned man) was recycling manuscripts and some idiot from the ROTC called the police. It’s a shame that the university didn’t fully support their employee, either.
It’s unfortunate that all Americans get tarred with the loony brush these days, as I’m sure (maybe) that it’s only the minority who are paranoid, xenophobic and trigger-happy. Almost all I see coming out of the US these days is bad news and the political news in general makes me want to bunker down somewhere and refuse to deal with anyone or thing outside my local circle.
Maybe someone should institute a cultural version of the 100 Mile Diet. That way, we have to think about and justify our wider social relationships as to their effects on local culture and values. A former Australian diplomat has lauched her book Allied and Addicted, which claims that we have too close a relationship – and a toxic one – with the US to the detriment of more local connections in the region and our own international standing. From the article, it sounds like an interesting read.
Isn’t the insularity inherent in the urge to "bunker down somewhere and refuse to deal with anyone or thing outside my local circle" part of the problem?All that most Americans we hear about in these kinds of report know about is white bread, they wouldn’t care to recognise a piece of Schinkenbrot if they tripped over it in the street.
you’re right. My primal urge might be to stay behind walls when the barbarians are rampaging, but sometimes you have to don armour and stand up for what you care about – if you’re a fighter (and I think that it is cultural warfare at the moment). Not that the rampaging horde is strictly American, but they are a potent symbol for the increasingly prevalent problems I see.
But I think there’s a significant difference between refusal to engage with the world outside your street (or wherever) and a “local” mentality. The latter (for me) implies strengthening a sense of community and pride in self within a locus, so that the unique and worthy elements therein can withstand invasion from external weeds. It’s a gardening thing 🙂