As we’ve driven across the vast mid-west of America, I find myself thinking about politics and the widespread lack of American awareness of the outside world. There seem to be a couple of reasons that leap out immediately: with the exception of the excellent NPR, the radio stations in the mid-west are religious stations or country-and-western stations. Neither plays a lot of news. The bars all play sports on the televisions. Even NPR goes to the BBC world news for its world news. All the newspapers seem to have incredibly local news as front page news and there is rarely international coverage at all.
I haven’t been nearly as involved in politics here – partly of course because of my delicate immigration status – but partly because it simply isn’t all that visible. The only places I have felt a serious contingent of visible alternative culture outside of SF and New York is Portland and Seattle. I am not at all surprised that the Battle of Seattle occurred there.
There are also 380 million people with 380 million people’s concerns. There really is so much of America to see – the size of Australia, but inhabited, all over; Doug says there was a study and no single spot in the US is more than 15 miles away from a road. And so many people doing so many things, all the time. I think even the anti-war effort here half the time is simply about not letting Americans die in some other country rather than any concern about America’s effect on that other country’s people and culture.
It’s a fascinating perspective. Now to turn it into a lever…