Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Rant of the Month - Ep.1

I've decided to have a rant of the month, mostly because I love to rant and also because I love to poke fun at people. This is an idea that I've had for a while (taken from here) that I discussed with Sharmila as well; hopefully, we can rant about something together for the next one.

So, this one's for September.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

As with most offensive things, it's a good idea to start with a caveat or two.

I don't have a problem with all Americans. And when I say Americans, I mean citizens of the United States of America, not all those belonging to the American continents (North or South). If you're friends of mine, if you view this blog (or are seeing this on Facebook and are on my friends list) you're probably not the people I'm ranting about. Probably.

Also, if you can't take this as constructive and funny criticism, fuck off.

The United States of America and its creation (like they'll ever let anyone forget) was a milestone in world history. It spawned the creation of what is today a superpower that straddles the Earth and covers it not only politically, but culturally as well - you'll find some aspect of Americana in nearly every nation of this world. They have come to symbolise a fuck-load of shiite, and most of it is negative.

To be fair, the American ideology is something that does inspire. Everyone, come to America and be an American citizen. Live the good life, be accepted and work hard, and all will be well. Your rights are important to us, we believe in free speech, expression, liberty and the right to work, and all that jazz.

Unless you're, today -
a) A muslim - we care if your President is Muslim so much that we create gargantuan amounts of buzz about it.
b) A homosexual - yeah, we're not going to let you marry. We don't like you. Parts of our country are slowly taking away rights and freedoms you used to have.
c) A mexican/asian/puerto rican/whatever - stop taking away our jobs, you lazy people who work way harder than us! Off with you. Sure, our country was built on your asses. Sure, we're probably immigrants from another generation. But we're America. So fuck off.
d) A European - you're probably a crazy sex fiend. Or worse, a pinko liberal.
e) Anything not Christian - you're free to choose your religion, as long as you pick Jesus - so help me, God.
f) Pro-environment - don't you lecture us on that. We love our SUVs, and we love burning shiite up. The great American outdoors was built so that we could make a mess of it and the preservation of wildlife.

And what is accepted as American? The idea of consumerism - rampant and destructive. The idea that Reality TV and mind-numbing nonsense that gets broadcast to you every day and every second is your only source of entertainment. The concept that the lives of celebrities and their latest scandals are the coolest things around.

What is really horrendously annoying to me, of course, is that the USA can take perfectly hard-working and healthy people from a continent, and through the traumatic process of making them slaves and then fighting a war to free them, you've turned the lot into crazy people who go around calling people 'hos and spelling their names in ludicrous (pertinent example here would be Ludacris) fashions, and consider blowing caps in people's asses (trust American culture to be so messed up that masculinity and being dominating on screen has homoerotic references).

Then, there is what Americans have done to sport. No one, anywhere, can conceivably understand why they should call running around with an oblong in your hands while attempting to run over people as they try to bash your brains out counts as 'football'. What in the world does it have to do with your foot?!

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But let's be serious for a bit, now. Perhaps the greatest problem that America faces is in the way it conceives of itself against the world, and how it pictures its own identity. What Americans can certainly be lauded for is their strong lip-service to the American identity, and what it means to them. The fact that people today desire American citizenship so fervently can be seen as a tribute to that idea and what it means to people. But that being said, you can't define yourselves unless you know something about yourselves and the rest of the world.

Education
The American education system at the graduate and post-graduate level continues to set standards for excellence in education, and institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Yale and the like are beacons and trademarks of a quality of education that has not yet been successfully seen elsewhere. The sort of academic rigour, coupled with vast amounts of academic freedom have led to American University education being incredibly sought after - mostly by non-Americans. This is because at the primary and secondary levels, education in the USA continues to suffer from a strange amount of ... well, for lack of a better word, shiite.

American schools are currently identified and portrayed across the board as centres wherein children are obsessed with all the wrong things, where classes and children are often out of control and out of their depths in a strange combination of pop-culture and education that has vandalised a system that had much to offer as a role model in terms of letting children teach themselves while being guided. If this wasn't enough, educators have also decided that making strange demands of the education system (such as teaching Intelligent Design) are ways of teaching children in a manner that will 'subscribe to American values', but fail to spot the obvious problem of it-is-all-bullshit.

Healthcare
Healthcare in America is a touchy issue, and rightly so. Costs for the average American have increased, both in terms of medicines as well as the cost of testing and surgeries. The old safety net of health insurance has often failed due to unreasonable policies used by insurers, including those which rule out certain procedures which might save the lives of patients. Insurers and hospitals often have linkages, leading to patients in dire straits being forced to move at the moment of being stable to another hospital. All patently ridiculous.

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Okay, I'm tiring out now. More later.

PS - Heck, yeah. I know. India's probably worse off. Most countries are worse off. But that does not take away from me my ability to complain and point out crap. Not to mention, Americans were doing better before - but are not doing so well now, so this might be construed to be a critique based on relativism.