America: Not everything we think it is

Pretty interesting read by a well-traveled man.
I think this is pretty eye-opening.

http://postmasculine.com/america

 

Only having been abroad a little the past 10 years, I can definitely see how that's the perception/reality.

 

Man, does this stuff hit home.

I have even brought up something along the lines of Edison-Jobs to my wife, only to be told, "Of course your history books credit Edison with all those things. Ours credit other people."

And yes, Stalingrad was the turning point of WWII, not D-Day. Ask an Eastern European about America's role in Europe in WWII, and after rolling their eyes, they will say, "Yes, thank you for putting a bullet in the guy's brain . . . a year AFTER we put one in his heart (and sacrificed 27 million along the way). And by the way, WE discovered the horrors of the Holocaust first, and you dismissed our claims."

Bring up standard of living, and the response is, "So what? You kill yourself to get it and don't have time to enjoy it . . . and you're still thousands in debt (not ME, but you get the point)."

And don't even get them started on "freedom": You can't buy eyeglasses for nearsightedness without a prescription. You can't get a prescription without a costly examination. You can't buy a syringe over the counter. You cannot grow or import currants or gooseberries in our home state. You can't let your dog walk around unleashed or without a yearly license. You register your car . . . then have to pay to register it again every year or you can't get insurance. And if you don't have insurance you can't get a license plate. And if you don't have a plate . . . " And so on.

 

I'm sorry, how much blood and treasure did Mother Russia expend in the Pacific Theatre?

 

Sorry if 24 million in the European Theatre was not enough. But USA's 108,000 in the Pacific were all heroic, too. That was the one my dad fought in (and thankfully survived). But the numbers are what they are, and they're pretty sobering. We commemorate Pearl Harbor . . . try picturing a place where it's 10 Pearl Harbors every day, for 1,000 days.

Actually, Russia expected Japan to strike. They even kept a monster-sized Siberian army at the ready. Waiting. Waiting.

Finally, when it appeared Japan was not going to strike, that army was freed to head West, and their skill at winter fighting proved decisive against Hitler.

 

How many of those Russian losses were self-inflicted? "Not one step back ..."

 

America is not the greatest country in the world, per The Newsroom.

 

Maybe about 150,000.

Only three months after Order No. 227 was signed, the army quietly began dismissing the "extra blockade" of soldiers that were there to shoot any deserters.

 

I teach a course called Western Civilization so my insights into Europe have a great deal of validity.

 

What a self-absorbed tool. Hooray for you, Enlightened Worldly Man.
My extensive experiences in other parts of the world are much different from his.

 

I don't know if I'd go that far, but none of that list was surprising in the least. The whole thing seemed to be written in needlessly broad strokes (fitting for someone who fancies himself a font of advice/life coach) for some jingoistic, chest-beating straw American.

Nos. 1 and 8 seem to be fairly intertwined. No. 2 might better be phrased as "Most People Don't Hate Us." No. 4 might be the most off-putting of the bunch — I question just how many "confident smiles and thank-yous" are actually of the welcoming variety. Nos. 3, 5, 6 and 9 can be remedied by a quick flick through one's search engine of choice.

I will concede No. 7, though. There is a definite culture of fear and overemphasis on security that certain parties are finding extremely profitable. When I told people I was moving to Indonesia, several of them behaved as though I was going into a war zone and more than a few suggested I write out a will before I left (which I'd done well before, but still). Never once have I felt threatened, even while walking the streets of Jakarta in the dead of night, and the closest I've come to being robbed was when I lost my craptacular cellphone while getting out of a taxi.

 

All you really need to know about a country is, are people doing their damnest to get in or out?