We're Ugly

In the eyes of the world, the U.S. is not a pleasant sight.

As many of us know, the cliché of the Ugly American has existed for decades in Europe.  Americans have long been seen as rude, pushy, entitled, and completely tone-deaf when it comes to the cultures they visit, because, well….they’re Americans, after all.  On the two [very brief] trips I took to England, with one two-day detour to Paris, if anyone asked, I said I was Canadian, and made sure I was deferential to everyone.  But even Canadians see us as almost a separate species. 

It’s gotten worse in the last 35 years or so, as the “me” generations have grown up.  I’ve seen formal definitions, but “me” is my personal term for children of the '80s and afterward.  Kids who were taught that parents were there to give them everything they wanted.  Kids whose parents worked hard to provide, and who were told that they, the kids, shouldn’t have to work that hard.  Kids who didn’t have to suffer the rigors of earlier educations that actually required learning history and civics.  Their parents were “ugly” enough by world standards, but “me” kids took ugly to a whole new level, and the bad behavior metastasized.

So here we are in the technologically advanced but arguably morally backward first quarter of the 21^st century.  Morally backward, that is, in the places and outlets controlled by the GOP.  As an example, Republican state representative David Eastman of Alaska recently made the following statement:

            “In the case where child abuse is fatal, obviously it’s not good for the child, but it’s actually a benefit to society because there aren’t needs for government services and whatnot over the whole course of the child’s life.”

For this pronouncement, Eastman actually garnered a unanimous censure resolution from his fellow Alaskan representatives.  While it seems difficult to believe that there’s anything a GOP member could now say that would be criticized by his or her own party, evidently, this comment went too far even for the most extreme of Republicans in Alaska.  I’d venture to guess, however, that the censure vote ensued only because of the public backlash Eastman’s opinion generated.  Had it been uttered behind closed doors, it may even have been seconded by fellow Republicans.  And realistically, many equally outrageous GOP statements at the national level have been largely ignored.  Social media posts condoning the assassination of Democratic leaders, for instance.

The point here is that, somehow, the U.S. as a nation has become more irresponsible, less accountable, less civil.  Germany has enacted laws about forms of hate speech, and New Zealand passed gun control laws immediately after the last mass shooting in 2019.  In the United States, however, there isn’t enough political will to fix much of anything.  There was a time, until the 1960s, maybe, in which it was acceptable to make racist or misogynistic or anti-Semitic or egregiously snobby comments, but seldom were they voiced to a large audience.  Rather, they were spoken behind people’s hands, and only to friends.  Or at small rallies in the woods, by men wearing white sheets and carrying flaming torches. 

Then, for a few decades, some degree of….sensitivity gradually took hold.  In the early days, it was labeled political correctness, and some derided it, but usually not in large public forums.  There was a brief period when it seemed as if this country might grow to be more civilized in the eyes of the world, more sophisticated, less backward and mired in petty prejudices.  Public disapproval was enough to keep the worst bigotry and rude speech in check.  GOP representative Joe Wilson was chastised in the House for calling Barack Obama a liar in a speech to Congress in 2009.  Now, as we saw earlier this month, GOP members not only feel free to openly disparage a President during his State of the Union address, they do it with no consequences and brag about not being sorry.  In front of the entire world.

As our public figures go, so go the rest of our citizens.  There’s a certain segment of the population that now believes anything goes, in terms of “freedom of speech,” and personal rights.  They don’t care if what they say is obnoxious, or if what they believe is demonstrably false, or if they endanger others with their behavior.  There just don’t seem to be any boundaries anymore.  For such people, it’s all about personal power and getting over on other people (or parties, or groups).  It’s OK to round up a bunch of unsuspecting asylum seekers and bus them across the country, then dump them, with no resources.  It’s OK to openly wear weapons and body armor, then cruise grocery stores.  It was OK to go maskless, with no vaccinations, in the middle of the worst of a pandemic.  And if anyone tried to enforce a mask rule, it was OK to abuse, threaten, or even assault the messenger.  Any punishment therefrom was obviously a violation of rights.  At this point, it appears that guns have more rights than children, and month-old clumps of cells have more rights than hour-old babies or their mothers.  For a percentage of citizens, tearing down, destroying, overturning precedents, and “standing one’s ground” are all preferable to civilized discourse and behavior.  Why get along when there are others to be discriminated against?  Why not cut in front of someone else in the checkout line if you can get away with it?  Odds are, the other person will be too afraid of getting shot or slugged to say anything, anyway.

Hours of debate, reams of paper, and terabytes of data have been devoted to parsing exactly why such fanaticism, hatred, even barbarism are relatively commonplace these days.  The easy answer is that the leash on behavior has been slipping over the last few decades, and in the past six years or so, has been dragging loose on the ground.  The causes are many, but what it comes down to is the abandonment of basic humane-ness, of consideration for others.  Let’s face it:  it’s work to come from a fixed mindset and engage with people who might not look like you, or worship as you do, or have the same sexual preferences you do, and treat them courteously.  It takes effort, it takes deliberate effort, sometimes, to recognize and acknowledge that we’re all just specks on a tiny dot in the universe.  Lots of people simply don’t want to look at the threads that tie us all together, because it’s so much easier to believe continual hate-filled propaganda from myriad sources. 

In 1954, Boston attorney Joseph Welch faced the infamous Joe McCarthy, and bested him with the unforgettable line, “Have you no sense of decency?”  With that, McCarthy’s four-year crusade against Communism that had ruined many lives and careers came to an end.  That simple question, levied directly at Senator McCarthy in a hearing involving members of the Army, was the verbal shot that brought down a seemingly all-powerful figure.  The accusation of a lack of decency was shaming enough that McCarthy’s hold on the country was shattered.  But that was then. 

Sixty-two years later, in 2016, a certain candidate bragged about sexually assaulting women, and went on to win a Presidential election.  Obviously, he couldn’t be shamed, as we continued to see throughout his term.  Though he lost in 2020, he got even more votes than he had four years before.  In the meantime, his disciples have carried that hubris and arrogance and helped him spread it to half the country.  To the rest of the appalled and alarmed world, we have no shame.  Our country is indeed ugly.  Until civility returns and the headlines become those of cooperation and accomplishments rather than boorish one-upmanship and vicious, bigoted attacks, we will remain ugly.