The American Outlander

It is important for me to clarify that this is not me bad mouthing the United States, the country I was born in and have lived in my entire life. Rather, I do not feel I belong here; there are aspects of our culture I am not comfortable with which has led me to decide to move to Europe. This will be a very involved project. My goal is to move by this time next year but it may take longer. I have few delusions, every country has its issues, but I feel the necessity to leave the United States. In this article, I will address the “cultural norms” in my country and why I feel at odds with them.

My belief is that pace of life in the United States is not healthy. We have become a country fueled on energy drinks. You are expected to go from place to place quickly, to rush through your meals, to get through tasks that should take a couple of days in a few hours. I am fortunate, most of my life is spent in a campground away from the frenzy of the cities. Every week, though, I go to town to run errands and it seems everyone is speeding, flooring it the moment the light turns green only to slam on their brakes a block down the road at the next red light. When they come to my campground, they bring their impatience with them, going 10 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. It is my job to remind them to slow down but I understand their actions—I used to commute and live in a city.

We are still the wealthiest nation on earth, we could easily pay for our people to be educated and healthy—if we cut our defense budget among other things.

“Are you crazy??! Don’t you see what China is doing near Taiwan??”

Yes…and the Chinese media are telling their people a variation on that. There is a lot of money in making weapons, enough to “buy” votes for funding defense projects. The problem is we do not take the time to really analyze and think about the way the world works, the way it really works, we just accept what our favorite news outlet tells us—Left and Right. We work ourselves to the bone, struggle to keep up with the expectations put on us in this country and at the end of the day we just want to Netflix and chill.

Back to my point—

I think the basic idea of “making America great” is a positive one, but how we supposed to be “great” uneducated and unhealthy? If you dare suggest increasing social programs a bunch of tired labels are dragged out: Communist. Marxist. Socialist.

“Those people don’t want to work! They’re just lazy! Why should I pay for them to see a doctor?”

While they are paying for billionaires in various industries to buy real estate or a new jet or a bunker where they’d shoot you if you tried to gain entrance.

Naivety is charming, gullibility is not.

The gun violence in this country is troubling. More troubling than the actual crimes, which are horrific, are how people on both the left and the right are locked into a very superficial view of these tragedies.

A Progressive will say it’s about the guns, if we take the guns away the problem will be solved.

Sorry: Even if guns were used, it is much bigger than simply a gun issue. It is a mental health issue, it is how our culture chews people up and spits them out. I agree that no citizen should own an assault rifle, but even if you took every gun away there are loads of ways for a mentally ill person to harm others.

A Right Wing person will assert their second amendment rights, how they need to be able to protect themselves from “tyranny,” as if they could defend themselves against the most powerful military on earth with a couple of assault rifles. Again, the issue is that we do not bother to really look at the issue, to dig deep and analyze it; we find a position that suits our worldview and dig in deeper and deeper.

I love cars, I am always checking Craigslist or Facebook marketplace to see what’s out there. In this country, it’s all about these enormous trucks that cost more than $50,000. Consumers expect that these huge vehicles accelerate as quickly as a sportscar and consequently have five hundred horsepower engines.

“Hey, my Dodge Ram Big Horn gets nearly 20 miles per gallon!”

Twenty miles per gallon, like that’s something to see as a positive.

Why do people need these enormous trucks? How often do they need to tow ten thousand pounds or drive down a fire road? It’s all about having your personal tank to race around the suburbs. Few people willingly take public transportation; riding the bus is a punishment to tolerate until you can buy a car. I have lived in many cities (like Sacramento) where it is an ordeal to get around on public transportation; in many places you have to have a vehicle.

“This is why I bought a Tesla!”

Your Tesla still needs to run on roads made of oil that are laid and repaired by heavy machinery that uses oil, I’m not even getting into all the rare earth minerals and other shit that goes into an electric car….

And eventually the landfill.

We need to stop clinging to a 20th century model and embrace the reality of the 21st century.

Again, it is important to state this is not a “America sucks” article, I simply do not feel comfortable in this country and do not wish to spend the rest of my life here. The pace of life is not healthy and we are impatient, we think big issues have easy resolutions with little sacrifice. We see the weak and the helpless---good people who just need a hand between jobs or through an illness or to become educated—as objects of scorn. We are obsessed with personal freedom at the detriment of our responsibility for our fellow man. I am not okay with this, these things go against my values, my beliefs. This is why I am working towards leaving the United States, most likely to Portugal. It will not be easy, but I feel it is something I need to do.