Simple Common Denominator

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Monday June 23, 2003 03:24 by bernie bird berniejbird at yahoo dot ie NY USA

I am attempting to answer the following question: What are the roots and possible consequences of the current contradictions in perspectives between Europe and the U.S.?

I am attempting to answer the following question: What are the roots and possible consequences of the current contradictions in perspectives between Europe and the U.S.?

I am an Irish immigrant living in Upstate New York, resident here for twelve years. Often I am confronted by cultural differences and take them in my stride, with interest and humour. Recently, however, I brought up evolution as a lunchtime topic at the factory where I work- to my horror I found I was alone in my “opinion”. Only two of my co-workers were actual ‘creationists’, for which I could forgive them their religous convictions (however backward), but the others I could not excuse. The general remark of, “I find it very hard to believe that we come from apes”, fascinated and appalled me. The base cynicism of their outlook prompted me to arrive next day armed with magazines and picturebooks to illustrate to them the advance of the human species. I was promptly reported to management and reprimanded for disseminating such controversial “theories” in the workplace.
Not all America is like this, there are intelectual pockets and KKK boroughs alike, the extremes, but everyone similarly trundles back to work on Monday morning, and I with them soon had my co-workers chuckling along with me about those idiots who think the earth revolves around the sun. They felt bad that I had gotten in trouble, and so had opted to agree with me for once. Perhaps I was being cruel in my revenge, but I was learning something of the application of reverse psychology, the everyday manipulation of their uninformed minds.
In 1943 anthropologist Margaret Mead was commisioned to investigate communication breakdowns in U.S. and British joint command. She discovered vastly diverging cultural world views, which she demonstrated best by asking the simple question: “What is your favorite colour?” The Americans would quickly invoke a colour- “Blue… no, Purple!” the British, on the other hand, would ask, “Colour of what? A flower? A necktie?” In conclusion Mead suggested that Americans, raised in a cultural melting-pot, learned to seek a “simple common denominator”- ie. the easiest generalized explanation to an otherwise complicated subject- whereas British (or, for that matter, Europeans) “show an unwillingness to make comparisons. Each object is thought of as having a most complex set of qualities, and colour is merely the quality of an object.”* Could this explain why my co-workers can’t accept evolutionary science? Too complex?
Living in the US has become a surreal experience in this last two years- flags hang from every lamppost, Homeland Security issues colour-coded terror days, fundamentalist filibusters jam the media airwaves with chest-beating war-chants, a non-democratically elected leader’s popularity soars as he defies the international community, threatens and invades sovereign states, the local annual “French Culture Festival” gets cancelled and the old-timers spit hate in the bars saying “we should just nuke them towelheads.” It’s hard to live here and have a different opinion of how the world turns, being anti-war is being anti-American. But is all this a direct result of 9-11? No, this form of xenophobia has been a long time building, 9-11 only served to amplify it. The world is a big, scary and confusing place, what is happening does not conform to a simple common denominator explanation, therefore we must strike back decisively and impose this view-point everywhere, and all stand behind whatever idiot is brave enough to do so.
War. The battle heroes are lined up one by one for the CNN cameras, “I’m jes doin mah johb! I’s frum Teh-nuh-see! Hi Ma!”… who wants an intelligent person fighting their war? Here’s a great American hero, he’ll do whatever he’s told, and you can be just like him too! “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength!” Orwell’s prophetic 1984 doublespeak, the dual-psychology of simplicities and tools for deception and control.
But who’s right and who’s wrong? What is right and wrong? How did the Atlantic get wider this last two years? At what point did the melting-pot cease to simmer and suddenly harden?
There is no single truth. Everybody has his or her opinion. In fact, often others will contradict just to show they have an opinion, a personality. In America I am intimidated, only ignorance and pride are rewarded (beyond greed) and what may be a failed multi-cultural utopia is directing it’s aggression outward through simplified stereotypes and policies upon foreign nations. All Frenchmen are wagging their eyebrows under their berets and twirling their moustaches saying “ooh-la-la” and the Irish lads are goading the cows up the borreen in a hurry to meet their pals for the leprechaun hunt with their shilleglighs. Once working as a bartender in Arizona I was asked by a female customer from Detroit if women were allowed to drink alcohol in Ireland. “No!” I replied mock-haughtily, “the woman must always cover face and stay behind man!” She believed me and I felt lousy for all the great things Mary Robinson has done… what bites even more is that this customer was perhaps one of the only people to show any interest as to where I was from in my year in Arizona.
So, is it isolationism? The complete unwillingness of Americans to understand the complexities of European history and culture? Or is it European arrogance? That we have a culture and are jealous of America’s power (the popular presumption in the U.S.)? Where is the middle-ground?
Now, it’s not all black and white- there are Americans who are anti-war and there are Europeans who are all about manifest-destiny… but could it be that world views are dangerously polarizing? What’s the agenda and where is the guiding light? Can there be War without Peace and vice-versa and so on? If there is to be a bridge of understanding between Europe and the U.S. I would imagine Ireland would be an important link. Broadening communication to that little farmhouse in Idaho and surprising them by an email stating, “Hey, I’m from Ireland, we’re not all Catholics and most of us accept that we evolved from apes!” or a postcard from Islamabad with a cheery face and a scribbled note saying “Hi! I’m Akbed, I’m a mechanic with three children and we Moslems have feelings too!” or maybe we need even-ground and have a Cessna plane fly into Dublin’s Liberty Hall and see how we feel about it, eh? I’ll go for the former option, rational discourse, a checking of reactionary emotions and a far-reaching empathy that is possible through our fingertips. Are U.S.-Euro relations so fragile as to justify a compassionate guerrilla email campaign? Absolutely.
I hope this article can provoke some debate on the matter, there are more questions than answers, but it’s a start, and life experiences often speak best. I am not anti-American but the purposeful normalization of idiocy in the U.S. I find abhorrent, not only that it has become okay to be stoopid, but that it has become a point of pride.
bernie bird

*material from the article “Coalition of the Differing” in June 2003 Smithsonian