Theme America

Fuck Yeah...

The thing about America, and by America, I mean the United States of America, is that for most Americans, it's just, well, simply put, where they are from. Most Americans don't spend a huge amount of time thinking about it, worrying about it, comparing it, or judging it. It's just home. They've got lives to live, kids to raise, pets to pet, jobs to moan about, vices to vice. You know, normal shit.

Step outside of America and then America is somewhat different.

The first thing you will notice is that people that aren't actually American seem to spend a whole lot more time seeing and hearing about America than most Americans do. Local news, media, online, it really doesn't matter.

The world, particularly the Western world is inundated with stories, news and information about America. And for the most part, it's completely irrelevent to them and it's total nonsense.

Two things spring to mind when considering this condundrum.

1. Why?

2. Why?

To answer the first question, one must look back at recent, and in some cases, not so recent events. But that's boring. So let's not do that.

Let's assume that we've answered the first question with something along the lines of this:

During the Second World War, the United States became a focal point for potential salvation, as the iron grip of Nazi Germany combined with blah blah blah geo-politically this-and-that and wotnot, led to Europe (Which until now had been kinda running everything and was the head honcho in town) finding itself, yet again, in a world of shit. Only this time, without a mop and bucket to split between them. The First World War wasn't that long ago, things were a bit crap and people were so miffed that they needed a hero, like in that 80s song about needing a hero that's called I Need a hero, but whatever.

Anyway, by sheer chance, with a hefty spoonful of good timing and fortune for those pesky little expats over the pond, motion pictures, wireless radio, and all that jazz (yes, unfortunately, jazz as well) combined with new, far reaching global communication technologies that were being discovered and rolled out and aligned with a general sense of low mood (war does that). And so, some bright spark (pesky expats) decided to mix all that shit together and started making uplifting movies about how darn cool America is, and a bunch of now despot free fed-up Europeans that suddenly had some free time and a bit of cash alongside a huge amount of gratitude to throw in equal measure, threw it at the first person that came along and said "No problem, just doing my job maam!". Yep, America. You couldn't make this shit up...And obviously because of all the war stuff, like bombs and bullets and rubble and dead folk and all that, everything was still really shit, except that is, for the cool moving picture thing and the wireless music radio noise making thing and that is why all we've heard for the last 80 fucking years is Americans telling us what it's like to be special, but no, we're not invited to be special, just know they are special, so fuck off, you just get to watch us being special. Jazz was still shit though. But it was better than the sound of a doodlebug sputtering out of juice above your house. Just.

Might as well have covered point one after all that really.

And so we get to quetion 2. WHY?

Well, simply put, the America that Americans live in has land and water and weather and squirrels and people and jobs and roads and toilets that sometimes don't work and the people there have days that are good, bad and everything inbetween. BUT...the America that was created for our viewing pleasure (see above about pesky expats, or don't, I care not a jot), needed to maintain its public persona and so, what we have, is the idea.

The Idea of America

This is cool isn't it. It's like a lesson that you don't even know is right but you simply can't help yourself and are going to read on anyway.

Anyway, the idea of America is instrinsically embedded into the very fabric of the American culture, in fact, it is pretty much the very foundation of modern American culture. This isn't a culture formed over thousands of years of trials and tribulations though, this is a culture formed quickly from the cultural residue of those that decided Europe was rubbish and sailed West mixed in with a land that was vast, bountiful and terrifying in equal measure.

During the early 20th century, America was repairing itself from a whole bunch of crap that had gone before. Think untamed wild west, outlaws, bandits, silver and gold rushes, civil war and all that and desperately trying to get itself to the top table. Europe was the top table. And they don't much like sharing with each other let alone those unreliable, chaotic upstart foreign types from miles and miles away.

To be fair, Europe had a point, in the late 19th century, America kept having issues that made big fat rich pasty faced European types nervous about investing their money with them. And so America, figured something out. Marketing.

This is too long now, so, we'll summarise.

They started making upbeat music and movies that made America look super fresh and splendid and cool and they made sure those super fresh, splendid and cool things were all anyone wanted to talk about.

In fact, they did this so well, that even Americans started to believe that America was the absolute shit. And so, in 1931, some bright spark by the name of James Truslow Adams wrote about the "American Dream" and it was all to do with equality, fairness and opportunity. Which is actually cool. Good for him.

Didn't last long, somewhere along the way it must have been misquoted and so it soon became about personal wealth, material possessions and having a big fuck off house by a lake. But the clever dicks in charge spotted a gap in the market; let's make America look like a place where everyone is free, happy, succesful, has a big house by a lake, drives a car the size of a frigate and for the most part, are all really good looking.

Conclusion

1930s-40s and Europe was an absolute shit-show, America went all-in on its Hollywood stylised version of itself so that the European elite would throw money at them and that's why we have ten thousand Marvel Universe films, anything starring Jaden Smith or Amber Heard, and the true horror of Americas global reach through the silver screen wouldn't be fully appreciated if I didn't mention the criminally abhorrent shitfest that was Avatar.

What? They're making a third one? You mean there was a second one? How? Why?

Is there no end to this nightmare...apparently not.