Pre-Exodus: My United States of Whatever

Last week I went for a walk with my older sister, around the suburbs of our hometown Taupo, New Zealand, and down to the lake.

Along the way we got caught up in one of those arguments that only-siblings often have. Only they’re not really arguments—more like power struggles over trivial and inconsequential things, namely opinion.

One of the mountains in Taupo’s backyard.

When you’re a sibling, differences of opinion can quickly escalate into ego battles. I assume it has something to do with the elder sibling’s knowingly wiser and thus condescending tone of voice, and the younger sibling’s insecure and bratty reactionary response to said smugness. But that’s not important.

Because I kind of like these arguments with my older sister.

During our walk, this particular argument seemed to centre on cultural identification. Essentially, she detests most things American while I don’t see the point in those that are English. Fittingly, I’m travelling to the United States of America and Canada tomorrow to live, while she‘ll leave for the United Kingdom later in the year.

(Oh, if you’re wondering what’s going on here, basically you’re reading a travel blog and this is the first entry. I’m Jonathan and as of tomorrow I’m travelling around the US and Canada with my good buddy James. Both of us will be posting blogs and hopefully most of them won’t be as long or pseudo-educational as this one. (UPDATE: Ha! That was pretty wishful thinking.) You can read more about where we’re going and how the blog works here. For your visual pleasure I’ve thrown in some photos with this post, but they’re only kind of half-relevant.)

Wellington; the city that James and Jonathan kind of come from.

Now, back to the UK versus US thing. Given New Zealand’s tiny geographic and economic size, and the conglomeration of globalised media, New Zealand’s popular culture —and essentially, its understanding of the world—comes via the UK or US. A cultural imperialism of sorts. Music, movies, television, literature, news, video games, internet search engines—these are mostly produced and framed in the UK or US. (Particularly the latter.)

So thanks to Coronation Street, FRIENDS, and much other quality popular culture, as New Zealanders, my sister and I have an idea of what the UK and US ‘are’, without having lived or even been there. (And they also contribute to our cynicism, tall poppy syndrome and cultural cringe at New Zealand identity, but that’s a whole other rant/Media Studies paper.) In essence, something ‘is’ whatever you perceive that it is, and for better or worse, cultural production (you know, the media—movies, books, TV programmes etc) shapes our perception and defines UK and US culture.

My sister’s argument for hating on the US is compelling, and now fairly commonplace around schools and workplaces worldwide. In her assessment of Americana, the recurring negative themes seem to be ignorance, arrogance and overindulgence. Although she’s learned enough not to stereotype or make assumptions, the shaping of anti-Americanism usually encompasses the following (unfortunately half-accurate) generalisations:

1. The politics: American foreign policy has a shameful and contradictory history of imperialism and tends to be disrespectful to international agreements regarding human rights, the environment and general sovereignty(!) while domestically housing huge economic inequality, and limited access to education and healthcare.
2. The products: American sitcoms, reality television, Hollywood blockbusters, pop songs and sugar-laden cereal are stupid things, made by and for stupid people. Their global reach results in a stupider world. Loaded with ideology that reinforces capitalism, consumption and patriotism, they’re a kind of propaganda that tricks you into making their creators filthy rich, whilst polluting your mind and body. Uncool!
3. The people: Most Americans are loud, abrasive people who act like they know-it-all, when they in fact know very little, and are either fat, affluent super-consumers from the coastal cities, or backwards, fundamentalist Christian, George W. Bush loving country folk from middle-America. Much like their government, a large number of Americans enjoy guns and the killing of people with them, and tend to drown themselves in an Orwellian patriotism of allegiance-pledging and flag-waving.

Earned or not, this is the reputation that the US has outside of its mainland (and has resulted in unfair prejudices again Americans travelling abroad). I can’t really argue that these generalisations are necessarily inaccurate, but to me they’re omissive, unfair and don’t really matter. (A generalisation of New Zealand people and product could also be pretty scathing.)

Jonathan’s former Wellington bedroom.

Embarrassingly, my anti-UK position was much weaker and poorly thought out. I think I mumbled something about tabloids, bad weather, ‘lad’ culture and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

(To make matters worse, I nerdishly applied a bogus political metaphor to further rile up my sister. I said that I wasn’t surprised that she liked the UK; its tradition of monarchy and class-structure reflected her pro-establishment nature as the sibling that likes Lord of the Rings and sucks up to Mum and Dad the most. Of course, I am more like the US; slick, revolutionary, prepared to stick to my enlightened ideals and kick up a fuss, unafraid of disrupting my parental relationship, much like the US War of Independence against British colonisation.)

Anyway, I think the point is that my sister and I have both shaped our perception of UK and US culture from the media we’ve consumed, and in the context of our argument, can’t see beyond the negative and oft stereotypical construction of the other’s respective country.

Jonathan, tired from packing and writing blogs, takes a pre-Americanisation photo.

But fortunately, if you scratch a little below the surface there’s plenty of awesomeness within a country; particularly one whose economic strength results in the production of much popular culture like the US. For me, this mostly manifests in politics, alternative (to use a hackneyed term) music and flim, and pro basketball, but I also like to absorb my surroundings ironically (after all, it’s what The Simpsons trained me to do!).

The landscapes I’ll visit are already referenced and imaged in my brain. Not from reading the National Geographic or The New Zealand Herald’s world section though—my images are mostly televisual.

San Francisco is an episode of Full House. Seattle is a rock music stronghold and setting of a Hanks-Ryan epic. L.A. has those courts from White Men Can’t Jump. New York is Spike Lee, Ghostbusters, early hip hop and Three Men and a Baby. Dallas is where Kennedy was shot. Deleware is that gag in Wayne’s World. Portland is where the Blazers play basketball.

This is the America I know, and warts-and-all, it’s pretty rad.

(Oh yeah, and to be fair, I guess England’s probably alright too. It does have The Clash. And the third act of Three Men and a Little Lady.)

***

So tomorrow I head to the US very excited, but mostly because of the engagement I’ve had with US culture via media consumption.

That and the fact that I can wear mass-produced New Zealand discount fashion over there from The Warehouse and Farmers and the like, and no one will know! (Actually, James has plans to show off a full wardrobe of Hallensteins’ now defunct ‘Planet 8′ line of clothing.)

Next time: better photos, less big words.

Posted by Jonathan

Tags: Media, New Zealand