I’ve noticed similar sentiments and interest with Black American culture from its use of language to the Diddy stuff, from Turkey to India, and also maintaining a more masculine-feminine attitude probably tied to the relative conservative frames of the cultures. The American “dream” is quite alive in other parts of the world. I imagine most of it has to do with socioeconomic opportunity. It seems like some of the darker pathologies on the left are not really apparent outside the U.S. and Europe, maybe less comprehensible
This reminds me of the famed DFW graduation speech. You've removed yourself from the water that we all swim in over here. It's good to get your perspective. As a cultural export, rap would not have occurred to me.
Fascinating, Sam, and a reminder of how little one really knows as an outsider. I'm most perplexed by the appeal of the alternate models you describe, and the notion that somehow a dictatorship is more nimble. In responding to what, exactly?
You're focusing here mainly on your students who seem just as ignorant as U.S. students of the historical norms being broken in the Trump presidency, the downfall of a media system that has long been trusted (perhaps naively after the advent of cable TV) as a watchdog of sorts, rising income inequality, etc. Is that a generational thing? Surely people your age or older have deeper historical memories.
When I taught and lived in Uruguay in 2000, my cowboy boots were a big hit, and some local musicians adopted me in their rock n roll band. But the major cultural influences were all coastal, and I think people didn't really know what to do with me as a working class Joe with ties to the Mountain West, Midwest, and Southeast. I made one good friend who was deeply interested in politics and enjoyed drinking yerba mate and whiskey, but a lot of the local culture seemed shallow to me. Perhaps because it was, like American culture, fairly new -- post WWII -- and European influenced.
I remember thinking at the time that even my native state, Montana, had deeper cultural roots in some ways than Uruguay. I'd often felt that few people, other than indigenous communities, had any real nativistic claim on Montana. Everyone, a few generations back, came from somewhere else. But by my childhood in the late 70s and 80s, there were some fourth and fifth-generation Montanans. Not so much in Uruguay.
Thanks Josh! I hesitated a little bit over the 'nimble' line, but I think that's a fair assessment of what the general perspective is here. (N.B. this is NO endorsement of dictatorships on my end, just what I think the perception is.) The idea is that if you have a more centralized autocratic system and the government wants to do something, they'll just do it. So if China has a pandemic and they want to shut down the country, the government can just do it. There's a certain admiration for Putin as well - this is coming from the point-of-view of a small country that's eager to grow fast. I think the general idea is that highly-centralized countries like Singapore and Deng's China have been able to achieve economic growth miracles that are unavailable in the West. People do have a sense that, in a liberal democracy, there are far more checks from civil society on the government and there's a general man-on-the-street sense that that will tend to hold a country back.
As far as Trump goes, nobody here seems to have any negative perception of him. I'm very far from the US and there's no particular attachment to American civil society norms or the media system. People know that Trump is a bit of a loose-cannon but I would say that the general perception of him is as a gangster who can do for the US a little of what Putin has done for Russia (which the man on the street here would regard as a positive). It really is a very different vantage-point.
I didn't know that about you and Uruguay! You have had an interesting background! I know what you mean, we think of America as such a new country that's a funny experience to be anywhere in the world and have the feeling of being in a country that's even newer. Although I will say that everybody here assumes that Americans are all blond and cowboyish. Not a single person so far has guessed that I'm American.
I devote a chapter to Uruguay in my memoir, should you need something to read :). There were many wheels within wheels with that journey. I was nearly detained in Montevideo under suspicion of terrorism after taking a photo of the armed guards outside the Israeli Embassy (not knowing there had been a white supremacist bombing of the same embassy in Buenos Aires recently).
As for Trump, I have swung wildly between different feelings. I wanted Harris to win for my daughters' sake, for a general dignity's sake. But I was not sorry to see Dems pay a price for ignoring certain communities. There was a sense of Mark Lilla being vindicated and chickens coming home to roost. But the lack of any accountability in the courts really rankles. The kingship idea feels more and more accurate. And the destabilization of major institutions (including public health and public education) does not bode well for people growing up like I did. I've caught myself thinking, "Oh, surely there were other presidents who were felons, even if not outright convicted." I mean, the fact that Bill Clinton is still given the time of day is baffling. But surely "W" and others violated laws and either got away with it or settled those matters quietly. Then I see what's happening to major news outlets, the firehose of outright propaganda being spewed, the complete impotence of universities to serve as any kind of check on the state or industry (as they once did), and I feel very differently.
I don't know where to draw a line in the sand or what stance to take, given that I wield no power. But that general sense of Trump as fit to lead is truly baffling to me.
I’ve noticed similar sentiments and interest with Black American culture from its use of language to the Diddy stuff, from Turkey to India, and also maintaining a more masculine-feminine attitude probably tied to the relative conservative frames of the cultures. The American “dream” is quite alive in other parts of the world. I imagine most of it has to do with socioeconomic opportunity. It seems like some of the darker pathologies on the left are not really apparent outside the U.S. and Europe, maybe less comprehensible
This reminds me of the famed DFW graduation speech. You've removed yourself from the water that we all swim in over here. It's good to get your perspective. As a cultural export, rap would not have occurred to me.
Cool pov
Fascinating, Sam, and a reminder of how little one really knows as an outsider. I'm most perplexed by the appeal of the alternate models you describe, and the notion that somehow a dictatorship is more nimble. In responding to what, exactly?
You're focusing here mainly on your students who seem just as ignorant as U.S. students of the historical norms being broken in the Trump presidency, the downfall of a media system that has long been trusted (perhaps naively after the advent of cable TV) as a watchdog of sorts, rising income inequality, etc. Is that a generational thing? Surely people your age or older have deeper historical memories.
When I taught and lived in Uruguay in 2000, my cowboy boots were a big hit, and some local musicians adopted me in their rock n roll band. But the major cultural influences were all coastal, and I think people didn't really know what to do with me as a working class Joe with ties to the Mountain West, Midwest, and Southeast. I made one good friend who was deeply interested in politics and enjoyed drinking yerba mate and whiskey, but a lot of the local culture seemed shallow to me. Perhaps because it was, like American culture, fairly new -- post WWII -- and European influenced.
I remember thinking at the time that even my native state, Montana, had deeper cultural roots in some ways than Uruguay. I'd often felt that few people, other than indigenous communities, had any real nativistic claim on Montana. Everyone, a few generations back, came from somewhere else. But by my childhood in the late 70s and 80s, there were some fourth and fifth-generation Montanans. Not so much in Uruguay.
Thanks Josh! I hesitated a little bit over the 'nimble' line, but I think that's a fair assessment of what the general perspective is here. (N.B. this is NO endorsement of dictatorships on my end, just what I think the perception is.) The idea is that if you have a more centralized autocratic system and the government wants to do something, they'll just do it. So if China has a pandemic and they want to shut down the country, the government can just do it. There's a certain admiration for Putin as well - this is coming from the point-of-view of a small country that's eager to grow fast. I think the general idea is that highly-centralized countries like Singapore and Deng's China have been able to achieve economic growth miracles that are unavailable in the West. People do have a sense that, in a liberal democracy, there are far more checks from civil society on the government and there's a general man-on-the-street sense that that will tend to hold a country back.
As far as Trump goes, nobody here seems to have any negative perception of him. I'm very far from the US and there's no particular attachment to American civil society norms or the media system. People know that Trump is a bit of a loose-cannon but I would say that the general perception of him is as a gangster who can do for the US a little of what Putin has done for Russia (which the man on the street here would regard as a positive). It really is a very different vantage-point.
I didn't know that about you and Uruguay! You have had an interesting background! I know what you mean, we think of America as such a new country that's a funny experience to be anywhere in the world and have the feeling of being in a country that's even newer. Although I will say that everybody here assumes that Americans are all blond and cowboyish. Not a single person so far has guessed that I'm American.
- Sam
I devote a chapter to Uruguay in my memoir, should you need something to read :). There were many wheels within wheels with that journey. I was nearly detained in Montevideo under suspicion of terrorism after taking a photo of the armed guards outside the Israeli Embassy (not knowing there had been a white supremacist bombing of the same embassy in Buenos Aires recently).
https://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/down-mountaintop
As for Trump, I have swung wildly between different feelings. I wanted Harris to win for my daughters' sake, for a general dignity's sake. But I was not sorry to see Dems pay a price for ignoring certain communities. There was a sense of Mark Lilla being vindicated and chickens coming home to roost. But the lack of any accountability in the courts really rankles. The kingship idea feels more and more accurate. And the destabilization of major institutions (including public health and public education) does not bode well for people growing up like I did. I've caught myself thinking, "Oh, surely there were other presidents who were felons, even if not outright convicted." I mean, the fact that Bill Clinton is still given the time of day is baffling. But surely "W" and others violated laws and either got away with it or settled those matters quietly. Then I see what's happening to major news outlets, the firehose of outright propaganda being spewed, the complete impotence of universities to serve as any kind of check on the state or industry (as they once did), and I feel very differently.
I don't know where to draw a line in the sand or what stance to take, given that I wield no power. But that general sense of Trump as fit to lead is truly baffling to me.