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America Is Bankrupt.
by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers
A recent trip to the United States – after a three-year absence –
showed me how far the country and its people have deteriorated in a
short period of time. Americans are bankrupt. They are bankrupt at
every possible level: spiritually, morally, educationally. The
country's economy has deteriorated to the level of a Philippines or a
Thailand (and I mean no disrespect to the Philippines or Thailand – I
love those places).
Human-to-human communication in the United States has also faltered
greatly. People who would rank as the vilest of trolls on any
Internet chat room are now on the air as TV and radio hosts, spewing
forth hatred and even barefaced lies. These talking heads do this, of
course, to make money, but the effect it has on the average listener
is nothing short of devastating. It is devastating to a population
not educated to think analytically; it is devastating to a people
who – above all – need to open up communication with each other, not
close it.
Intelligent discussion on American TV and radio has now taken a back
seat to a sort of childish one-upmanship. It's no longer a question
of who can thrust and parry their opponent into a corner through the
use of beautiful English phrasing and logic; it's now a question of
who can belittle the other with snappy (but rude) one-liners. This
has affected the mainstream population in its daily affairs, in that
the ordinary people come to believe that this is the way to win an
argument. Substance and logic all take a back seat to name-calling.
The worst culprits are the talk radio show hosts. Average America
doesn't know what is involved in becoming a talk show host, but trust
me, just about all of these people are no more or less intelligent
than you or I. Of course, they keep up on current events better than
you or I could: It's their job. While we are putting in a good eight
or ten hours of work each day, these guys are brushing up on current
affairs. As a result, it is very difficult to challenge and defeat
them in an on-air discussion – especially when they have control of
what goes on air. So to call up a talk show host and try to argue a
point and win is akin to pushing water up a hill: It can't be done. I
know. I worked as a talk show host for many years.
By the way, another part of the job of being an on-air talent is to
keep yourself looking good and in decent physical shape. Guys like
Rush Limbaugh are grossly overweight because they are, and have been,
abusing drugs or alcohol. There are many examples to prove my point.
John Belushi is an easy example that comes to mind.
Thus, in modern America, talk show radio and TV is not about debating
the issues of the day. It is a forum for a megalomaniac to make
himself or herself look better to an audience that doesn't know any
better, and to belittle opponents in front of other people. This
never happens in Japan. It doesn't happen because the structure of
the Japanese language does not lend itself well to interruption when
someone is speaking, and also because the Japanese are polite. But I
suspect that it never happens in any other country excepting the
United States.
This childish behavior is especially damaging to the psyche of the
American male – although women seem to be affected by it also
(witness so-called "soccer moms"). It seems that winning is
everything. Whatever happened to the saying, "It's not whether you
win or lose, but how you play the game"? I know that this phrase does
not apply to today's American male. The verbal one-upmanship is
insidious as it begins to creep into other areas of the American
psyche. It becomes contagious and is damaging to civil discourse and
civil behavior all around.
Infantile machismo is a definitive trait of today's American. During
my recent visit I witnessed a TV commercial for some sports car. The
sales point of the commercial boiled down to this: If you buy this
car, then that tells your friends, `I'm just a little better than you
are.' How childish American men have become. What kind of man needs
to show off his car, and to feel superior to his friends?
Imagine a guy with an average vocabulary and no gift for repartee.
What does he do when he has been belittled in public for no real
reason? He probably holds it in, until one day when he raises his
fists.
In Japan, I have never seen a sports game – especially so-
called "pick-up games" – break down into fisticuffs. Have I seen this
in America? Have you folks in America seen this? Yes, far too many
times (do I even need to ask?). The last time I witnessed it was in
California, when a so-called friendly basketball game turned into a
hockey game and a bunch of guys started punching it out over some
foul. You would have thought their lives depended on the outcome of
that game. It was embarrassing. I was out on the court to get some
exercise. I didn't care if we won or lost. I certainly wasn't
interested in getting hurt, or injured, or hit. I walked off.
Americans today have become some of the most childish, self-centered
adults I have ever seen.
A recent trip to Crawford, to visit Camp Casey before it really got
into full swing, allowed me to see for myself another slice of
American life. I had brought my video camera and eight hours of tape.
I was going to make a documentary to try to explain to the Japanese
public what was going on there in Texas. (Japanese news will rarely
show anything critical of a foreign government – especially the
government of the United States). I wanted to capture the sights and
sounds; the atmosphere of a real American-style anti-war
demonstration. I had really hoped that I could make a documentary
that would show the Japanese just what the average American is
thinking.
When I came back to Japan, I transferred the video tapes to the
editing machine and I watched in increasing despair. I'm sure I can
get the average Japanese to understand what Americans are all about
and what they are thinking. I'm sure that if I ever do finish this
documentary (and I'm wondering now if I want to), the Japanese will
understand more than they want to understand about America. They will
watch it and think: "Americans have gone completely nuts." I would
have to agree.
Cindy Sheehan and her movement are quite understandable. Cindy seems
like a level-headed woman with plenty of common sense. It's the
others who have jumped on the bandwagon who seem crazy. Not all of
them, of course, but it did seem a bit like a circus full of freaks.
And those freaks were fully represented on both sides of the fence.
Even worse than (some of) the anti-war group were the pro-war people –
they seemed like they were really crazy. (I only saw six at most –
even though the next day's newspaper reported 250.) I talked to one
woman who claimed to have "just arrived from Baghdad." She was lying.
I could pick that out in a second of talking to her. Her English
level was that of someone who had been in the United States for ten
years. Yet there she was, claiming to have "just arrived." (Well,
okay, I suppose everything is relative, especially in a country where
it is now acceptable to out-and-out lie to get what you want.)
There was another guy playing a guitar – or trying to – and
singing, "How many ghosts did you make today? Aiding and abetting the
enemy, how many ghosts did you make today?" (Bet you a donut he
hasn't a clue as to the meaning of the word `abetting'). I suppose a
few off-key choruses of this song wouldn't have been so bad, but this
guy went on to play straight for at least six hours in the blazing
sun without a break. Perhaps that would explain his behavior – he's
suffering from cooking his brain in the hot sun for too long.
The entire scene, from the anti-war group to the pro-war group to
George W. Bush taking a helicopter to avoid those groups to visit a
little league game, seemed like a Lewis Carroll story. And I was
standing there watching Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen (played
by George) and the rest of them scurrying about their business but
actually going nowhere.
On top of all that, throw in the local TV news reporters with their
perfect teeth, slicked-back blonde hair and make-up caked on thick to
cover their wrinkles, who think they are all hot stuff because they
report for some local in-the-sticks TV station, and you have a real
life horror-show on the Comedy Channel.
But the real-life horrors in today's America don't end there. Today's
American is poor, both monetarily and in common sense. In many ways,
these two are related. The Japanese save money. Americans don't. Of
course it is common sense to save money. The Japanese save for all
the right reasons, but they also save money for special reasons. It's
those special, just-in-case reasons for which the Japanese would
always have a nest egg saved.
When I went to the United States this time, I visited a good friend.
I'd consider him one of my best friends. I am glad I could visit his
place because then I could truly see for myself just how far America
has gone downhill. Even though he had little, he was gracious enough
to let me stay with him. I was thankful for this as, without his
help, I had no way to get around and knew no one else who could help
me to do so. But within two minutes of entering his abode, I could
see just how poor Middle America has become.
My friend had no money – none. He asked me for twenty dollars for
gas. I gave him a hundred. He was happy. I was greatly disappointed,
for many reasons. First off, I'm sorry America, but $100 is not that
much money to most of the Western world (or China, or Japan). I was
disappointed that he would ask me for money. Don't get me wrong, I
don't blame him. He has lived all his life in America; he was brought
up there. He has been taught that this is now acceptable behavior.
But I remember a time when it wasn't. It is unheard of in Japan (and,
I suspect, in all Asian societies).
In Japan, a guest is a guest. A guest in your home – especially one
from far away – is to be treated with reverence. It would be
completely unthinkable to ask a guest for money (although it is also
common sense, in Japan, for the guest to offer to pay – an offer
which will certainly be refused).
I know it used to be this way in America. In Japan, honor and respect
are much more valuable than money. If you had a guest come to stay in
your house in Japan and you had no money, you would borrow money –
you would do something – in order to treat your guest with the utmost
respect. It is absolutely unheard of to ask a guest for money.
It reminds me of that Chevy Chase movie Vegas Vacation where he and
his family visit his wife's broke family and the brother-in-law says
to Chevy, "Would you like a cold one?"
Chevy answers, "Sure!"
To which the brother-in-law replies, "Me too. Got any money?"
That was a joke in a movie released in 1997. It's not a joke any more
in today's America.
From what I've seen, the average 30-year-old college-educated guy in
America today is getting paid less than I was paid in 1975 as a part-
time commission salesman at Sears Roebuck department store. I have
friends who tell me that they are getting six or eight dollars an
hour right now. At 40 hours a week, that works out to about $320,
less taxes. In 1975 I was getting paid over $1,000 per month after
taxes – and those were 1975 dollars. I'm no economist, but it sure
comes as no surprise that today's young American has no money left to
save after receiving this paltry income.
When my friend took me around, driving through the city and out to
Camp Casey, we stopped at a gasoline stand. Of course I volunteered
to pay. He was complaining about the sudden rise in the price of
gasoline. Here was where I witnessed just another small item that
made me sure that America is headed for third world status, if it is
not already there. He was complaining about gasoline at $3 a gallon.
I hear that in Atlanta, after Hurricane Katrina, it hit $6 a gallon.
I shook my head and thought, When are these crazy people going to
wake up? Apparently it's good that the USA invaded Iraq to secure
oil. Japan has no natural resources. America does. America even has
its own oil. Guess what? About seven years ago, the price for a liter
of gasoline in Japan was 100 yen (3.78 liters per gallon). The price
today is about 125 yen per liter. That means today's price for a
gallon of gasoline in Japan, a nation that produces no oil, is about
$4.58 – an increase of 25% over the last seven years. Now, it doesn't
take much of a math whiz to figure out that if the prices at the
pumps in America – a nation that produces oil – have doubled in the
last few years, there's something strange going on. How is it
possible that Japan's gasoline prices have just barely inched up over
these past few years, at about 3% per year, while USA prices have
doubled or more?
Is it just the Iraq war? Or is it the decline of the dollar? Probably
a bit of both, but you can definitely be sure of one thing, it is the
US government taking advantage of you – regardless of whether you are
a Democrat or Republican. And the average American still cheers on
the federal monster.
After filling up, we headed back onto the freeway. I looked at the
scenery and had a feeling of déjà vu. I thought to myself, Hey! I've
seen this before. Now where did I see it? Then it came back to me:
The road leading to Crawford looked an awful lot like the road
leading from Phuket International Airport towards Patong Beach – a
nice place, but definitely not a road leading through a world power.
Every once in a while we would pass through some small town – the
buildings decayed and shuttered, a shadow of what it once was. And
besides the rundown buildings and the empty streets, there was the
filth. It was everywhere – everything seemed broken down. Public
restrooms reeked as if they'd never been cleaned. Every once in a
while I would see a solitary homeless figure – dazed and disheveled –
walking by the side of the road. It looked just like some third world
nation. You'd never see such poverty in Japan. But that's today's
United States.
Americans are always boasting about how they are the richest and the
freest, etc., etc. But from the eyes of this American son, America's
twilight has fallen. It is getting dark. I cannot see any way out of
the disaster you folks are headed for. The problems are too numerous,
the needed debate unheard, and the psyche already destroyed.
by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers
A recent trip to the United States – after a three-year absence –
showed me how far the country and its people have deteriorated in a
short period of time. Americans are bankrupt. They are bankrupt at
every possible level: spiritually, morally, educationally. The
country's economy has deteriorated to the level of a Philippines or a
Thailand (and I mean no disrespect to the Philippines or Thailand – I
love those places).
Human-to-human communication in the United States has also faltered
greatly. People who would rank as the vilest of trolls on any
Internet chat room are now on the air as TV and radio hosts, spewing
forth hatred and even barefaced lies. These talking heads do this, of
course, to make money, but the effect it has on the average listener
is nothing short of devastating. It is devastating to a population
not educated to think analytically; it is devastating to a people
who – above all – need to open up communication with each other, not
close it.
Intelligent discussion on American TV and radio has now taken a back
seat to a sort of childish one-upmanship. It's no longer a question
of who can thrust and parry their opponent into a corner through the
use of beautiful English phrasing and logic; it's now a question of
who can belittle the other with snappy (but rude) one-liners. This
has affected the mainstream population in its daily affairs, in that
the ordinary people come to believe that this is the way to win an
argument. Substance and logic all take a back seat to name-calling.
The worst culprits are the talk radio show hosts. Average America
doesn't know what is involved in becoming a talk show host, but trust
me, just about all of these people are no more or less intelligent
than you or I. Of course, they keep up on current events better than
you or I could: It's their job. While we are putting in a good eight
or ten hours of work each day, these guys are brushing up on current
affairs. As a result, it is very difficult to challenge and defeat
them in an on-air discussion – especially when they have control of
what goes on air. So to call up a talk show host and try to argue a
point and win is akin to pushing water up a hill: It can't be done. I
know. I worked as a talk show host for many years.
By the way, another part of the job of being an on-air talent is to
keep yourself looking good and in decent physical shape. Guys like
Rush Limbaugh are grossly overweight because they are, and have been,
abusing drugs or alcohol. There are many examples to prove my point.
John Belushi is an easy example that comes to mind.
Thus, in modern America, talk show radio and TV is not about debating
the issues of the day. It is a forum for a megalomaniac to make
himself or herself look better to an audience that doesn't know any
better, and to belittle opponents in front of other people. This
never happens in Japan. It doesn't happen because the structure of
the Japanese language does not lend itself well to interruption when
someone is speaking, and also because the Japanese are polite. But I
suspect that it never happens in any other country excepting the
United States.
This childish behavior is especially damaging to the psyche of the
American male – although women seem to be affected by it also
(witness so-called "soccer moms"). It seems that winning is
everything. Whatever happened to the saying, "It's not whether you
win or lose, but how you play the game"? I know that this phrase does
not apply to today's American male. The verbal one-upmanship is
insidious as it begins to creep into other areas of the American
psyche. It becomes contagious and is damaging to civil discourse and
civil behavior all around.
Infantile machismo is a definitive trait of today's American. During
my recent visit I witnessed a TV commercial for some sports car. The
sales point of the commercial boiled down to this: If you buy this
car, then that tells your friends, `I'm just a little better than you
are.' How childish American men have become. What kind of man needs
to show off his car, and to feel superior to his friends?
Imagine a guy with an average vocabulary and no gift for repartee.
What does he do when he has been belittled in public for no real
reason? He probably holds it in, until one day when he raises his
fists.
In Japan, I have never seen a sports game – especially so-
called "pick-up games" – break down into fisticuffs. Have I seen this
in America? Have you folks in America seen this? Yes, far too many
times (do I even need to ask?). The last time I witnessed it was in
California, when a so-called friendly basketball game turned into a
hockey game and a bunch of guys started punching it out over some
foul. You would have thought their lives depended on the outcome of
that game. It was embarrassing. I was out on the court to get some
exercise. I didn't care if we won or lost. I certainly wasn't
interested in getting hurt, or injured, or hit. I walked off.
Americans today have become some of the most childish, self-centered
adults I have ever seen.
A recent trip to Crawford, to visit Camp Casey before it really got
into full swing, allowed me to see for myself another slice of
American life. I had brought my video camera and eight hours of tape.
I was going to make a documentary to try to explain to the Japanese
public what was going on there in Texas. (Japanese news will rarely
show anything critical of a foreign government – especially the
government of the United States). I wanted to capture the sights and
sounds; the atmosphere of a real American-style anti-war
demonstration. I had really hoped that I could make a documentary
that would show the Japanese just what the average American is
thinking.
When I came back to Japan, I transferred the video tapes to the
editing machine and I watched in increasing despair. I'm sure I can
get the average Japanese to understand what Americans are all about
and what they are thinking. I'm sure that if I ever do finish this
documentary (and I'm wondering now if I want to), the Japanese will
understand more than they want to understand about America. They will
watch it and think: "Americans have gone completely nuts." I would
have to agree.
Cindy Sheehan and her movement are quite understandable. Cindy seems
like a level-headed woman with plenty of common sense. It's the
others who have jumped on the bandwagon who seem crazy. Not all of
them, of course, but it did seem a bit like a circus full of freaks.
And those freaks were fully represented on both sides of the fence.
Even worse than (some of) the anti-war group were the pro-war people –
they seemed like they were really crazy. (I only saw six at most –
even though the next day's newspaper reported 250.) I talked to one
woman who claimed to have "just arrived from Baghdad." She was lying.
I could pick that out in a second of talking to her. Her English
level was that of someone who had been in the United States for ten
years. Yet there she was, claiming to have "just arrived." (Well,
okay, I suppose everything is relative, especially in a country where
it is now acceptable to out-and-out lie to get what you want.)
There was another guy playing a guitar – or trying to – and
singing, "How many ghosts did you make today? Aiding and abetting the
enemy, how many ghosts did you make today?" (Bet you a donut he
hasn't a clue as to the meaning of the word `abetting'). I suppose a
few off-key choruses of this song wouldn't have been so bad, but this
guy went on to play straight for at least six hours in the blazing
sun without a break. Perhaps that would explain his behavior – he's
suffering from cooking his brain in the hot sun for too long.
The entire scene, from the anti-war group to the pro-war group to
George W. Bush taking a helicopter to avoid those groups to visit a
little league game, seemed like a Lewis Carroll story. And I was
standing there watching Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen (played
by George) and the rest of them scurrying about their business but
actually going nowhere.
On top of all that, throw in the local TV news reporters with their
perfect teeth, slicked-back blonde hair and make-up caked on thick to
cover their wrinkles, who think they are all hot stuff because they
report for some local in-the-sticks TV station, and you have a real
life horror-show on the Comedy Channel.
But the real-life horrors in today's America don't end there. Today's
American is poor, both monetarily and in common sense. In many ways,
these two are related. The Japanese save money. Americans don't. Of
course it is common sense to save money. The Japanese save for all
the right reasons, but they also save money for special reasons. It's
those special, just-in-case reasons for which the Japanese would
always have a nest egg saved.
When I went to the United States this time, I visited a good friend.
I'd consider him one of my best friends. I am glad I could visit his
place because then I could truly see for myself just how far America
has gone downhill. Even though he had little, he was gracious enough
to let me stay with him. I was thankful for this as, without his
help, I had no way to get around and knew no one else who could help
me to do so. But within two minutes of entering his abode, I could
see just how poor Middle America has become.
My friend had no money – none. He asked me for twenty dollars for
gas. I gave him a hundred. He was happy. I was greatly disappointed,
for many reasons. First off, I'm sorry America, but $100 is not that
much money to most of the Western world (or China, or Japan). I was
disappointed that he would ask me for money. Don't get me wrong, I
don't blame him. He has lived all his life in America; he was brought
up there. He has been taught that this is now acceptable behavior.
But I remember a time when it wasn't. It is unheard of in Japan (and,
I suspect, in all Asian societies).
In Japan, a guest is a guest. A guest in your home – especially one
from far away – is to be treated with reverence. It would be
completely unthinkable to ask a guest for money (although it is also
common sense, in Japan, for the guest to offer to pay – an offer
which will certainly be refused).
I know it used to be this way in America. In Japan, honor and respect
are much more valuable than money. If you had a guest come to stay in
your house in Japan and you had no money, you would borrow money –
you would do something – in order to treat your guest with the utmost
respect. It is absolutely unheard of to ask a guest for money.
It reminds me of that Chevy Chase movie Vegas Vacation where he and
his family visit his wife's broke family and the brother-in-law says
to Chevy, "Would you like a cold one?"
Chevy answers, "Sure!"
To which the brother-in-law replies, "Me too. Got any money?"
That was a joke in a movie released in 1997. It's not a joke any more
in today's America.
From what I've seen, the average 30-year-old college-educated guy in
America today is getting paid less than I was paid in 1975 as a part-
time commission salesman at Sears Roebuck department store. I have
friends who tell me that they are getting six or eight dollars an
hour right now. At 40 hours a week, that works out to about $320,
less taxes. In 1975 I was getting paid over $1,000 per month after
taxes – and those were 1975 dollars. I'm no economist, but it sure
comes as no surprise that today's young American has no money left to
save after receiving this paltry income.
When my friend took me around, driving through the city and out to
Camp Casey, we stopped at a gasoline stand. Of course I volunteered
to pay. He was complaining about the sudden rise in the price of
gasoline. Here was where I witnessed just another small item that
made me sure that America is headed for third world status, if it is
not already there. He was complaining about gasoline at $3 a gallon.
I hear that in Atlanta, after Hurricane Katrina, it hit $6 a gallon.
I shook my head and thought, When are these crazy people going to
wake up? Apparently it's good that the USA invaded Iraq to secure
oil. Japan has no natural resources. America does. America even has
its own oil. Guess what? About seven years ago, the price for a liter
of gasoline in Japan was 100 yen (3.78 liters per gallon). The price
today is about 125 yen per liter. That means today's price for a
gallon of gasoline in Japan, a nation that produces no oil, is about
$4.58 – an increase of 25% over the last seven years. Now, it doesn't
take much of a math whiz to figure out that if the prices at the
pumps in America – a nation that produces oil – have doubled in the
last few years, there's something strange going on. How is it
possible that Japan's gasoline prices have just barely inched up over
these past few years, at about 3% per year, while USA prices have
doubled or more?
Is it just the Iraq war? Or is it the decline of the dollar? Probably
a bit of both, but you can definitely be sure of one thing, it is the
US government taking advantage of you – regardless of whether you are
a Democrat or Republican. And the average American still cheers on
the federal monster.
After filling up, we headed back onto the freeway. I looked at the
scenery and had a feeling of déjà vu. I thought to myself, Hey! I've
seen this before. Now where did I see it? Then it came back to me:
The road leading to Crawford looked an awful lot like the road
leading from Phuket International Airport towards Patong Beach – a
nice place, but definitely not a road leading through a world power.
Every once in a while we would pass through some small town – the
buildings decayed and shuttered, a shadow of what it once was. And
besides the rundown buildings and the empty streets, there was the
filth. It was everywhere – everything seemed broken down. Public
restrooms reeked as if they'd never been cleaned. Every once in a
while I would see a solitary homeless figure – dazed and disheveled –
walking by the side of the road. It looked just like some third world
nation. You'd never see such poverty in Japan. But that's today's
United States.
Americans are always boasting about how they are the richest and the
freest, etc., etc. But from the eyes of this American son, America's
twilight has fallen. It is getting dark. I cannot see any way out of
the disaster you folks are headed for. The problems are too numerous,
the needed debate unheard, and the psyche already destroyed.
