Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Individualism
Wow. I mean wow. I've been out of town and not next to a computer. The breadth of the disaster blows me away. The scope of it floors me, and yet it makes a bunch of sense too.
Perhaps the US is the perfect example of individualism run amok. Perhaps we know that now. I cannot find a more telling example of our unbelievable ethnocentrism, than evacuating a city and expecting everyone to just "make it out on their own."
We don't have plans, we don't have contigencies. We stick a bunch of people in a place and expect first, that they will get food and water themselves, and that I don't know, God won't let that happen in America?
That can't be right, and yet it is. It is. I'm guilty too. I'm sick about it, but I'm guilty. For different reasons perhaps, but guilty nonetheless.
I don't think God doesn't send natural disasters to the blessed US of A. I just thought if it did, someone would have a contingency plan. I just assumed. I assumed that if I was watching Anderson Cooper, or Geraldo Rivera, or any number of other reporters whose names are beside the point, the cavalry had to be able to get in as well.
Apparently that doesn't happen in this country unless the media is there already. Apparently we only care about people, after we've seen them on TV. We are a nation who's lost our imagine for the horrible. We only see what is in front of us.
And by the same token, we are a wonderful nation full of caring people. It is that same individualism that compels us (once we've seen the pictures) to give whatever we can, wherever we can, because on some level we understand that the Gulf coast is really closer than we ever thought about before.
This is a national trauma. As a New Yorker, I can say it's every bit as bad, if not 100xs worse than 9/11, since it is ongoing and help was there for us in a matter of hours, not days. We will get through it because we always do, because as individuals we are a fabulous people who actually believe in ideals our government falls short of time and time again.
I would link you to the red cross and other agencies, but I'm sure you've given already.
Perhaps the US is the perfect example of individualism run amok. Perhaps we know that now. I cannot find a more telling example of our unbelievable ethnocentrism, than evacuating a city and expecting everyone to just "make it out on their own."
We don't have plans, we don't have contigencies. We stick a bunch of people in a place and expect first, that they will get food and water themselves, and that I don't know, God won't let that happen in America?
That can't be right, and yet it is. It is. I'm guilty too. I'm sick about it, but I'm guilty. For different reasons perhaps, but guilty nonetheless.
I don't think God doesn't send natural disasters to the blessed US of A. I just thought if it did, someone would have a contingency plan. I just assumed. I assumed that if I was watching Anderson Cooper, or Geraldo Rivera, or any number of other reporters whose names are beside the point, the cavalry had to be able to get in as well.
Apparently that doesn't happen in this country unless the media is there already. Apparently we only care about people, after we've seen them on TV. We are a nation who's lost our imagine for the horrible. We only see what is in front of us.
And by the same token, we are a wonderful nation full of caring people. It is that same individualism that compels us (once we've seen the pictures) to give whatever we can, wherever we can, because on some level we understand that the Gulf coast is really closer than we ever thought about before.
This is a national trauma. As a New Yorker, I can say it's every bit as bad, if not 100xs worse than 9/11, since it is ongoing and help was there for us in a matter of hours, not days. We will get through it because we always do, because as individuals we are a fabulous people who actually believe in ideals our government falls short of time and time again.
I would link you to the red cross and other agencies, but I'm sure you've given already.
