COLUMN: The Land of the Free

From Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar's "Think or Thwim," Fall '94 From Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar's "Think or Thwim," Fall '94I've been here too long. These days, daily encounters with the extreme ignorance of young Americans about the outside world and those who populate it (95% of the world's population) seem so commonplace they no longer warrant any sort of reaction on my part. I might just shake my head if told, once again, that I must know so and so seeing as I come from Europe, a place assuredly small enough for me to know everyone there by their first name. I might just snigger if asked where I spent a semester last year and what language they speak down there, in Chile. Humor, though, is not the first thing that springs to my mind when I am confronted with these curious inquiries. Horror, perhaps, might be closer to it. Year after year, tests conducted in high schools around the country consistently reveal that seventeen year-olds have no clue about the location of any place beyond the boundaries of the eleven o'clock news' map of tomorrow's weather. This, however, is not the bad part. Year after year, the United States continues to happily violate the most basic rights of sovereignty it helped define in the name of freedom and democracy. Too cowardly to admit to economic, electoral or diplomatic concerns (not to mention the need for new military testing grounds), yet too strong to resist making use of their powers, presidents have shown only little restraint in sending troops to "poor oppressed countries" to administer them democracy by the tankload. Sometimes, American discourse is more outrageously two-faced. The United States resorts to financial and informational weapons to disrupt the governments of other countries, while still upholding freedom, tolerance and absolute sovereignty. Chile, although many here really aren't too sure where it is, is but one example of a country so graciously entitled to dictatorial rule thanks to the benevolent action of Uncle Sam. Of course, you're lucky if you even know about this. On the rare occasions when the media touch upon non-domestic problems, it is always through the star-studded filter of the government line. The conflict fueled media turn every bout into a play-by-play breakdown, complete with arcade-style radar footage to make the game more thrilling. Strangely enough, human casualties do not appear in these nifty diagrams and radar readings. If Saddam is the devil, it seems superfluous to worry about civilian victims anyway. Instead, we see plenty of glorifying shots of the men and machines of the world police while we see little if anything about the world Rodney Kings. With so many values in the way, you start seeing fuzzy. Little wonder then that I might end up thinking the miseries of two skaters are more important than the killings caused by American intervention somewhere off the coast of New Jersey. While real atrocities are going on out there, the government and media are mostly concerned with another battling ground -- your mind -- while making sure you remain befuddled until the next election. Of course, we're in a university here and we all have enough sense to find out for ourselves what's going on in the world. Well, so I thought. Considering how hard it is to convince many people that the Partridge Family never made it to European television or to explain to some tourist in beige slacks that English is not a universal language, it is quite obvious the concept of cultural difference hasn't quite made it to this country yet. The fact that you celebrate different holidays from your classmates is not a strong sign of multi-cultural understanding. With the Air Force alone flooding the nation with over a thousand magazines a year, it is not as if the information resources provided at this University will really show you the big picture either. In fact, the Pentagon's newest plan involves the creation of special ROTC schools with military training coupled with regular classes, all taught by armed forces veterans. Interestingly enough, the target areas for these schools are underprivileged neighborhoods, West Philadelphia among them, where education was already sufficiently limited to make the instilling of military values just that much easier. The era of high-definition tunnel vision is here, breeding innumerable twenty year-olds stating repeatedly "yeah, I'm really bad at geography" and many more who are planted around the world defending the whims of every president. It might be worth your while actually trying to find out about the planet out there, discovering how other people think and why. You might finally question some of the values you have or are told to have. You'd probably understand why some people might be reluctant to scream 'Fuck Iraq.' Then perhaps you might appreciate this country's values as something other than abstractions or excuses for rampaging through other cultures. It's only about ten minutes to the airport. Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar is a senior Communications major from Paris, France. Think or Thwim appears alternate Tuesdays.