3 ms·

A Stalled American Dream

rbanffy 2y ago
It's truly depressing a country rich as the US has left so many of its own people in such a precarious situation. I sincerely hope things improve, but I know such a deep cultural shift is very unlikely to happen in less than a couple decades.
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  > in less than a couple decades. Decades? That's optimistic. I got my deep cultural shift by voting with my feet, around the turn of the century. I figure it cost me ~2 years to pick up a new language, and ~5 years to feel at home in a new culture. So yeah, only half a decade if one's willing* to pay one's dues. On the other hand, not only are people in the Old Country still apparently fighting the same old cultural wars that they were when I left, they're still even fighting the same old cultural wars from when I was a child last century, with some still going from before I was born. * go back far enough in each line, and all my ancestors immigrated to the New World at some point; why should I be a stick-in-the-mud when they'd had gumption?
mncharity 2y ago
Picture Christmas festivities in a downtown park. Smores and music. A storefront's large glowing quote, in bright pink neon-bulb script - "I don't know where my life is going, but I'm sure it will be an adventure!" (approx). Happy people snapping selfies in front of it. A nice sentiment. Then early morning the next day, beneath the still bright neon, a row of sleeping homeless. With an elderly woman hunched nearby, clutching a too-small blanket, shaking in the morning cold. A different take on that quote - a study in context and overlapping worlds. Travel 101 guides seem to be missing a few important sections. Do-no-harm essential active listening skills, for when people keep sharing their upcoming major life choices. Responses to expressions of racism. Ethics of coping with wealth differentials: "you've found the best breakfast pastries in the region... and are now waiting for Greyhound near an impoverished family with cold hungry kids", "you've found a great one-bag packable jacket... and keep encountering people who badly need it", "a one-bag travel first aid kit... carrying food and mylar thermal blankets to give away". I like travel. But the harder parts don't seem to get bloggage.

It's truly depressing a country rich as the US has left so many of its own people in such a precarious situation. I sincerely hope things improve, but I know such a deep cultural shift is very unlikely to happen in less than a couple decades.

082349872349872 2y ago
> in less than a couple decades. Decades? That's optimistic. I got my deep cultural shift by voting with my feet, around the turn of the century. I figure it cost me ~2 years to pick up a new language, and ~5 years to feel at home in a new culture. So yeah, only half a decade if one's willing* to pay one's dues. On the other hand, not only are people in the Old Country still apparently fighting the same old cultural wars that they were when I left, they're still even fighting the same old cultural wars from when I was a child last century, with some still going from before I was born. * go back far enough in each line, and all my ancestors immigrated to the New World at some point; why should I be a stick-in-the-mud when they'd had gumption?

mncharity 2y ago

Picture Christmas festivities in a downtown park. Smores and music. A storefront's large glowing quote, in bright pink neon-bulb script - "I don't know where my life is going, but I'm sure it will be an adventure!" (approx). Happy people snapping selfies in front of it. A nice sentiment. Then early morning the next day, beneath the still bright neon, a row of sleeping homeless. With an elderly woman hunched nearby, clutching a too-small blanket, shaking in the morning cold. A different take on that quote - a study in context and overlapping worlds. Travel 101 guides seem to be missing a few important sections. Do-no-harm essential active listening skills, for when people keep sharing their upcoming major life choices. Responses to expressions of racism. Ethics of coping with wealth differentials: "you've found the best breakfast pastries in the region... and are now waiting for Greyhound near an impoverished family with cold hungry kids", "you've found a great one-bag packable jacket... and keep encountering people who badly need it", "a one-bag travel first aid kit... carrying food and mylar thermal blankets to give away". I like travel. But the harder parts don't seem to get bloggage.