The End of the Road

The other day as I was driving to school I noticed a car with a plethora of bumper stickers hastily tagged to the back bumper.  One read Bush/Cheney ’04 another a Jesus fish and one read along the lines of “America, love it or leave it.”  You would think this would be a big truck most likely a Ford or Chevy, no it was small car made by a little car company from Japan called Toyota.  In fact most of the things that we take for granted in our everyday life are not made in America: your clothes, your cars and even your precious Starbucks coffee that you cannot go a day without.  This is due to globalization which has engulfed our world whether you like it or not.  And even though almost everything we consume in everyday life comes from another country most Americans still live by the catch phrase “America, love it or leave it.”

When I think of the slogan “America, love it or leave it” it reminds me of what my father used to say, or what all fathers say to their kids: “when you live under my roof you live by my rules and if you don’t like it then get out.”  The very thought of being out on my own scared me into being a good little boy and following all my fathers rules (even the ones that I didn’t agree with or in other words, sucked).  America is great but it is a melting pot.  A clash of cultures over the years have blended together and have become what we call the American way.  This American way has made it difficult to really practice ones true culture and many “hyphenated” individuals keep it behind closed doors so that out in the real world they can better blend in and become an ingredient in this giant melting pot of America.

The author Bharati Mukherjee is a great example of a “hyphenated” individual trying to become a true American.  In her book Jasmine the main character finds herself desperately abandoning her home country for America.  It’s fascinating to read how immigrants have so much culture and tradition but its sad how they ride themselves of it in order to be accepted into American life.  Mukherjee constantly refers to it as “murdering” her old culture and how “…once you let one tradition go, all the other traditions crumble.”(Jasmine, pg. 75) or “Once we start letting go—let go just one thing, like not wearing our normal clothes, or a turban or not wearing a tika on the forehead—the rest goes on its own down a sinkhole.” (Jasmine, pg. 29)  Mukherjee is trying to tell us that Jasmine is living through that catch phrase of “America, love it or leave it.”  She might not love it but she does like it enough to do what ever she can in order to become a part of it, even if that means getting ride of her old culture and language.

Coming back to the catch phrase “America, love it or leave it” this thought portrays Americans inability to accept any other point of view that doesn’t fit their own.  It makes it easy for Americans to, from their high horse, stereotype other countries people.  For instance Iran has become the new focus under our microscope.  From most Americans point of view Iranians are oil greedy people who want nothing else but to hate Americans and to go to war with them.  This makes it easy to have an “us vs. them” approach to politics. Some would use the example of Salman Rushdie to prove this point.  Salman Rushdie caused immense uproar within the Muslim religion when he published The Satanic Verses in 1988.  A fatwa (religious edict) was issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then supreme spiritual leader of Iran, which called for him to be killed.  The Iranian people were irate at Rushdie for writing of the Muslim religion in a satirical and blasphemous point of view.  This forced him into exile in the US giving us the ability to be called the good guys for harboring him and Iran the bad guys for trying to execute him.  And even though we as Americans do not condone execution through religious feuds we do however treat outsiders in a similar fashion.  Post 9/11 America is a good example of this, where those who look the part are treated as though they were the ones responsible.  This is the individual outlook of the “us vs. them” mindset.  What we should be thinking is that we are very similar with all people.  We all have the same morals and ambitions. 

And are borders are becoming less and less defined.    

            As globalization becomes more and more prevalent we must know how to view our world from a different perspective.  We must see ourselves as “having both roots (with local affiliations) and wings (with global aspirations); and this is a responsibility that many of us now share.” (Burton, pg. 126)