Culture shock
I'm in the departure lounge at washington's Dulles airport and I can't wait to leave.
I've been here two weeks and until yesterday morning worked solidly without a day off, so it took a while for the culture shock to set in.
No doubt there are nice, courteous Americans about, but many many are just as fake as their food. Don't wish me a nice day or any other hollow pleasantry because your job demands it.
Then there are the arseholes, of which there are too many. Some people are incredibly rude. Perhaps it's their upbringing, do they actually teach people to look after you and yours while everyone else can fuck off. The attitude seems to be persuasive. If you arent successful you're lazy. If you are it's all because you're wonderful: congrats, buy health insurance, a gated property and a polluting car to show everyone you're better than them. Don't let the parasites steal your money. This perhaps begins to explain the politics that seems so alien to me.
A guy in the street would tell me that Obama is a socialist and crippling the country in debt with his bailouts, but wasn't it awful that he is cutting the military budget. "Oh come on you spend as much on your military as the rest of the the world combined" I said. He said that china spends more.
Perhaps a better reply would be to ask what he thought of FDR?
I should begin then to understand why almost half the country voted for Romney and his sociopath running mate Paul Ryan who claimed he got into politics after reading Ann Rand. My colleague told me that the republicans had a ballroom for a thousand of their top donors. Each of whom donated more than $1,000,000.
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