Deceptively Brilliant Observation du Jour

from Ich werde ein Berliner:

‘German people aren't very good at being indifferent towards any given thing.’

German people aren't very good at being indifferent towards any given thing. One particular topic they just can't seem to keep their minds off is America. Actually, the last recorded incident of a German person asking the question:

"Hey, what's up with the USA?"

...and the respondent simply answering:

"Eh? Dunno, why are you asking?"

is dating back over 230 years ago. Since that point in time, German people are required to have a strong opinion about the US of A, and that opinion must be negative.

Oh what fond memories I have of boozy nights at John Harvard's in the Square, picking relentlessly at the taut (o'logical) strands of a wire-rimmed trinity of German PhD candidates, deeply & helplessly revolted by all things Pop Americana. I was just one fiery little undergrad, but over the course of four hours -- and thrice as many pale ales -- each of them had abandoned the conviction that Disneyland and McDonald's were poisons being forcefully mainlined into the falsely-conscious proletariat; and forced to admit (graciously, I'd add) that even the uncontestably stupid Britney Spears was, in the final analysis, less an intoxicating Siren® manufactured for global cultural domination, than just a backwoods gal whose distinctly American voice & hip gyrations of sexual freedom could possibly, yes, maybe, actually present a liberating message for much of the world's female population -- you know, those really, truly oppressed ones that remain without a public voice, sexed-up or otherwise. I don't know if their weary change of heart lasted at all (judging by the desperately procured rounds of lager that ensued, I'm inclined to doubt), but I learned two valuable and lasting lessons that autumn evening: German social critics of the US are generally much less intellectually considerate / emotionally detached than the world has for whatever reason depicted them to be. And there's only so many hackneyed regurgitations of neo-Marxist critique they are willing to rinse & repeat, before rolling over completely to expose their jiggly underbellies. And all kidding aside, I find that quality of gracious abdication -- however cute and pathetic -- stunningly righteous and damned respectable.

Deceptively Brilliant Observation du Jour