Klagestrøm

I fear a political rant has been building up for some time here. So although this blog is mostly just for recording knitting highs and lows, I think it's time to get a few things off my chest.

Background:

When I was a kid in the 1970s, living in the U.S. was great. I lived in the most beautiful part of the country. My dad had a steady job as a college professor, and my mom had the luxury of dividing her time between homemaking, art, and volunteer activities (the local museum and various craft/art organizations). I became politically aware at a relatively young age, as my parents were actively opposed to the war in Viet Nam and vocal critics of President Nixon's policies. They also raised me without religion. And, living just south of the border, they prefered to watch Canadian news, which they explained typically had less propaganda and gave a more international perspective. We drove the same car for twenty years, but had a lake view from our (shoddy and drafty, but comfortable) house. From a very young age I got interested in other cultures and my parents encouraged that, even going so far as to let me go abroad as an exchange student the year I turned sixteen. As a parent of a seven-year-old now, I find it hard to believe that they let me do that, back in the bad old eighties with the primitive communications we had then (no email, no Skype, no 24-hour news cycle...). I had a close relationship with my grandparents and learned a huge amount from them about what things were like when they and my own parents were growing up. I got a good college education at a state school without taking on student loans. I worked my way through graduate school as a teachign assistant and came out of that debt free too.

Rant:

All this is just to say that I experienced the very best that the U.S. has ever had to offer. My life was truly charmed and privileged, even though we were by no means rich. Looking back, I am just infuriated by what has happened to the U.S. I once knew. I hardly even recognize the place. I simply can't comprehend where all the destructive, right wing ideology is coming from. Did the people who are now systematically dismantling evrything that was good about the U.S. not grow up in the same country, with the same rights and protections that I had? The case of Glenn Beck, one of the "architects" (if you can even compare his ideologically confused ranting to anything as structured as architecture) has a strong personal significance for me because, although I don't remember him, we went to high school together. So, here's a person who lived in the same place at the same time, and theoretically at least had exposure to the same values and ideas that I did. But we couldn't be more different. Yes, his childhood and youth were troubled in ways that mine weren't (divorce, the death of his mother, frequent moves, etc.). But my best friend in high school had a childhood that was even more troubled and unstable, yet she ended up the farthest thing from Beck ideologically.

So, where does the vitriol come from then? What could possibly motivate all these people to take a reasonably functional civil society (one that already had revealed a dark side, I hasten to add. History has shown that U.S. actions in the Viet Nam War were even more unethical than my parents feared), and attempt to turn it into a fundamentalist state? How can they repeatedly make legislative coups that reduce the freedoms of individuals (women, same-sex partners, ethnic minorities, the poor) in the name of freedom? It makes no sense.

Although I spent most of my youth and young adulthood dreaming of living in Europe, even after marrying a European, I somehow didn't think that was possible. I assumed we'd live in the U.S. But after I had a child in the same year that George W. Bush was reelected, I realized that I needed to get out, and we started laying plans to return to Norway. I could live in the U.S., but in the long run I couldn't raise a child there. There are just too many stupid ideas and social pressures that I would want to shield him from. Raising him in a Norway just made better sense. We have a reasonable expecation as parents that the political system supports our family in real ways: universal and good health care, free higher education, decent schools, legal same-sex marriage (who knows what his orientation will turn out to be, but it's good to know his rights will be protected in any case), a culture that in general emphasizes nature and healthful living, a culture of civil debate... the list goes on and on.

Sure I miss my family and friends. Sure I still think the Pacific Northwest is heaven on earth. But after three years in Norway during which the U.S. seems to have exploded into a seething mass of collective idiocy, I can't imagine moving back for good. We'll be going back for four weeks of (paid...!) summer vacation. It will be really interesting to hear how my family and friends see things from the inside.

My point:

From my perspective, despite the war, things were going in the right direction in the 1970s; the civil rights movement had made huge breakthroughs in race relations, and the sexual revolution promised to do the same for gender relations. We progressives had the wind in our sails, and the right was maybe a little in shock over losing so much ground so quickly. And now, thirty years later the political landscape has shifted 180 degrees...