Earlier this month we attended a boating get-together of
(mostly) Norwegians who are interested in wooden boats. It’s always an
interesting and enjoyable time when I’m together with them. The majority are men in their
late 50s, 60s and early 70s. Some attend these get-togethers with their wives
and kids/grand-kids, whereas others are there without their families. All of
them are very wealthy and fairly conservative. When they first meet me,
I’m the one who stands out from the crowd, because they hear that I'm an American the minute I open my mouth. I speak Norwegian fluently, but with a
decidedly New York accent. Most of them are nice people and friendly to me, if
a bit skeptical because of what they’ve heard or know about America. Most of
what they know about the USA is based on what they read in Norwegian newspapers
or what they hear on TV. I for my part am open and willing to talk to them; I don’t shy away or retreat from the social doings. My conversations with them are usually
about how long I have lived in Norway, what I do for a living, and where I work. I end
up talking to some of the wives; this year, one of them, a 73-year old woman
who had traveled quite a bit around the world, told me about her very enjoyable
cross-country tour of the USA some years ago. She loved it and mentioned that
her husband did as well (which was not exactly true as I later discovered—she was
speaking for him). It was quite interesting to talk with her, and we ended up
having a very nice conversation. Eventually her husband joined us, and she told
him how nice it was to have met me and conversed with me. It
didn’t take long for me to discover that he had an agenda that he wanted to
share with me. He had traveled in the USA by himself, he told me, and he had
never met so many stupid people in his life (dumme amerikanere). By stupid, he meant untraveled and
uninterested in the rest of the world. Since he was easily 73 or 74 years old, his
traveling (for business) had been done when he was in his 40s, which meant back
in the 1980s. He seemed quite keen on imparting that information to me--that
many Americans were stupid. It always strikes me as quite odd that some few
Europeans have that particular agenda that they wish to share with me, as though they
think that I will immediately agree with them or try to do something about
their complaint. Or perhaps he was hoping that I would get my hackles up (I didn't, I kept my cool). What struck me most was the dissimilarity between him and his
wife—he was a snob and his wife was not. He clearly did not like that his wife
had enjoyed talking to me (a commoner) and was in a hurry to end the conversation. Whenever
I meet Europeans like that, it always reminds me of why I am glad to be an
American. I am so used to meeting different people from different countries and cultures,
and it would never cross my mind to tell a Norwegian whom I had just met that in
my opinion, many of his or her countrymen were stupid. I was raised to
be a respectful person, and if there is one thing I am not, it’s a snob. In any
case, he behaved rudely because he wanted to end the conversation, and not
surprisingly, it ended. When I saw them the next day, they both ignored me. I gathered that he had probably put his wife in her place.
I no longer take these snubs personally as I did when I first
moved here. It is no longer a surprise to me that some Europeans really do not like
the USA. When I look at how the media present the USA to them, it is no
surprise at all. In the Norwegian tabloid media at least, the USA is a gun-loving,
gun-toting, aggressive, imperialistic, capitalistic country, bent on world
domination. It sounds almost silly, but that is the picture painted of the USA. The serious media present specific issues (e.g. gun control, health insurance) in an in-depth manner, so at least the nuances are discussed. It is surprising to me how preoccupied Norwegian media are with what goes on in the USA.
Our politicians, political situations, debates and conventions are big news here. Sometimes I think Europeans are more concerned about the problems in the USA than they are about the problems in their own countries. Or perhaps they think that their countries are problem-free. Rest-assured that the latter is not the case; Europe has real problems with terrorism/extremist activities that are only going to get worse before they get better, unfortunately.
I have given up trying to explain to skeptical Europeans that
most of the Americans I know are no different than they are—educated, married, raising
or have raised families, healthy and unhealthy, hard-working, thinking about
retirement, wanting to travel, and so on. It surprises me that well-educated
Europeans have not figured this out yet. Apparently they believe everything
they read or hear in the media, and their protests notwithstanding, many of
them get most of their news from the tabloid media. Or maybe they just don't want to broaden their minds, because if they did, they would no longer be able to see the world in black and white. Perhaps it scares them to think about broadening their perspectives. That surprises me most of all, since it is exactly what they criticize Americans for.
