The Ugly American

The last of the four archetypes that I've taken to look at I call the Ugly American.  No, I didn't come up with the name because I "hate America" or some other such nonsense (how dare you question my patriotism!  how unpatriotic of you!).  The epithet comes from a book written during the 1950s about Vietnam.  Abroad, the epithet has been used as a term of discrimination specifically against Americans, but I use it solely for the purpose of the archetype in describing a situation where a foreigner takes his or her values with them while operating in a culture with different values.

In his book Values for a New Millennium, the late author Robert L. Humphrey identifies one key factor in his research of anti-American hostility: not treating locals with respect as equals.  Now, I may take issue with some of his methods (and you may wonder if asking the question was condescending in the first place), it is indicative of a very real problem that was (and still is) plaguing this great, fantastic, all-amazing and all powerful nation that is vastly superior to everyone else on the planet (especially the French).  Namely, why doesn't everybody on the planet just learn English?  Huh?

It is human to take our own values (and culture) with us.  Naturally, the more proud or privileged we are, the more entitled we feel to expressing those values.  In other words, with great power comes great responsibility.  Part of the problem with privilege is that frequently it is a form of power we don't even realize is there.  It we argue about the toppings on yesterday's pizza, it can be a bit insensitive to have the discussion in front of a starving child.  The way to overcome these positions of power is through learning--and frequently this means making many mistakes before getting it right.

We may not have to share values with our surrounding environment, but it is our duty to respect them when we can.  I make a distinction between the Ugly American and the Rebel because the notion of one's community and home (our comfort zone) has a logically separate place from traveling outside it.  In a post about the Chameleon, I reflected about Star Trek's "prime directive" and Westphalian sovereignty.  And yet, as John Lennon so succinctly put it:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

In other words, the boundaries that separate us from each other are all artificial layers of structure.  Each structure is in place as a form of legacy that has been built up for social and geographical reasons.  Because of ease of travel and communications, the boundaries between ourselves and our surroundings have become much more social and much less geographical--the word community itself is being used to describe social, not geographical strata.