Citizenship

Over the past few weeks, citizenship has been a concept that has continually come to the forefront of my thoughts. Coming from one of the largest, most populated, and economically prosperous countries in the world is surprisingly easy to not notice, especially while in the US. The power of my little blue passport is frankly astonishing. Entering into Turkey after my weekend in Greece, it was hard not to notice just how easily I can pass through passport control with considerably less scrutiny as I was in line behind several Russians and two people from Azerbaijan. Their entry was considerably less smooth while the golden eagle on my passport allows me to slide through as if I were covered with a nice layer of Crisco.

The ease with which an American passport holder can travel around the world is quite easily overlooked when you are one of those passport holders. Here, Turkish people need visas to go almost anywhere and the application process for visas are not easy. Similarly, I found out from my new Chinese room mate exactly how limited Chinese passport holders are as well. Neither of my room mates can enter the EU without going through a grueling visa application process while I just hop on a plane, hand over my passport and get a little black stamp without thinking about it.

As I said, I’ve been thinking a lot about my citizenship recently, and it’s not just in a traveling capacity. It’s always interesting to be outside of the US gaining a different perspective. Others notice things about the US that I rarely think about or at least in ways I rarely think about them. Many times, explaining our systems and methods of doing things, I have to confront the fact that we have little or no good justification for some of the things we do, and there is almost no way of validating some of our practices. For example, why do we use Fahrenheit? It’s a ridiculous system of arbitrary numbers that isn’t used or even understood almost anywhere outside the US while Celsius is both logical and used almost everywhere. Similarly, our bizarre clinging to imperial measurements is honestly baffling when you sit and think about it, and I don’t even think I fully understand it. Ounces and gallons and pounds, not to mention the entire concepts of tipping and sales tax (I could rant about the ridiculousness of sales tax for days) – why America, why?

Beyond trivial things like measurements, it’s quite a strange experience to explain to a German citizen that higher education in the United States costs thousands upon thousands of dollars, requiring many people to build up a hefty pile of debt before they ever begin any sort of full-time employment, while in Germany (and much of Europe) University costs almost nothing, although they lack such stimulating course work as “Shalom Ya’ll” (yes, that is a real class at UNC). It’s not that I doubt in any way the quality of our higher education system as I’m personally convinced that in many ways my education is shaping me in far more profound ways one at most foreign universities would, but it is simply incredible the disparity that exists in price. Similarly, for many nations, it’s a bizarre notion that the United States can supposedly be so large, powerful, and prosperous, yet not provide health care to its citizens. Explaining the significant displeasure with “socialized medicine” that exists in the US is quite difficult to do, much less validate. Moreover, the ways in which the US projectile vomits its message of “liberty,” “democracy,” “equality,” and “personal freedoms” upon its citizens and the world at large while it clings to antiquated ideologies and some of its frighteningly Ayatollah-like policies leads me to genuinely question my desire to be even associated with “my country,” much less live in it.

That said, it’s not as if I want to jump ship and immigrate to Canada any time soon – although Canada seems pretty awesome from what I hear (I wouldn’t mind dual citizenship so I could get cheaper visas). It simply makes me realize that my political passivity is not really a good thing and that looking at the US from an outside perspective is a valuable thing that’s not very commonly practiced by its citizens. We, as citizens with voting rights and (in principle) freedom of speech, have the duty and responsibility to strive for what we feel is right, just, and needed in our society, and spending time away from the US is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to actually take an objective look at the US and determine what is right, just, and needed. The US is not and has not been for quite some time the hegemon it was coming out of World War II, and while outside of the United States, it becomes all the more apparent that we, as a nation, must cease and desist our strutting around as if we have all the right answers and we’re better than everyone else. We have many problems in the US that only we, the citizens, are responsible for fixing, and perhaps if we keep an open mind and accept that other places have good ideas too, we might just find solutions in other places. We could certainly learn a thing or two about public transit systems from Singapore (as could pretty much every other in the world).

Sometimes, I’m actually quite ashamed of the US in some regards. I am a direct reflection of our education system in many ways – good and bad. As such, I’m decently well-versed in things like the civil rights movement, the importance of wearing a seatbelt, and the value of teamwork, cooperation and mutual respect (I think those might need to trickle up to the national level and not just linger on wall decorations in elementary school classrooms); however, I also seem utterly stupid trying to mental which is, in my opinion, highly reflective of the simplicity of the American mathematics education. I personally believe that it is this exact simplicity in mathematics instruction that has caused the rampant problems with debt in the US since it’s clear many people don’t understand that they can’t simply live on credit. Alternatively, I take pride in the ideological creativity (not necessarily artistic) that is fostered in our education system. It’s simply not as common in many other countries. I’m sure that this post comes across as veritable bucket list of complains; however, its purpose was chiefly to share some of the more profound thoughts that have been going through my head recently (apart from my essentially never-ending obsession with food and swirling torrent of marketing related musings that are a direct reflections of my internship and honors thesis research). My blog can’t all be about pretty pictures and everything I eat.

I have to say, however, that despite my displeasure with many of my nation’s shortcomings, I’m very happy that I “pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,” even if we still have a little ways to go before we really get to “liberty and justice for all.” At the end of the day, we’re leaps and bounds ahead of many countries in many regards, and “we the people” embrace many of my favorite things that I personally feel are integral parts of my “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” like Mexican food, free refills, the 24-hour pharmacy, and the sheer ecstasy of drying clothes in a dryer – a concept that is impossible to fully appreciate without living without one for several months. The US is sometimes a frustrating place, but it’s home.