6 Steps to break the American Bubble

 That the U.S. is in disarray is something the right, left and middle can agree on. Blame abounds.

Although I have strong opinions, I'm amazed that many American who decry either the right or the left automatically, are usually those that have not traveled outside the U.S. If they have, many are of the "If it is Tuesday, it must be Belgium" type of trips. They live in what we call the American Bubble.

There are those that follow The Big Lie CNN or The Election was Stolen Fox news and not much else. Either represent ignorance.

Years ago when visiting my daughter at her job, her colleague asked why I lived in Switzerland. "For one," I said. "Universal health care."

She scoffed. "No country can do that," she said.

She held a masters degree in education. I'm not sure she believed me "that every industrialized nation except the U.S. has some form of universal health care at a lower cost." It's been a few years since then, so maybe she would believe me today.

Several things are needed for people to break out of the bubble.

1. Live in another country and integrate or at least try to. Don't be the type of foreigner who moves to the Swiss countryside and launches a campaign to get rid of cowbells. Look, listen, copy. If entering/leaving an event everyone shakes everyone's hand, don't say it's a waste of time. At the moment with the pandemic, this example might not apply. 

Deal with bureaucracy, join their festivals, share their sports, follow their mores in manners, try and speak their language (probably the hardest to do unless you're gifted).

2. If you can't live in another country for a long time, try something like Trustedhousesitters.com where you live in someone's home taking care of their pets. The longer the better. You'll deal with store opening hours (after 30 years in Switzerland, I still shake my head at the snack bar that closed for lunch because "Our employees need a good lunch, too," attitudes toward space, noise and many other things you might have thought the whole world did. 

The lesson? They don't. 

It isn't better. It isn't worse. It just is.

3. If you can't travel, try and find a person who represents what you can't see in person. Listen to a Latin American refugee tell how and why he fled his country. Let a Syrian describe her boat trip to Europe after her town was devastated by bombs. Invite a Palestinian talk about their side of the conflicts with Israel. 

4. Read. Read biographies, auto-biographies, history--not just the surface crap taught in most schools. And a bit of economics wouldn't hurt.

Yes Thomas Jefferson was a father of the country. Yes his ideas were the foundation of much of the good in the U.S. But he also developed a marketing plan for breeding and selling slaves. I had a teacher who kept saying, "Nothing is all black or all white but many shades of gray."

5. Learn what Communism and Socialism really are and how each has functions both good and bad in different places. Don't just label the whiff of anything with your particular misconception.

6. Rely on many news sources and preferably from more than one country. Thanks to the internet it is easy to look at newspapers from many countries. News channels also have English URLs. Their viewpoint is not seen through the same prejudices that Americans see.

I'm often accused of being (pick one or many)

• Traitor
• Socialist
• Communist
• Lefty
• Liberal

What I am is tired of people claiming to know the full story of something they only know a small part. Thus, the elephant and the blind men who think they can describe an elephant when they only know a small part, is one of my favorite cartoons.