Jet-Lagged and Ragged (James Howard Kunstler)

[Tace]

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

Oct. 25, 2011 -- I am in a nation of super-models.

The girls who sell tickets in the art museum are super-models. The girls behind the hotel desk, ditto. The clerk in the 7-Eleven shop (yes, 7-Eleven is here in Gothenburg, Sweden) could command the fashion runway in the New York Meatpacking District. Everywhere you look: super-models! They are healthy, tall, and beautiful. It must drive the men crazy. However the men, too, could all be super-models in GQ. And I must say, everybody wears very nice clothes.

Now, I suppose you think this is superficial and fatuous. Maybe so. But it leads to some other observations. An inescapable one, of course, is that I have come from a nation populated by monstrous quasi-human creatures who might be described as land-whales, and who generally present themselves in clothing that a five-year-old European would be embarrassed to wear. But that might be superficial and fatuous, too.

No, there is more going on with this. I first noticed it at the boarding gate area at JFK airport in New York, waiting for the flight to Berlin. For some reason there were a lot of teenagers on the flight. They were Euro teenagers. They were distinct from American teens. The Euro-teens acted like civilized people with what can only be called a sense of decorum. They were not costumed like clowns, criminals, sports stars, or zombies. Every day is not Halloween for them. Being a person seemed enough for them, as though the human condition were an honorable state-of-being. There were no obese Euro-teens. They were not stuffing their faces with pizza, French fries, and cinnabons. They were not obsessed with texting or other cell phone demonstrations of their social status. They waited patiently through the boarding delay and appeared to enjoy each other's company without impulsive demonstrations, tantrums, tears, fights, or fits.

When I got to Europe seven hours later I found myself in a world of purposeful adults who take care of themselves and the place they live in. It was the weekend. I was there for an architecture conference beginning Monday (hence the delay in this blog). For two days I walked all over Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, about the size of Buffalo, New York, in population, but far denser, more alive, and in much better condition. The streets of the little city were filled with these beautiful super-model people and their children. I saw something that is virtually unknown in the United States: both parents enjoying the day in public places with their kids. As described above, there were no emotional histrionics from the kids, no tears and tantrums, even from the tiny ones. This detail was startling for one who lives in a nation where six-year-olds are called "motherfucker" by their moms.

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http://worldnewstrust.com/jet-lagged-and-ragged-james-howard-kunstler.html

[Kolesar]

1. And all the children are "above average" eom

[TygrBright]

2. Thanks Kunsty. And get off my lawn! n/t

[Tace]

4. Ha! You Nailed Him

cur·mudg·eon /kərˈməjən/

Noun: A bad-tempered or surly person.

[mainer]

3. I'm always impressed by how TALL people are outside the US

Especially in Holland, where they all seem like lean and beautiful giants.

[drmeow]

5. I noticed how much taller

people were in CA compared to NY when I moved from the first to the second in the 90's. It is not just outside the US - there are regional differences within the US. Also, the data show that northern Europeans are taller than southern Europeans (published in an academic paper about 20 years ago). And compared to the US, people in Southeast Asia are really short (so much so that my boss pays extra to pre-book an aisle seat because, at about 6 foot tall, there is no way he fits into a middle seat on the Asian airlines he flies to and from Indonesia).

[yurbud]

6. in Europe, parents have more time to parent, and kids have hope for the future

When both things are true here, you get better results too.


The problem here is middle and working class parents have to put in so many hours just to survive, and even working upper class parents have to put in long hours to keep up with their peers or be fired for being lazy.

Kids who are essentially neglected or abandoned by their parents are naturally going to turn to equally clueless peers and the exaggerated cartoons of adults in the media since they have so little contact with real ones (except for teachers who the media constantly tells them are greedy, lazy losers).