Culture Shock

I started writing this article before the COVID-19 pandemic hit; before the death of George Floyd engulfed the United States in a wild fire of protests; before the peaceful protests, the rioting and the looting across our major cities spurred a fascist response by our president reminiscent of Hilter's brown shirts. So much has happened since I returned from Japan in November of 2019. Still, when I returned, I was hit by profound reverse culture shock as I re-entered the United States. I do my best to describe it here, but I've got to push to get this out before the next crisis distracts.

The impact of that culture shock continues to color my view of these unfolding crises and the lessons I hope the country is learning from it. Each time my friends ask me "How is it being back in the US?", I again feel the urge to write this post. The answer is too big.

Elevator answer: I'm glad to be back with my family. I am thankful to be with them and have a job I can work from home during this time of pandemic. Yet, the culture shock of living in the US again is severe.

What is the culture shock? In Japan, there is a functioning society and government that its people believe in. It changes in response to issues and evolves in an intentional direction. In the US, our society and its government are completely broken and the people have lost faith in its institutions. Like fish living in increasingly dirty water, we have become accustomed to a broken and unjust society and are incapable of addressing those wrongs. During my nearly two years in Japan, I found that my eyes had changed when I returned and I couldn't immerse in the water again without choking on the dirt. If I don't like the dirt so much, we did I come back? For those reasons please see Leaving Japan.

My life as am individual in the US is quite amazing. Despite being a child of immigrants, I have a beautiful family, a great job, great healthcare insurance, a beautiful home, etc. It's the American Dream. I can attribute my life to my initial conditions and opportunities as well my effort to educate myself and to work productively for nearly forty years. The US provided my European Jewish parents with unparalled opportunities to live a life of peace, make a home for their family and send their children to the top schools in the nation. At birth, I won the lottery with health and talent. I worked hard to make the most out of the hand I was dealt. I have also checked my privilege and it is enormous.

I feel compelled as an American Jew and a human, to not have my moral being bought off by individual winnings. I must see the destructive impact of this system on those around me who do not have such privilege and opportunities afforded to them.

We live in a society that contrasts poorly with Japan. The Japanese expect society and government to work for the benefit of the people. Of course, the people there are Japanese, a highly diverse people and society, who nonetheless are also very homogenous, with a strong national identity with few immigrants permitted. The distinctive Japanese culture and language build in a consideration of others and the individual's place in society.

What a shocking contrast this belief in society and the expectation that government works for the benefit of all people is to me as an American today! In today's America, the individual is king, the government is something that stands in the way of individual liberty, regulations stand in the way of enterprise, taxation stands in the way of individual wealth. We have grown accustom to seeing injustice, economic exploitation and disfunction around us. As long as our individual lives go well, we ignore those American's around us who pay the price for our privilege.

In Japan, people expect society and government to work, while in the United States of America, people have accepted that the system, the government and society does not work. As Americans, we're inured to it. Coming back, As Americans, we do not see the dirt in our home waters, accepting the increase as normal and ignoring those of us who it is killing. We have accepted that things are broken and there's nothing we can do about it. We are disempowered by our corrupt political and economic system, not empowered. We simultaneously believe that our democracy is the embodiment of freedom on the Earth and the best of all possible systems, while also accepting its flaws as inevitable and unactionable.

The expectation that individual liberty and freedom dominate over society contrasts starkly from our American visionaries and their words. First, the preamble of the Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

and the last line of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

We the People of the United States. A More Perfect Union. Government of the People, by the People, for the People. These words are in our DNA. I take away that the purpose of government, and indeed American society, is create a system which benefits us as a people and not just provide freedom and liberty to the individual. Because some of us can make good lives, we should not tolerate a system which kills the health and opportunity of the rest of us. We must not accept the destruction of our environment and climate for our future, to provide wealth for a few today.

In America, some of our greatest, proudest moments have been a coming to as a people, to step on the moon, to grant freedom to slaves, to grant the vote to women, to establish marriage equality no matter who you love, to tolerate religious differences. We are pioneers in establishing a society of tolerance, not just for a people with a single strong racial, ethnic, religious and national identity, but one in which people from diverse ethnic, racial, geographical and linguistic backgrounds can come together. Interestingly to me, many of the advances above happened through Supreme Court rulings, where a few wise Americans could come together and decide.

I see a system which does not work for many of the people. This system fails us in terms of healthcare, transportation, education, justice, policing, incarceration, gun violence, wealth distribution, immigration, taxation, nutrition, pollution, climate, money in politics, national debt and more. These systems which our society and government creates, benefit those with wealth and corporations over the poor individual, whites in favor of other races, men in favor of women, cis-gendered and straight in favor of transgender and gay, Christian over non-Christian and atheist, and more. I'm super fortunate to be close enough to the great intersection where it works. It's immoral to ignore the costs on those outside the intersection of great privilege. It's the dirt that I can not swallow as I immerse again in America.

I'm not saying that Japan is perfect in all these regards. Certainly, it's a system that favors the Japanese over immigrants. But during my two years of living there, I saw systems that are designed to function with simplicity to provide for the Japanese people. There’s also an expectation by those people that systems and government are rational, simple and that the everyone knows the rules. When there were changes, they were explained and discussed in detail on prime time TV shows. There were celebrity discussions and critiques of the changes. Japanese take for granted their expectations that society and government work for their benefit. It was just amazing to me and something I came to respect.

As Americans, we accept systems so complex that professional lawyers, accounts or sometimes software packages are required to learn the laws relevant for us as individuals. We receive piles of paper work and are mystified how much money we owe. That works for those with wealth who can afford professional services, but not for those without. You can not get justice,/keep out of jail, pay your taxes, get affordable healthcare, get an education, be safe, be law abiding, know good nutrition, buy healthy food, have a voice in governance in the US system without wealth. This is our normal, "more perfect union."

In the US, we take for granted that all social issues cannot be addressed. We cannot fix healthcare, transportation, education, justice, policing, incarceration, gun violence, wealth distribution, immigration, taxation, nutrition, pollution, climate, money in politics, national debt and more. We talk a lot about it during election seasons, but only those who are "politically activated" even have the bandwidth to pay attention. I find so few who are informed, feel the call to action, actually believe and hope that change is possible and have opinions about what that change should be.

Instead, we fall back on the mistaken belief that we are free and that our votes matter. We believe that our representatives in our democratic republic act in our interest, when they do not. Neither Democrats, nor Republicans, and certainly not the results of the political system with them not working together. You might think that it's OK to not get the change you want because we have to compromise. But, even when there's clear consensus, our political system cannot act. A tiny minority believe that assault weapons should be legal to purchase, but our political system cannot ban them despite the broad consensus. 

As a people, we mind our own knitting. Some of us, the privileged and exceptional unprivileged, build a future for our families, some barely make ends meet and many of us fall further and further behind. Many giving up hope for the future and belief in the society, system and government.

The only time I've seen actual change is supreme court rulings or when the system faces an existential threat. When there is rioting in the streets or bodies on the campus of Kent State, when the stock market and financial firms are collapsing, when the Word Trade Center is fallen to the ground. Those are the times of change in the US. But those actions in crisis don't lead to good governance. Those actions do not address healthcare, transportation, education, justice, policing, incarceration, gun violence, wealth distribution, immigration, taxation, nutrition, pollution, climate, money in politics, national debt and more. I guess we did get the New Deal (Social Security and Medicare) out of the Great Depression. But, that was reactive, not proactive. It took an existential crisis of global scale. It's not targeted, evolutionary, intentional change.

Now we're in the time of COVID-19. It's the most extraordinary time of our lives. All the norms, assumptions, economy and politics of the past are paused. This virus knows no borders. It makes no distinction between races although our society magnifies the impact on the health and jobs on people of color. The virus doesn't respect ethnic, religious, national or political affiliation. All the lines we draw between ourselves, fall away. We have no choice but to act as a community, a state or a nation. President Trump is everyone's president and his actions affect all our very lives and the lives of our families. Same with Governor Inslee. The stock market has ended the longest continuous bull market with historic drops and rises. It's just an amazing time of human endangerment, recognition of essential services and families together. It's a global crisis, but one whose damage can only be avoided through precipitous action in advance or not.

The actions taken are of an historic scope. Everyone, except for essential services, must stay at home. Leaving the homeless in the streets endangers everyone and now they have a place to stay at the Port of Seattle. The Congress and President have passed a 2.2 TRILLION dollar emergency act to attempt to put the economy of life support during a medically induced coma. The Federal Reserve Bank has emergency lowered interest rates and will buy commercial, not just treasury notes. In Washington state, we've closed our schools, workplaces, indoor eating at restaurants, bars, sporting events, places of worship and our fitness clubs. Everyone has a mandatory "stay at home" order. This weekend (May 2020), Governor Inslee opened up real estate transactions (with minimal participants and social distancing), funerals (for immediate family with social distancing) and reinforced the sovereignty of the Native American tribal lands. Wow, just wow.

The political rhetoric has not just shifted, but transformed. There's talk of us "being in this together" and we're back to being a nation, a state, a community. The Senate just unanimously passed the emergency bill and the House of Representatives passed it through acclimation by a voice vote. I think it's the largest monetary bill in history, yet everyone acted together (with the one potential grand stander being shouted down). I am both amazed and terrified. 

To bring this discussion back to my culture shock, I found in Japan a belief in society, government and a system which acts on behalf of the people. I found people who didn't just act selfishly, but found a channel for being more than individuals. As an American, I was amazed that the Japanese have solutions to the issues of healthcare, transportation, education, justice, policing, incarceration, gun violence, wealth distribution, immigration, taxation, nutrition, pollution, climate, money in politics, national debt and more. I long for the affordable healthcare without paperwork, for the public/private train system which takes me everywhere efficiently and cheaply, for education opportunities in rural and poor areas, for a low rate of incarceration, for a safe, clean and quiet urban environment, for a life without assault weapons (or any legal guns), for a simple, high compliance tax system, etc. that I found in Japan.

I pains me:

• that my family cannot get healthcare insurance without my privileged job; that so many fellow Americans have no insurance and face exploitative medical expenses as individuals
• that many American's cannot find affordable housing within a reasonable commute time from work with our car-centric system.
• to see poor communities self finance their public education systems at a fraction of the budget of the rich ones; to see teachers held in low esteem
• that many cannot afford attorneys to defend themselves against legal predation or the government resulting in the systematic financial destruction disenfranchisement and incarceration of targeted communities
• to see a legal and taxation system which keeps the rich rich and impoverishes the poor (no taxation of commercial real estate, investment banking income as capital gains, etc)
• to see the stigmatization of immigrants who are the engine of our economy, labor and ingenuity (please see the Statue of Libery)
• to see our government promulgate the false nutrition information promoted by food industrial complex not science; to live in a hostile food environment
• to not protect our environment from pollution and or climate from the damage of greenhouse gases
• to see the unbridled, black money distort our political system such that our representatives spend more time seeking money for reelection and no longer serve their constituents interests
• to not pay our bills and push our debts on future generations with the unbounded national debt

I'm forever grateful for the country that has allowed my family to find peace and to create a great life. I just can't ignore our system's destruction of others. A system that doesn't build for a global or national future. I'm not a herd animal at the intersection of privilege hoping for no more than to watch those on the outside being picked off.

If there is hope for the people of the world to live together in peace, it is not going to come from Japan. China is offering an authoritarian path for the world to follow. Europe demonstrates the path of a loose confederation. But, it is the experiment of democracy in the United States that seeks to forge a society where individuals of great diversity come together as a people organized by ideas.