Sunday, March 27, 2011

The American Melting Pot

This is how we often refer to our country, as a melting pot. Because people of all nations move here and often intermarry. So, in this sense America might be the most international nation of all nations on earth. Because being a melting pot is not just a thought it is also a pragmatic way to survive anything. And so we do.

If you were a dog breeder for example, the more pure bred your dog is the more likely it will go crazy or have hip displacement or whatever is the main problem of the breed. For example, often toy collie's will just bark and run in circles and chase their tails until the die one day. That's that breed's problem.

But when you find a mongrel he usually loses most of the problems of the pure breeds and often can survive anything that life brings him. The same is true of Americans. All the weaknesses of the individual nations and cultures have mostly been bred out of us mongrel Americans. And just like a mongrel we find ways to survive anything and we have.

But it doesn't end there. For example, if you live in the most international of states you are in California, where being experimental isn't just something people do once in a while it is a lifestyle. However, there is a method to all this so you don't just die trying the wrong thing. When being experimental is a lifestyle choice, you better have a system that goes along with this that protects the masses of Californians and beyond. And we do. So, others might experiment with new ideas and die in the process because of a lack of experience of trying new things. But in California experimentalism goes back at least 400 years and before that if you consider the native Americans for thousands of years in California, long before that as well.

So, in California and the rest of the U.S. states you will find new things always happening and new ideas always being tested and formulated and reformulated for ultimate usefulness. Also, you will see new religions being born that are combinations of some or even all religions on earth. And you will see people try this new experience or religion to see if it works. Anything that doesn't work or serve a purpose is soon cast aside for something else. So, there is a kind of experimental pragmatism at work always about all this. So, you will see aspects of different cultures dress and styles being interfaced with all sorts of cultures styles and new ideas and new cultural perspectives being toyed with and experimented with and melded into new types of technologies and religions and new and useful ideas springing up always. That is not to say that some people are not prepared for all this. When I first came to California at age 4 I was at first overwhelmed by the amount of new freedom I had, from the weather, from the new ideas, and from the people in Southern California where my family moved to. But by the time I was 12 years old and living in Glendale (a suburb near the mountains of Los Angeles) I had adapted to all this. One day I would see a friend of mine who had separated a roller skate that fit on the bottom of a shoe and who had nailed the front and back of the skate on a 2x4 12 inch long board and skateboarded to school(that was a new word around 1960 (skateboarded). The next months I saw kids my age in junior high going to wood shop which was one of four trade And then if interested could take further training in 8th and 9th grade then. Auto shop wasn't available until High School for those who were interested. My best friend built street racers sort of like in "Grease" back then. But we were also surfers too so we dressed  more like surfers than those in Grease. So in junior high in 7th and 8th grade the many of the boys  started to take roller skates and separate them and fashion miniature surf boards to "surf" along the sidewalks. And where I lived this all started with a 2x4 a foot long on a separated roller skate. Then one of my best friends got the brilliant idea of skateboarding down Adams Hill in Glendale where I lived then. However, once he reached 30 or 40 miles per hour he thought better of it and jumped off. He spent a few days in the hospital from burning most of the flesh off his right hip on the pavement.

So, obviously not all experiments were successful. Later that same friend stole a Corvette and wound up in Honor Camp for 3 months at age 15. Later, he joined the Army and went to the Viet Nam War as a Helicopter pilot.

It definitely was a different world than now. But what I'm trying to get at mostly is just how amazing in its effect on the whole world the ideas that created the U.S. actually are in real life. It's true this life isn't for everyone. But if you like opportunity and freedom and a chance to succeed there are few better places long term still than America.

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