BEWARE STEREOTYPES AHEAD: I am aware that the following contains some cultural stereotypes, you get the idea, don't get caught up in the specifics.
When driving around Bethlehem, I am frightened. People drive as fast as they can get their cars to go, they pull out in front of you, they stop in the middle of the road to talk to friends, they double and triple park, they honk incessantly, they walk down the middle of the road and then move at the last minute. I have rarely, however, seen any driver get made at another driver. In the US, everything seems so orderly, so efficient, and yet people are driving around and seething with rage over a car that is tailgating them or somone who passed too slowly or too quickly. It is as if our respective societies' approaches to conflict are on display by watching traffic.
Palestinians, when they are upset, say, "Look, I am very upset and this is why you are wrong and have made me upset. . ." There is often a lot of yelling, some hand waving, much interrupting, and then no more. They have already fought about it, what is the use of being angry.
Americans, when we are upset, turn their backs on the person they are angry with and tell everyone else. "That is a bad person over there, listen to what they did to me . . ." There are some sob stories, resentment, divisions, and simmering hostilities that last for years and sometimes never come to the surface.
I don't know which is better. Somehow, America has survived hundreds of years of different opinions, ethnic groups, and socioeconomic constituencies and has lived to tell about it. The ability to repress conflict and cover over it with a veneer of compromise has been helpful, it seems. But sometimes it seems as though individuals have suffered because of it, relationships have been damaged, lives have been shortened (think of road rage) because we do not have a socially appropriate way to blow of steam. I am not sure which is better, or even if there is a better. I hope to at least figure out what works for me. Inshallah. (God willing).
Basem
When driving around Bethlehem, I am frightened. People drive as fast as they can get their cars to go, they pull out in front of you, they stop in the middle of the road to talk to friends, they double and triple park, they honk incessantly, they walk down the middle of the road and then move at the last minute. I have rarely, however, seen any driver get made at another driver. In the US, everything seems so orderly, so efficient, and yet people are driving around and seething with rage over a car that is tailgating them or somone who passed too slowly or too quickly. It is as if our respective societies' approaches to conflict are on display by watching traffic.
Palestinians, when they are upset, say, "Look, I am very upset and this is why you are wrong and have made me upset. . ." There is often a lot of yelling, some hand waving, much interrupting, and then no more. They have already fought about it, what is the use of being angry.
Americans, when we are upset, turn their backs on the person they are angry with and tell everyone else. "That is a bad person over there, listen to what they did to me . . ." There are some sob stories, resentment, divisions, and simmering hostilities that last for years and sometimes never come to the surface.
I don't know which is better. Somehow, America has survived hundreds of years of different opinions, ethnic groups, and socioeconomic constituencies and has lived to tell about it. The ability to repress conflict and cover over it with a veneer of compromise has been helpful, it seems. But sometimes it seems as though individuals have suffered because of it, relationships have been damaged, lives have been shortened (think of road rage) because we do not have a socially appropriate way to blow of steam. I am not sure which is better, or even if there is a better. I hope to at least figure out what works for me. Inshallah. (God willing).
Basem
posted by Basem at 5:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home