An Ode to America
A Norwegian reflection on the appeal and qualities of American society.
It is 1995 and night time. The tall skyscrapers that make up the Manhattan skyline loom in the distance with a checkered pattern of randomly lit up windows across each skyscraper. It sort of makes them glitter in the night. I am sitting in the backseat of one of those famous yellow New York cabs together with my mom and twin brother. We are making our way from JFK airport to a hotel somewhere in Manhattan.
I sucked in every little details I could catch with my eyes. I remember marveling at the enormity of the highway. In front of us I could see this sort of wave of cars. Or rather I could see a sea of red backlights. I could remember thinking about how wide the lights looked. Like you could really tell they were American cars. Much wider than the cars we were used to in Europe.
They even moved differently. The soft suspension Americans preferred on their cars made them bounce around slightly each time some gap or section of the highway was crossed.
I had been abroad before, but this was a really different world. Everything was different. Everything was at a much larger scale than I had seen before. I was 17 and absolutely thrilled. It was love at first sight. My mom had sprung this as a surprise trip on me and my brother. She knew I was really fascinated with America and especially New York. I had been going on about how awesome New York was for a while. It was a period in which I had a certain obsession with high-rise buildings. Perhaps because to any teenager in the 90s fascinated with technology and the future, America and especially New York embodied all that.
This was my first encounter with America. It felt out of this world to actually be in the city I had seen so many times in movies. It had felt so far away, as if on a different planet.
Those of you who read me with some regularity will know that I often write rather critically about American society and politics. However today I want to talk about how America captivated me in the first place and the qualities of American society that I have come to discover and appreciate.
The Bustle and Hustle of America
One of the things that still fascinates me about America and that I first encountered in New York was the bustle of life. How everything was sort of larger than life. Everything is sort of exaggerated in America as if one is inside a cartoon. People speak in an animated fashion. There are people yelling to each other on the other side of the street. A cacophony of car horns.
Before I came to America, I thought the behavior of people in movies was just for pretend. I was surprised how similar Americans were to their doppelgängers in Hollywood movies.
In particular, I remember a fire in a barrel on the street. A whole bunch of firemen came to put it out. My brother, my mother, and I stood there mesmerized by all the commotion. These firemen were running around yelling at each other, waving their hands. It actually looked kind of like an American action movie.
Any American reading this may be confused by my characterization. I have to give some context. I am Norwegian and like any other Nordic person we are kind of the opposite of animated. Norway is a quiet country. Things happen in a quiet, low-key way. Yelling is frowned upon. The instruction manual given to German soldiers invading Norway during WWII said explicitly: Don’t yell at Norwegians. They hate it!
There is simply no way Norwegian firemen would have acted this way.
I must add a digression to this. I remember an American sergeant watching a YouTube video of how Danish elite military troops were trained. He was completely puzzled by the fact that there was no yelling by the officers.
Anyone who has seen the training of American soldiers knows that American drill sergeants really know how to yell.
As someone who has served in the Norwegian Royal Guard, I can confirm that not yelling is a general Nordic trait. Officers and soldiers simply don’t yell that much. Somebody screaming in Scandinavia will often be viewed as having lost self control or being in a poor mental condition. As an officer, you would not want to project either of these things.
This is just to clarify why these firemen fascinated us. They acted in a way completely alien to a Scandinavian. It was a moment of “Wow, they really are like in the movies!”
Maybe this sounds weird, but this was not some kind of turnoff. It was a major part of the appeal of America and still is. There is this spark — this feeling of being alive among all these people who are larger than life.
I remember a late bus ride to Seattle from North Dakota. People would yell stuff to each other. Remarks or jokes. It was sort of a friendly banter. That whole bus came to life. Just sitting and observing it all quietly in my seat was kind of enjoyable. I remember thinking, “This is so awesome!” Similar things would keep happening to me on different occasions.
Stuff like that simply never happens in Scandinavia. A bus or subway ride is a silent affair.
The Greatest Entertainers, Salesmen and Optimists
Since I am talking about my initial tourist experiences in America, I should say some words about Americans as entertainers.
I have traveled in many countries and done tours of all sorts of places. Europe has a lot of amazing historical places and museums to visit. In fact, I would argue that Europe has more interesting things to see. However, Americans are infinitely better at “selling” what they have.
I think almost all of the most entertaining tours I have been on were in America. I can still remember the guy who took me on a tour of the Seattle underground. Yet the person who took me on a guided tour through Pompeii in Italy is completely forgotten. I should add that Pompeii is a far more interesting place to visit. There is a lot more cool stuff to learn. However, my Seattle guide was far better at making us laugh and enjoy ourselves.
The most boring guided tour I ever had was in the Czech Republic. It was in a beautiful old medieval castle on a hilltop. I love castles but the guided tour was so excruciatingly boring that it actually pissed me off. The guide was just spitting one boring fact after the other in chronological order. American guides tend to tell stories. There is some kind of punchline or quirky fact. I am sure there was quirky facts about this castle but the tour guide had chosen to hide those, lest we got amused.
Entertainment is at the heart of America. Whether it is a Broadway show, blues, jazz, rock, rap or Hollywood. Europe also makes movies but those have long been part of a very intellectual tradition. Americans really showed the world how to make shamelessly entertaining movies: Westerns, action movies, and superheroes, as well as animated shows like Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, The Simpsons, and South Park.
Tied in with this is American salesmanship. There is an element of entertainment there too. Americans understand how to sell and that has no doubt helped build titans of industry. Consumer culture can perhaps go too far, but credit should be given where credit is due. There is no doubt that selling is something Americans have a unique talent for.
Perhaps this is related to Americans’ relentless optimism and can-do spirit. It is something I have many times felt working with Americans. There is this contagious optimism that can help to move a difficult task forward. It is hard to imagine something like SpaceX or Tesla happening in Europe. These kinds of bold visions pushed by Elon Musk could not have found fertile ground in Europe or pretty much anywhere else. Optimists with bold visions exist everywhere. Let us not forget that Elon Musk himself is a South African.
However, people have to deal with the environment they are in. Could Elon Musk have fired up a crowd of Europeans to make Tesla and SpaceX happen? Or more specifically fired up a bunch of investors? One can look at the British Skylon spacecraft developed by Reaction Engines Limited. That is an example of some European scientists with a really innovative concept. Yet they can hardly get any funding. Perhaps because we Europeans simply are not good sales people. Maybe we cannot sell the idea to the people with money. And the people with money lack the American style optimism.
Even when this salesmanship is a fraud, it still a fascinating part of America. Reading old newspapers from the Wild West, it is quite funny to see from the ads how the same mentality existed over a hundred years ago. You can see all these snake-oil salesmen promising the world. There is both a touch of salesmanship and boundless optimism. Coca-Cola itself was built on completely overpromising its health benefits. There is an element of fake it until you make it.
Sure, there is clearly a negative element to this, but it is also what makes America so fascinating and interesting.
The American Art Of Overdoing It
To me few things sum up America more than this quote:
“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.”
A classic American pink Cadillac with wings is the embodiment of that wonderful American idea that you can make crazy, tacky awesomeness into reality.
While others may have loved classic minimalist designs, I adored American cars as a teenager. Although the 1950s aren’t coming back any time soon, America never quite stopped making cars with bold designs.
Look at this car. Look at the attitude of that car. Macho American muscle car through and through. You could not mistake it for being anything but American.
But perhaps the ultimate embodiment of America is Las Vegas. The town only exists because millions of people have had the optimism and confidence that they would be different from all the other suckers. They were going to leave that town with millions. Of course they never did because the house always wins.
Vegas is also a study in the American art of overdoing it. When I came to this town about 20 years ago I could not help but marvel at a place that wore its fakeness and megalomania with pride. I loved it!
The Venetian Casino was the the ultimate testament to American willingness to take it all out. They put canals with boats inside the Casino.
In Vegas you can eat messy burgers rated by how many napkins (serviettes) you need to get through one. I ate enormous ice cream desserts with all sorts of toppings and add-ons. There are countless enormous shows that all have a tendency to go over the top.
I loved it! After all, I come from a culture where moderation is seen as one of the more important virtues. Especially the time I grew up in — the 80s and 90s — showed signs of that. I remember in particular when all the products in the grocery store got white and blue packaging for efficiency reasons. One was not supposed to have enticing and flashy labeling and wrapping on stuff. Norway is a country with a long disdain for the superficial or for anyone showing off wealth, prosperity or success. There are many good aspects to this but it can at times feel very stifling.
America was refreshingly the complete opposite. Anything, no matter how outrageous, flamboyant and gaudy, goes. This can manifest itself in many different ways. I especially remembering enjoying Orange County Choppers on Discovery Channel in the early 2000s.
What made this show entertaining was the combination of crazy bike designs and loud personalities. These guys always got in an argument with each other. It was hard to grasp how they actually got anything done, but they did. That show in many ways encapsulates everything about America to me. The willingness to go bold with guns blazing, making no compromises, all combined with an unhealthy dose of testosterone. Finally, top it all off with showmanship, entertainment, and enthusiasm. That is America for you.
You cannot stop watching, as you are both intrigued, impressed and partly disgusted. But that is part of the charm. Anyone who has ever tried writing fiction knows that you cannot write entertaining fiction without having conflict and problems. But there is a fine balance to it. If you create a dreary and depressing tale, then nobody wants to read it.
With Orange Country Choppers, you got the sense that these guys could have any number of conflicts and scream to each other for an hour and yet the next day they would all bounce back and be ready to crank out new cool designs with great enthusiasm.
Of course, there is another American variant of this as seen with Myth Busters, another popular show in the early 2000s. The toxic masculinity is replaced with the boyish or geekish charm of Adam Savage, perfectly contrasted with slightly grumpy Jamie Hyneman.
Making entertainment out of wacky contraptions and blowing things up with great enthusiasm seems quintessentially American. This reminds me of other American forms of entertainment such as Monster Trucks and Demolition Derby. Who else does crazy stuff like this? Could anyone ever imagine the French making monster trucks? Of course not. It would be seen as vulgar. But in America there is no shame in overdoing it and coming up with crazy concepts. Hence pink Cadillacs and Monster Trucks are a product of America and not of France, Switzerland, Germany or Britain.
American Hospitality
In Europe, we may complain about American superficiality, but American hospitality is very real. In no other country have I experienced people being so ready to invite me to their house to stay or let me meet their family and relatives.
My first Thanksgiving in the US, it felt like I had people lining up to invite me home. They wanted to make sure “the foreigner” wasn’t left alone for this cherished American holiday.
I went on a variety of trips, hiking and whatnot with family and relatives whom I did not always know very well. People invited me to share in close family events in a way that I think would be harder to imagine in my own corner of the world where the private sphere is more guarded. You don’t randomly invite people to family events.
I had the family of an American friend take me to his younger brother’s school for some kind of event involving toy car racing. I have visited the grandparents of several American friends. I honestly don’t think I have ever done that in Norway or the Netherlands where I lived 3 years. This happened in just a year spent in the US.
But it is not merely about being invited to someone’s house or to meet their family. It could be anything. While I lived in North Dakota, I used to take walks from my place up to the local McDonald’s to buy an apple pie. Yeah, I developed a sweet tooth living in America.
On one of these walks during winter time, a guy drove up to me and opened the door. He was beaming with joy and asked if I need a ride. “What a nice guy,” I thought. When I jumped in, he proudly announced that he had just gotten out of prison, hence his excitement. I thought: “Only in America.”
It was the first time in my life that I met somebody who had been in prison. Or at least somebody who was open about it. The guy was really nice to me, and was pretty open about how he ended up in prison.
He drove me to McDonald’s, let me go in and order and waited for me to take me back home. He never caused me any trouble.
People offering to drive you places is surprisingly common in the US. On another occasion, I was carrying seven bags after shopping at Wall-Mart and was heading to the bus stop. A couple stopped and offered me a ride home. Usually it isn’t just a drive, but it is also a chance to meet some nice people. The couple was really friendly and asked where I was from and what I was doing there. Americans love showing you what a great country America is. Although to be honest, Americans often have no idea about what actually appeals to foreigners about America. That is part of my reason for writing this story.
I have lived most of my life in Norway and nobody besides actual friends has ever offered me a ride anywhere. It just does not happen. So this is actually an unusual thing about America. I doubt this happens anywhere else in Europe.
The most insane story was probably when I stayed in Houston to do some collaborative software development work. I don’t drive, which was a big problem sending me to Houston. I had to walk past highways, parking lots and grass-fields to get to the office from my hotel each day.
The women behind the counter at the hotel felt so sorry for me being stuck at the hotel without a car that she got her boyfriend to drive me around Houston. No, I am not kidding! It sounds crazy, but I had this total stranger driving me around to bars in Houston meeting his friends. All because his girlfriend felt sorry for me.
At another time a guy just offered me to join him going to the space ship museum where they have the Saturn V lying on the grass.
This is one of the things I love about America. You can end up meeting the most random people doing the most random things. Friendships in America are easy come and easy go.
The Crazy Uncle
The crazy uncle is sort of a trope in American life. But it seems to be a thing. It isn’t necessarily an actual uncle but there is always some guy in any American family it seems who is kind of crazy but which you love anyway.
To me it was one of the things I loved about my times in the US. The family crazy uncle telling me all sorts of crazy stories and insane perspectives on life. Usually this guy would love to have a beer and really get disappointed if I didn’t have one as well. He might tell me about UFOs and aliens. At other times the crazy uncle was a guy who had been in Vietnam or some other war with crazy stories to tell.
Usually, he was an American patriot to the core. The facts he served up were usually not facts at all, but who cares? To me the appeal is always the colorfulness of it. It is like sitting next to some wacky movie character from a Tarantino movie. Why would you not want to do that? These are the people who turn America into a colorful place. They contribute to the American mythology but also, I suppose, many of its contemporary problems.
American Mythology and Dreams
America is a land of contradictions. It is what has fascinated and pulled me to this country for decades. It is why America never gets boring even if frequently watching American politics in a lesson in frustration.
I know there are many places in the world with far worse problems than America, but since America is a country I have a special relation to it feels very different. The problems that America faces feel closer and more real.
It is not just my own experience living in the US, traveling, family friends and relatives but also the mythology spun around America for so many of us in Europe.
Americans have stories about their ancestors who came from the Old World. But those of us left behind have stories about all those who went over. After Ireland, Norway was the country that sent the largest fraction of its population to America. There are more descendants of Norwegians in America today than there are Norwegians in Norway.
They have not just left a trace in America but also in Norway. Every family has stories of relatives who packed their bags and went across the sea to the land of opportunity. There are books and television series about this. People love reading about the lives of Norwegian settlers in America.
I grew up with stories from my grandfather about how his father, my great-grandfather, had sailed all the seas and built railroad track in the American Wild West. It is funny how our perspectives are. One can read about an Irish or English family proudly announcing that they have some Viking ancestor in their family. For a Norwegian, having Viking ancestors is not exactly earth shattering. Having somebody who was actually in the Wild West was quite another thing. That beats Vikings.
Norwegian kids did not grow up playing Vikings and Monks. They grew up playing Cowboy and Indians. Well, not my kids but for my parents’ generation, that was a thing. I have pictures of my dad in cowboy outfits. In summer time they would even build an American-style frontier fort at my grandfathers cabin.
What I find funny is how we Europeans are so much more fascinated by American history and the Wild West than Americans themselves are. It is strange when you realize that all comic books you have read about American history are European creations. They are not American. One popular story from my childhood is Silver Arrow, about a Native American woman.
It was not just the Wild West. I also remember comics about the Revolutionary War with Americans fighting British redcoats. There were stories about David Crockett, of course. And in particular my brother and I loved a Belgian comic book series about the American Civil War called Les Tuniques Bleues, which translated to “the Blue Coats.” In Norway we called them “Blåjakkene.”
There are a lot more examples of this that I could ever list, but I think and American would be surprised if he ever walked into a French comic book and graphic novel store. The variation of stories set in different time periods in America is stunning, not to mention all the historical details. The authors have really done their research.
It isn’t just comics, of course. In Norway, a longtime favorite pulp fiction character is Morgan Kane.
Just to give a sense of how popular the American West have been in Norway, from Wiki:
The Morgan Kane series has become the biggest success in modern Norwegian leisure reading literature. The 83 books in the series have sold 11 million copies in Norway alone, in addition to being published in ten other countries — totaling 20 million copies sold
That is a lot of books in a country with only 5 million people.
I could go on, but what I am trying to say is that a lot of us feel a deep connection to America. Even before we set foot on American soil, we have heard countless stories, seen countless movies and seen America on the news. Ronald Reagan and meetings between Mikhail Gorbachev.
This is why many of us in the Old World have opinions about America. This story was aimed at trying to get across both my fascination with America and help better get across my love-hate relationship with the country.
When you are close to someone, it hurts more when you see them go astray. A random junkie on the street is very different from experiencing your own brother becoming an addict. Seeing how American politics has evolved ever since George W. Bush has been painful in that sense. Politics is of course worse in Russia, China, and numerous other countries. But I and many other Europeans don’t have that kind of connection to those countries. America is special and that is why it hurts more, why it will get you more fired up and why it is more likely to fill you with despair.
When I began writing this, I did not intend to end it on a bittersweet note, but I suppose the more I think about positive things about America, the more it hurts to be reminded of all the things which have gone awry.
But then I tell myself: America has always been a country in deep conflict with itself and it has always pulled through. America is the perpetual comeback kid.
