Sometimes somebody from the outside can paint a better picture than a native can. Jon Gets it, and America is Better for having him as an immigrant, as well as all the others like him. Take a step back, and soak in the Perspective from 'the other side'
I would also recommend subscribing to his blog. He is an ActiveRain Ambassador also. You should follow as many as you find.
Direct all comments to his original blog please. Link is immediately below this comment
My son was good at drawing cars. He had (and still has) a knack for that. I remember when he was quite little, we caught him selling the beautiful pictures for 1 ruble.
We were terrified. We told him that we lived in the Soviet Union and Soviet People did not do it. That he should never ever-ever do it again. Want to give it to someone, fine, but he could not take money.
Money was when you go and work, and they pay you whatever it is. And not any other way.
Americans consider tolerance as a very important trait, and apply it religiously to issues in this diverse society. Tolerance is of paramount importance as it is the key for inclusive society. We may be different, but we need to be tolerant to others. In a multicultural democratic environment tolerance is the foundation of building that mutual respect. But this is an American way. And it stops right here. It is not universal.
I lived in the Soviet Union for 40 years, and I remember myself from a very early age. What was the most important thing in our lives? INTOLERANCE. We were taught to be intolerant. Intolerance was the key to success in life, to the very survival.
In Soviet propaganda intolerance was the key element. We actually took the pledge to be intolerant to everything that was against our ideology, values, and beliefs. And it was not peaceful. Intolerance was supposed to be active. It was despising Western influences that you could trace in some writings of even famous writers, and their books disappeared from the shelves, and they were ostracized in the media, jailed (Joseph Brodsky), exiled (Alexander Solzhenitsyn), sent to oblivion (oh, so many of them), intolerance to fashion, which always was perceived as the influence of rotten West and there would be concerned citizens with scissors cutting too narrow pants, or chasing girls in mini-skirts, or the dean at the university chasing boys and cutting hair if he thought it was too long…
Socialist propaganda was based on the premise that we would have lived in Communism, which was the ultimate dream and goal, if not for some external enemy, be it United States, Capitalism, bad weather (hence food shortage), but it was always something external, that we needed to defeat. That something was the enemy. And we learned to hate the enemy. And we learned to be intolerant to everything the enemy was representing.
Iran’s political culture is also based on intolerance. It is not inclusive, it is exclusive, Same as the political culture of so many countries around the world.
The world largely is based on intolerance, it is not inclusive. For people from many other cultures American tolerance is a sign of weakness. They came with the notion of what is good and what is bad, how people should think, how they should dress, what to eat, and they tend to preserve many of the same beliefs even after years on American soil.
And we expect to have a miracle result from people living in Syria, Iran, North Korea? That they suddenly embrace the Western culture, embrace freedom, democracy?
You can bring the freedom and equality to women in Iran. But do not be surprised if you meet the strongest resentment from the very women you came to free.
For so many in the world we are the enemy. Rich enemy. We can bring money, food, supplies, water, build homes, and by doing all that we will not earn love from the world.
Heck with love. Can we get respect? Yes. By being strong and decisive power. We are too concerned about what the world thinks about us. We shouldn’t. We set the rules, and we enforce them. They will call us gendarme. Call me a pot, just do not put me on the stove.
* Images courtesy of Flickr.com under Creative Commons license
