yesterday i went to see mr. scruff @ snowbombing = snowboard festival in villars in the swiss mountains.
the place was filled with attractive, very stylish and extremly lively english urbanites.
i did not speak to one person all evening.
well, except a very drunk irish man, who smoked cigars [!] and showered me with his spittle …
but what is it about the english?
when i travel, i am at least trying to make contact with some of the locals.
when they travel, they seem to prefer to stick to their own.
the english often travel in groups, or so it seems, which allows them to stick to their own. snowbombing reminded me of ibiza – although i admit i have never been. the winterversion of ibiza: english people having a rowdy time, dancing to english dj’s, showing off their english version of hipness, an english invasion on foreign soil. somehow very conquistador.
so why is it that the english seem to prefer to stay amongst themselves, when they leave their country. elliot eastwick of the “world famous pub quiz” [actually very funny!!!] said it quite clearly: “if someone is not english, or does not watch lots of english tellie, they should just … errr … leave …”. which was meant as a joke, but somehow hit it spot on.
but how do they do it, i mean practically? when the english are amongst themselves, they are loud and animated. when i smiled at people trying to make contact, they gave me a cold stare and a bombed out, blank expression.
how is that possible? is there “non-english” written on my face somewhere? do they have some sort of a radar, that helps them to spot the non-english and treat them with snide?
the irish man, who complained about the same phenomenon, had an explanation for all this. he claimed that the reason why the english are paranoid, is because of all the bad things they did to the world. to some extent i agree with this. behind the tough facade i sensed alot of fear, there was huge insecurity. but was that really because of history? the youth of a culturally and politically powerful nation -in decline – getting caught between shame and feelings of superiority? or is it just classic psychology? arrogance as often is the case covering up hidden insecurities?
If that can be said of the English – and it does ring true – then the same, and more, can be said for Americans… except they’re too brash (to put it lightly) to keep themselves to themselves as they should. At least the English can be shamed. No hope for Americans. By the way, I can say this because I’m one of them. (Notice how I did the typical American thing by comandeering the thread of conversation? It’s self-referential insanity…)
it’s interesting you should make this comment, because one can say many things about americans, but i don’t think that they are arrogant, well, maybe they are as a nation, but i think they are not in one on one contact. in my 6 years of living in the US i found americans to be very accesible, friendly and open to contact. in fact they “suffer” maybe more of too much confidance, whereas with the English i think they come off so arrogant precisely because they are very insecure underneath it. and when americans travel they might be loud and brash in middleaged groups, but at least the young americans i encounter on the backpack trail through europe seem quite friendly and openminded.
and of course, of course, we are generalising that it’s a crime. what always strikes me with americans, is that they are the most eclectic of peoples, they come in all kinds. from the most stupid [bush, hester] to the smartest [chomsky, sonntag, de lilo], from the scariest [midwest hicks] to the most inspiring [san francisco artists] plus then there’s all the ethnic diversity.