People Who Are Not Real

This is another attempt of mine, to understand my fellow-Americans. That still continue to baffle me.

I never really fit in with them - in my years as an Electronic Engineer, and then as a Technical Writer, I always felt like I was a stranger in a foreign country.

I tried to be real - and they tried to not be real.

And I think that summarizes the situation nicely.

They had good reasons for not being real - that was their way of coping with a difficult situation, that they could not understand. So they decided to get out of it. Simple as that.

This should have made it easy for me to talk to them - I could just say "I understand you, and I understand why you are, the way you are!" And they could say "Yes, that is how we are, and we are glad you understand us!"

But it does not work that way. They continue to look at me, as if I were a stranger - that does not understand them at all!

Their most important attribute is - that they cannot be understood. They do not want to be understood - and will do anything in their power to prevent this.

I am reading The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism that does an excellent job of describing the American economy, in the last half of the last century.

If Americans wanted to understand their economy - all they had to do was read this. But they don't - and they continue to say, as loudly as they can "We don't understand it!"

And feel virtuous, saying this.