Some quick thoughts that hadn’t occurred to me on prior trips to Europe:
One: our reputation as a violent society may be harming us in ways we can’t quantify. While I’d never heard anyone express to me trepidation at relocating, or even visiting, the US because of crime, this trip I met two separate professionals who would hesitate at visiting or relocating to the US because of concerns about violent crime. I’ve never experienced this before, and it’s hard to say what could be leading folks to come to those conclusions now–but it’s happening.
Two: this “American exceptionalism” talk must sound very, very weird to folks who are not Americans. At home, we are the focus of everything-and even that we do very narrowly. As an example, compare our TV with (in this case Dutch) TV. At home, everything is in English, maybe one or two channels of Spanish, and nothing addressing non-American concerns. In Amsterdam, my television had all the major European languages, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, and other Asian and middle eastern languages I didn’t recognize. I watched more TV than usual because of the shutdown. It is discouraging to realize we think of ourselves as exceptional largely because we have absolutely no clue about anyone but ourselves.
This brings me to three: Even Europeans have living memory of significant warfare, and it makes a huge difference. In the US, virtually none of us have seen war. If you are not enlisted, generally you are blessed to not know the danger of war. This is what 9/11 threatened to change. Thus, while we are steadily taught our responsibility to the rest of the world, it is not tempered by appropriate humility and curiosity. I’m not sure what we lose, but it’s something I sensed this time in Amsterdam. I think many of the younger generation also have not seen war, but there is enough institutional memory to instill an ethic of interdependence among the population.
Europe is a lot of fun. I can’t wait to travel more in Asia and Africa to see what I learn there.