I Proudly Wear Many Hats…
But ‘American’ is no longer one of them.
I don’t know if this is my midlife crisis, but I do feel as though my existential angst has reached a sort of cliff edge or tipping point, as if life for it’s own sake is no longer enough justification to continue, much like the cherished myths we’ve built up around ourselves in this land we call ‘America.’ I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, living in this society has been an ever-increasing exercise in absurdity, anguish and the inducement of anxiety.
First of all, Canada and Mexico are both technically ‘American’ nations because they too exist here on the North American continent. And since ‘The Americas’ also extend to the southern tip of Argentina, that means everyone from Fairbanks to Vancouver to Austin to Jalisco to Panama City to Bogata to Buenos Aries and most Western Hemisphere points in between is technically an American Citizen as well. So I feel it a bit absurd, and don’t really consider it a badge of honor anymore, to call myself an American simply because I live in ‘the States’.
The anxiety we instill in each other, almost from birth (if not prenatal gestation) is equally absurd. The Information Age has fostered and allowed our collective ego to metastasize via the promotion of near-rabid Individualism, rather than giving us a chance to let go of ego by way…
