Paul,
I am indeed quite confused as to who you are referring to, and I will assume that you are indeed an American.
The American mindset is very good! Indeed it is. I have always admired Americans. And by this I mean the American Individual, the American work ethic, the American dream. What is left? Almost none of the ideals that made America great exist now in today's America. I look around me in the streets of LA and I see gang violence, reminiscent perhaps of the old days in Russia.
I believe that perhaps the Russian people feel cheated. Many of us who have been exposed to both American and Russian propaganda, we feel cheated on both sides of the world. When my uncle first came to America, he sent me a letter back home telling me how friendly the people were, how hard working, and how much better they lived. That was true, then. Now it is a different story. I decided to follow my Uncle--it appears I missed the golden days because the America that I saw was not the America my uncle had told me.
It was an America where the only person speaking the pledge of allegiance in a crowded room of natural-born Americans was an immigrant.
It was an America where the only person respecting the great ideals of America, the great flag of America, the only person respecting and having pride in his new country, was me, a Russian, and a legal immigrant.
It was an America where drugs slowly became more and more prevalent, filled with grumblers and people demanding handouts and other such entitlement.
I often asked myself is this the America I came over to see? To find a reflection of the old Russia I had left behind?
I returned to Russia recently to visit relatives. It has vastly improved since I last visited. Taxes were low, religious and freedom of speech. Corruption had already begun to slowly fall apart as the old system of Druzhiniki was re-established.
Most of all we had a leader, Putin. Maybe a shrewd, cunning, snakish, more authoritan ruler--but a ruler nontheless.
America should not be grossly generalized as fat, full, and lazy. Far from that, there is certainly much more to America than McDonalds, dozens and dozens of young teens bent over, staring at their Samsung Galaxies and iPhone 5's while they cross the street, surely more than the racism and ethnic hating I receive for being a Russian, surely more than the ignoranumuses who traverse around blasting around their mouths in gigantic suits who call themselves politicians. Surely America is more than the average teen who utilizes crude words in every sentence, with a vocabulary smaller than that of an immigrant who has lived fewer years in America than they have, surely more than the theoretical knowledge that America has over practical, applied knowledge, surely more than failed education systems and banks.
Yes, the heart of America is still there, but it is hidden by a certain corruption, tainted by a single individual, or several up in the big, marble-columned house in Washington D.C.
Putin himself stumbles as he speaks, makes his mistakes like any individual. Does he lie? Certainly. What shrewd politician does not?
But do we stereotype, or hate, a country based on one man, the actions of a few, of a hundred, of a thousand, in almost perfect synechdoche of hundreds of millions of people?
What exactly does that make us? If Russia stereotyped US entirely by Obama, the Average Russian's respect for US would be absolutely zero.
What makes a country a home? Is it how much money, how much food, how much material wealth you have?
Then I ask, is it not the warmth of the people, the strength of their hearts, and the vigor and passion they have? These values I find that the average American no longer has. I look around me and I find distress, anguish, amidst the abundance and wealth in America.
And all of it is plagued with a large number we call a national debt.
Do the same problems hit home in Russia? No! By no means. Russia has different problems. Russia has Putin. Likewise, America has Obama.
Is it fair, and I am sure most will agree, that Russia is bad because Putin and America because Obama?
In the end I say one thing: We should both take out the planks in each of our own eyes before we mutter any harsh word or stand blindly behind our own ideals. For right now one thing is clear--America is a beautiful nation, impurified by one. Russia is beautiful, alas impurified as well.
I do not believe you are blind in your beliefs, however, I feel that many fellow Americans are. It saddened me greatly when, during the 2004 elections, I heard a group of men and women, when approached by some Obama voters, told that if they did not vote for Obama, they were racist.
It saddened me more yet to hear from a group of young adults that they "voted for Obama just because he was black, a better speaker, and did I mention suave?"
Even in Russia, amongst the drinks passed around the table at night, amongst the old traditions that hold still, talks of policies dominated voting. The Russian Congress has 5 parties that hold fair shares of seats, versus the US Congress of Two Parties.
There always exists the ignorant. Let us two not be one of those ignorant, may I have an agreement in that? ))
Besides, we are of the same alliance.
If I seemingly contradict myself, it is possible I am under the influence, but more likely than not I have since changed my mind, open-minded and observing of all opinions.
Please have a nice day!
Sincerely,
Dmitri Chuikov