Finding international illumination in a blackout

The next day, I would find a billboard on the side of one of Toronto’s main power plants that… The next day, I would find a billboard on the side of one of Toronto’s main power plants that boldly proclaimed, in white bold on top of a black background, the slogan, “We deliver exciting possibilities.” But that irony remained still elusive, as I fumbled my way down the darkened staircase of my hostel to learn that the power outage was citywide.

As the initial confusion passed and the day subsided into an eerily dark night, the city evolved into a Lockean state of nature, where people stood in offensively long lines to pay for the cheapest and most basic things. There was no looting, no fire, no rioting and no gunshots. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as I hoped, at first, it would be. I was surprised, when I reached my friend in New York City, to learn that New Yorkers, too, were acting civil.

All this, I suppose, could have been predicted by someone with knowledge of our nation’s power grids and an optimistic view of human nature. But what happened in the hostel came as a surprise, to me, at least. Something about the darkness freed our conversations to grow in scope. In a civil and intelligent way, we touched on history, travel, politics, culture and education.

And being the only American, I found myself the sole voice for a way of life that seemed foreign to the various accents I found around me.

I tried to explain the nature of a liberal arts curriculum, and Wolfgang, the German, replied that it sounded like we learned nothing about everything. The two Dutch girls were also confused, and I conceded that, for most people, that’s how it ended up working out.

I asked what the mainstream conception of the United States was in their respective countries. A drunk and high Canadian rickshaw driver said the key difference between the United States and Canada is that, at every party he’s ever been to in the States, he’s found guys yelling at girls to flash them. That, he says, is unheard of in Canada.

Wolfgang brought up the film “Bowling for Columbine” and said that it had been hugely popular all over Germany. And that it had put a new face on America and practically defined Canada in the minds of most Germans. It was, apparently, the same way in the Netherlands.

“Bowling for Columbine” does touch on some major issues in the United States today, but the majority of its particular pieces of information are either fabricated or misleading. As I said in a column I devoted to it last spring, the overall approach is more cunning than coherent, and there is, at present, serious talk of revoking the Oscar given to “Bowling” director Michael Moore.

As the night passed, we talked about the merits of federalism, globalization and the economic imperialism it promotes, the lack of responsibility in recent journalism, drinking customs – they don’t have pitchers in Germany – and language. It was, apparently, a very American thing to do when I jokingly told a British girl that her pronunciation of “schedule” just sounded weird.

When the subject of the war in Iraq came up, I held that most people I know were against it but that I believed that, in five years, the Iraqi people will assuredly be better off for it. Although I did admit that if the weapons aren’t found, that would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we had no real reason to go in and that we had been systematically lied to and manipulated by our government, which is probably the case.

Eventually, one of the Dutch girls asked me, point blank, why I liked being American. I was quick to note that our national consciousness did have serious flaws. I mentioned our false sense of entitlement, ethnocentrism, almost anachronistic sense of conservative values and the fact that we simply don’t know how to party. In defense, I added that most Americans really do have a sense of themselves as a free people. And while, in actuality, we are less free, in many ways, than the rest of the developed world, Americans tend to define themselves with this concept. And when people define themselves with a concept like freedom, whether it’s justified or not, it adds a sense of individualism and opportunity to their hearts and minds.

Granted, a lot of bad comes with those things, as well. But she seemed satisfied with that.

Will Minton can be reached at wminton@pittnews.com.