Exit this Roman shell

[imomus]

For those of you thinking of leaving America today -- and there are many, I'm sure -- I'd say just do it. Walk away. Leaving Britain is the best thing I ever did. I lived for years there feeling like a political and cultural exile, trying to fight back with satire and a thousand subtle forms of stubbornness and resistance. But being an 'internal exile' is not good for the soul. My struggle with attitudes which seemed toxic to me started making me as hard, cynical and corrupt as the people and the attitudes I was fighting.

Soon I realised that British people were not going to change. At least not in my short lifetime. My contribution was never going to be accepted in that country. It was much easier to get up and go. You can change the world around you by simply getting on a plane and going to the place where they think like you, even if they don't speak the same language you speak. So I went to live in France. In Germany. In Japan. I became a world citizen.

I started to think in terms of cities, and even districts of cities, rather than nations. I made my own cut and paste environment, a place where I felt comfortable and valued. I selected its elements from the internet and the parts of the cities I loved and went to live in. I count the moment I left my incorrigible homeland as the moment my adult life really began. I am now a much happier and better adjusted person.

So just leave. America doesn't deserve you. Walk away. America doesn't need your talent, your creativity and your intelligence. Or rather, it needs them desperately, but it will never acknowledge that. It's too stupid to understand that. If it calls for you, it will call for you for the wrong reasons. It will call you up as a soldier. It will call for you as canon-fodder in some spurious and unnecessary war that serves the interests of 1% of its population and an even smaller percentage of the world's population. Even if it lets you live in relative peace as a mere civilian, it will force you to live in ways that destroy the world's weather systems and its environment. It will use your tax to fund pre-emptive wars of aggressive imperialism against impoverished nations with energy resources.

Leave while you still can. Leave as a civilian, not a soldier. Leave and lead the life you were born to lead. Your absence will hurt America economically, but it deserves that. And it doesn't deserve you.

Get a passport, get a visa. Work a job, save some money. Come to Europe, come to Japan. Life is more civilised here. Come as you are, come to work, come to play, come to stay. Make love to foreigners, not Americans. Make non-American babies. Make your children world citizens, as you make yourself one.

Then you know in your brain
Leave the capitol!
Exit this roman shell!
Then you know you must leave the capitol

Leave the capitol!
Exit this roman shell!

It will not drag me down
I will leave this ten times town
I will leave this fucking dump
One room, one room

(The Fall, 'Leave The Capitol')

Comments

[stacy.livejournal.com]

I live in New York City, but grew up in a very small town in Arkansas. When I was six years old, my grandfather asked me what I was going to be when I grew up, and I said, "An artist in New York City." I don't know where that came from except that I was born knowing it. I was born knowing this was my home. When I was finally able to save up enough money to get myself here, and my feet hit the sidewalk in the East Village for the first time, I knew I was right. Six years later, I'm still here, and every day I am more certain I did the right thing. It's hard to live in NYC, but you can get yourself here and you can survive. People live here just like anywhere else.

Now I am considering leaving the USA, even though I feel very deeply that New York is my home. But there are other cities I've visited that call out like homes as well -- Barcelona, primarily. I'm considering going back. I just renewed my passport. Sometimes running away is the answer. Sometimes you ARE too good. Sometimes they DON'T deserve you.

My boyfriend likes to remind me that, "Most people are average. That's why they call it average." Those of us who are above average -- above average curiosity, intelligence, ability to love, ability to feel and express joy -- have the responsibility of saving the world. In order to save the world, we have to see it. You're absolutely right: just leave. If you are meant to be a citizen of the universe, the universe will take care of you. Don't worry. Just go where you need to be and the rest will take care of itself.