Why aren't We Nicer and should America Make Us?

I was browsing through the home page of the New York Times and found one of the first articles to be about Somalia, a topic that has lost much media coverage in the past decade or so.  What most know about Somalia, however, still remains.  It's still horrifically violent, impoverished, and conflicted, but with a major change.  The African Union has been sending troops into Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, to officially wipe out the heinous militant group known as the Shabab.  The article says that they are making strides to killing off the Shabab, who have been wreaking havoc in Somalia as far back as the U.S.'s peacekeeping attempt known as Black Hawk Down in 1993.  At the end of the article, though, the author poses an interesting and painfully true question.  He writes, "What will these African Union sacrifices amount to?  All peacekeeping experts say the same thing: that peacekeepers are a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, a way to buy time until a political process takes hold and alleviates the cause of the conflict."  

Somalia is a typical case of foreign conflict where a terribly corrupt government offers little hope at the end of the tunnel once the violence ceases.  What I've always thought to myself was, don't these militants and corrupt government officials see the pain and suffering felt by the masses in Somalia.  Where is the empathy that humans feel simply because we are all connected?  My teacher's daughter actually gave a presentation to our American Studies class about the civil war in Uganda where she touched upon this exact idea.

Some would say that the times overall have actually gotten better in terms of how people treat each other.  Coincidentally, on the same New York Times home page, I stumbled upon an opinion titled, "Are We Getting Nicer?"  The writer says, "Wars make headlines, but there are fewer conflicts today, and they typically don't kill as many people."  He also gives a number of specific examples on how we have become less violent as a human race since ancient times.  This argument definitely has basis because right after reading the opinion I realized how instead of watching people kill each other in gladiatorial death matches for fun, we watch football and hope nobody gets unintentionally injured. 

This is strictly an overall theory, though.  Atrocities still occur, people still kill, and violence still exists.  But the question is why?  And why does America often find itself stepping in to right wrongs?  Is it our responsibility due to how many would argue we are what John Winthrop called, "the shining beacon on a hill" whose beacon light as Reagan said, "guides freedom-loving people everywhere."?

Mac or PC?

Recently, in response to my brother getting older and having to use the family computer more often for school, I got my first laptop.  There was a bit of discussion even before researching the best computer because it was a large purchase and I of course did not want to hastily make the wrong decision.  Before researching, I talked to my parents about whether or not I should look further into Macs or PCs.  My dad is a big PC believer and strongly urged me in that direction and I'd heard from other adults that from a practicality standpoint PCs are the way to go.  So, I ended up getting a Dell and am happy with it.  

At my high school and even back in my junior high school, Apple products are and always were the preferred choice.  In junior high, surprisingly all of the school's computers were Mac products and nowadays, my friends tend to like Apple products over PCs.  So what really is better and what do Americans really think about when making a purchase of anything?

A friend of mine told me that anything you can do on a PC can be done on a Mac in response to m telling him my understanding that the majority of the working world uses PCs.  I had a hard time believing, however, that the whole world uses Mac products over PCs but have always wondered why someone would pick one over the other.

According to a couple of sites, it seems that Mac products are simply better.  The OS S Snow Leopard operating system beats out the Windows 7 system according to laptopmag.com.  The older Leopard OS beat out Windows Vista in a study conducted by Popular Mechanics' website.  According to these sites, there are a number of technical reasons they found the Macs better than the PC but what was interesting to me was the Popular Mechanics opening paragraph where the author writes that the guy in the Mac commercials is a, "hip, sport-coat-and-sneakers-­wearing type of guy who uses his computer for video chatting, music mash-ups and other cool, creative pursuits," and PC users,"probably think that Mac guy is a smug slacker with an overpriced toy that can't do any serious computing anyway."  The article does say that both of these stigmas are incorrect, though.  

So maybe my dad's original idea that PCs are more practical and Macs are a bit more artsy is incorrect, but what does the popularity of Macs suggest about the changing tides of American culture?  What do we care about?  The following is from an article titled, "You Can't Innovate Like Apple" on Pragmatic Marketing's website:

This is straight from Jobs’ mouth: We do no market research. They scoff at the notion of target markets, and they don’t conduct focus groups. Why? Because everything Apple designs is based on Jobs’ and his team’s perceptions of what they think is cool.

During the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Edison's goal wasn't to make something "cool" but was instead focused on making something practical and helpful to society.  Apple definitely does this and people will always tell you that their Apple product is very helpful, but there is another element essential to Apple's marketing ideals and that is aestheticism.  Mac products are cool, sleek, ergonomic, and appeal to a creatively-driven audience.  Mac products are unparalleled in this appeal and Steve Jobs has obviously built up an enormously successful company.  Looking at this somewhat apparent shift in what Americans look for in their purchases nowadays, what do you think this could mean?  Or does it mean anything?   

The Faster the Better

In America we're all about getting there fast.  This is a theme brought forth by many other students in my American Studies class for which this blog is for.  Businessmen and women will look for the fastest flight to get to a meeting (which they hope will go quickly) and then look for the fastest flight home so they can quickly move on the next day. Cell phones are always advertising "the fastest 4g yet", online directions are automatically calculated for the most direct, fastest route, and we do not like to be kept waiting for our food (thus we created the appropriately named "fast food" to fulfill this purpose). 

Americans are always on the move because a general statement about us is that we are always looking towards the future.  A "Pre-departure Orientation for ChineseStudents" off the Association for International Educators site says under the heading of 'Time Consciousness' that Chinese people pay, "Relatively more attention to the past and to the longer-term future" and American people are, "Less interested in the past; eye on near-term future."  In other words, Americans want to see what's next so they can move on as soon as possible.

Perhaps this is the reason we as a country have developed so much so fast.  The United States is 236 years old and grew from a laughable, loose settlement of former colonies to a booming superpower in that time.  The people that came/come to American, no matter where they were/are originally from, have a drive towards something and work to see that future dream come to fruition.  It's a stretch, but maybe that mentality has made its way into our regular minds.

My 5th grade teacher told us a story that for some reason I still remember today.  He described a trip he took to Italy where the dinner he ate was multi-coursed and lasted hours on end deep into the night.  In Spain, a siesta or a generally accepted "nap time" is commonplace in the middle of the day, everyday.  A camp counselor I had in 7th grade recounted a time to our cabin about when he was in Tanzania, he and his friends went to a restaurant and waited about an hour for a hamburger at a restaurant.  At first, they were infuriated and took the matter personally.  They brought it up with the waiter and he laughed at them saying something along the lines of, "You silly Americans are so caught up in moving forward, you do not appreciate the moment you are in right now."

This whole topic came to my mind during homeroom one day.  The guy sitting next to me was talking about his essay for English class where he argued  high-speed rail trains should make their way to America to replace the traditional style Amtrak currently uses.  An article from The Hill.com says, "Obama has argued that a high-speed rail network could eventually rival the interstate highway system that was built in the 1950s under former President Dwight Eisenhower."  The article talks about how creating high-speed rails can create jobs that are desperately needed in today's economy.  Aside from that aspect, however, this push for super fast trains, trains that can get you from Chicago to San Francisco (a roughly 2000 mile trip) in close to 11 hours as opposed to a day and a half by car.  It seems that we're always looking to go faster.    

"Joe Pa" and Penn State Spiraling Downward

My mom's family used to live in the Pittsburgh area and although much of her immediate family has since moved away or currently lives in different parts of the country, her brother continues to live there with his family.  My uncle Mark went to Penn State, met his wife there, and they are both HUGE Nittany Lions fans.  I'm not sure how they're reacting now to the abundant media coverage following the Penn State former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky molestation disaster.  

I do know that my uncle Mark (along with basically ever other Penn State student) loved Joe Paterno and he even had a life size poster of him in his dorm20 years ago. Joe Paterno is going down with this spiral, however, and the longtime most prominent man on campus was fired on Wednesday because of accusations that he didn't report sexual abuse violations made by Sandusky to the proper authorities.  Paterno even said, "With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."  According to the New York Times article that is linked in the beginning of this paragraph, Paterno has the most wins out of any other coach of a major college football organization and despite his lack of action in the.  The students love him despite the fact the his name in a dark light during this massive scandal.  Just look at this video showing kids protesting Paterno's firing.


    

This video also focuses on the fact that the victims' struggle is overshadowed by football because the kids are only rioting for their veteran football coach to be back.  I found it sickening that this entire scandal ever even happened and am disappointed that Joe Paterno, such a large part of Penn State culture, did not turn in his colleague to the authorities and as a result has been ousted from the coaching staff.  In the video it does mention that one of the sisters of a victim is not upset at Paterno but more at Graham B. Spanier, Penn State's president who was also fired.  I'm disgusted nevertheless by the fact that such a heinous crime would even happen at Penn State by one of its former employees and am distraught that kids are not paying enough attention to the victims.  The video mentions jokes about Sandusky and an overall lack of sensitivity to the issue that has really put a dark light on their school.  What do you think this says about college culture in the US?  What do these riots specifically say about college football culture in the US?