The America unknown

Paul Theroux is a very productive travel writer. The first book I have read by Paul Theroux is the Riding the Iron Rooster. As a Chinese, I am curious to see what Post-Mao China look like through his eyes. But I found it a bit disappointed. He obviously know not much about China and thus offer no insight of China’s issues. Realized that I might judge it unfairly , I gave it another shot by reading Deep South.

This one is a surprise and a joy. It is not like ordinary travel book; it is more like a social observation. As an American, he can easily access to the South and in no hurry to leave, he can revisit places and people he has met before. This offer us more details and information than those one-time-only travel. Being an American that has travel to many countries, especially the developing countries, gives him an advantage to understand the conflicts and raise meaningful questions.

What most people see through media and internet are most likely related to North America, the rich and the power, the exotic life style, high tech and leading academic achievements. The South is less mentioned and less visible to the public eyes. And the South is not the romantic South in the Gone of the Wind.

All this year, I tried to study and understand America but resource are limited. But the more I read, the more I came to an understanding that, the problem in America is not merely racial conflict. The twice Victories of Trump is also a sign that something seriously wrong in America, there are something we might neglect to see or refuse to admit.

Reading the Deep South is like personally travelling there, to see the people, to witness the history and to understand human nature with sympathy. I used google map to track places he been to and used street view to see local landmarks. I searched murders, civil right events, writers and their work (Randall, Mary T, Charles Portis). There are lots of stories told, information for the past and present, discussions by people with different views. It could be overwhelming if you read it half-hearted or with sleepy mind. That is why I read only one chapter a day before sleep and never read it when I feel tired.

Growing up in China, I have witnessed what is poor and what is rich. After I moved to Australia and have been travelled to many places, I found out, there are poor people in Australia but “The Poor” here is quite different from the Poor in China. In Western countries like America, UK, Australia, the economic development and power are higher so most of the people do have a job or at least receive some social benefit. But they are working poor, homeless poor, landowners or farmers living in shabby houses, nomad poor that live in trailers or constantly moving e.t.c. Of course there are lazy people pretend to be sick and live on social benefit ( I know some personally) but they are also poor. But in China, the Poor are the ones can’t find a job, live in unimageable small pigeon holes or homeless, always starving and rarely received social benefit or Medicare. The conditions are in different form but at the end, they are all miserable and suffering.

The issue in America, in my view, is more likely due to poverty than race issues. Poor White, Poor Black, all the same. Anti-China is not without a reason. A lot of factories have moved to Asia, mostly to China, took away millions of jobs. People without much education have limited alternatives. They have no way but leave their home to other places that have better job opportunities. Ghost towns are everywhere and people who stay are the ones most suffering (not everyone afford to move). Outsourcing not only took away livelihood, worse still, skills and diversity are lost. The country has to rely on fewer economic sources that producing wealth (for example IT and Finance industry) and at the same time rely on importing cheap everyday products from Asia. Who paid for the price? I guess at least not the rich ones?

The pandemic that we are battling with, could be a warning and a lesson that provokes us to remap the future of one’s country. With closing boarder and less international movement, we can’t rely on importing and exporting (the Earth no longer flat). Are there better options that can bring people better lives with less toll on environment (small organic farm maybe)? How to tide over disaster without hating each other? What our future will look like?

I keep thinking all sort of different things during reading. Questions keep coming up in my mind. On one hand I think human being are hopeless and there is no way that lives could be better. On the other hand, I still have a bit of hope that human can survive and we can do something about it, we can help in different sort of way. Paul Theroux’s travel to the South and told us what he encountered, is one of the ways. It brings us together and offer us opportunity to know human condition, to ponder with the possibility of change.