Uniqueness and Fantasy

So here in Peace Corps we have a rather large network of media sharing. Favorite shows (Chuck!) are passed around and time is spent (or wasted) watching the ridiculousness of the American cultural addiction to highly over dramaticized versions of life where romance, death, and song are as likely as meeting your friend in the hallway at school. But it made me think about why. We tend to criticize Tanzanian television because half the time it is two people sitting in a room with some alcoholic drink talking, or often yelling, about daily life. Yet, we also think it is amusing that so many people in the third world look at American media and assume we all live these lives that they see on TV. I think that’s a cultural difference I hadn’t really considered until now. We use the media, theatre, and other creative outlets to play out our fantasies and it builds the capacity for dreaming within us as a community. I know there are a lot of us who would love to have our lives run in musical format where significant events were always punctuated by song but we’re not THAT creative to the point where we can do that to any great effect as a people. Yet, here these fantasies are often built on a foundation of reality. Dance and theatre are present but the dance is all still within the confines of a reproduction of a tribal product that has been around for a long time and theatre is rarely punctuated by more than dialogue. I feel like here the prized way of expressing yourself is repeating something widely known, and repeating it very well. Meanwhile, in America uniqueness is heavily valued and when it is produced with quality it hits the spot much more effectively. We love our glitz and glamour and strive for it, even at inappropriate times.

Of course I’m not trying to say one is better than the other but it is interesting how those two ideals tend to come into conflict. I’ve tried to pull creativity out of the students by giving them less rigor in their instructions and the results are nearly disastrous. I take questions until every student finds some sufficient amount of instructions in what I say. I had a group of students doing a lab once where they had thought of an original (well original in that they were the only ones doing it that way) lab and had already produced valid, useful results. Once the rest of the class came up with very similar versions of the experiment that differed dramatically from this group’s, they practically begged me to allow them to change their experiment and take new data. It was incredibly frustrating, considering growing up in America, we tend to encourage uniqueness and focus on appreciating our differences. (Obviously this is a wild generalization and there are many parts of America that are significantly more narrow minded on many issues than even the most stringent of cultures).

There are the ideas in America that you should enjoy what makes you happy, it’s the journey that matters not the destination, etc. I mean, framing a lot of what we do in certain ways can make us look of questionable intelligence. For example, why do people go outside and intentionally let the sun damage their skin while doing nothing but resting? Because it feels good. Why do people spend money on a pair of jeans that costs them twice as much as another perfectly reasonable pair? Because they like the way they feel while wearing them. For all this short term gratification, Americans still have a surprisingly effective work ethic. What I’ve seen here suggests that the basic premise is those who have the tools to work their way up in the culture do so doing whatever is available to them. If the best job they can get is teaching, they do so despite any aversion to truly analytical grading, lesson preparation, or sometimes even standing in front of a class. The phrase “those who can’t do teach” is taken as truth here and teachers often don’t like what they do and the students don’t like that they do them. Even students, if they have an interest in something, but struggle at all, they give it up for the next easiest path to a “decent sized” paycheck.

Obviously there needs to be a balance. There are the people that look at everything as a means to an end and find their life passing them by without any worth or enjoyment. There are also the people who are totally encamped in the live-for-now clan and a good day is measured by how many drinks they can buy that night. I think that’s an understanding I’ve made it a goal to pass on. People here tend to fall on one side or the other and balance is significantly lacking. I would imagine though, if you took a close look at the variations between the two cultures you would find fewer differences in terms of the goals and motivations but mostly just a change in materials, or lack thereof. Yet I think we tend to identify and be aware of this balance (and how we don’t have it) whereas I’m not sure that is the case here. The reasons for that are numerous and not worth trying to recount but the general ease with which information and ideas moves in America plays a large part I think.