Escaping Babylon only to Escape it Again

Freedom lover Bernard Martoïa writes his thoughts on Claude Reichman’s site. As on his own blog, using the theme “America on Bread and Water”

Each annual visit to the United States gives me the opportunity to regain freedom. For the Europeans and the French in particular, freedom is very secondary to equality. To each his own priorities.
Crisis obliges them. Americans are living on bread and water. Unlike the French, they do not spend their time moaning blaming others. The dominant feeling seems to be: "We have lived too long beyond our means. We speculated immoderately. This is the price you pay. We have to just do it learn our lesson. That's it!” They behave like adults, not getting spoiled and irresponsible as is too often the case in France.

There are two Americas that should not be confused with one another: the liberal and atheistic coasts and big cities, that European tourists identify with, and the other - that of the conservative and religious rural counties. The authentic latter is the one I feel deeply connected to. The first is that of a consumer Babylon that doesn’t hold much interest to me except for the museum collections. Apart from the obligatory passage through Logan Airport in Boston during my last trip, I rather hasten to flee to the Republican hinterland.

On this year's itinerary I only considered two states: New Hampshire and Maine. Unlike other tourists, I don’t rush through. This gives me time to discover a country and also meet people at the mercy of my stops in my town for supplies.
The circuit of a typical French holiday is to swallow 4000 kilometers of tarmac in a fortnight. He wants to see the Grand Canyon, the national parks, Yosemite or Death Valley in California, and of course Las Vegas and San Francisco. That kind of tourism is well suited to these ephemeral times, Une impression chasse vite la précédente. But what can it remain of your memories after that kind of roller-coaster ride?

Each time a French person asks my opinion on this or that American tour, I warn its too big for my appetite for discovery. The distances are not the same as in Europe. The advice is ignored. I never managed to convince a tourist to narrow his itinerary. My philosophy of travel is not compatible with modernity. Snobbish, the French tourists feel compelled to visit natural sites and well known cities, then they hasten to return. I do not know Boston, but I know Massachusetts I walked it twice: from North to South in 2001, and from south to north in 2007.

For a month I was lucky not hear a word of French. What a pleasure to escape the endless summary judgments against Americans that they do not know!

As I move slowly, and even more this year because of the extremely difficult terrain of New Hampshire which is like a giant staircase (my hourly average fell sometimes a mile), I have ample opportunity to observe the day and note in the evening, my impressions by the light of a headlamp in my tent. I want this book in English to render the best evidence of my experience.

The economic crisis in America is more profound than suggested by Ben Bernanke, who said that his country had resumed growth in September, but I have not seen a single crane! Le secteur du bâtiment est sinistré. The construction sector is acutely damaged. The only active work site I saw was the renovation of a small section of Route 27 in Maine, which connects Auburn to the Canadian border. In contrast, I counted twenty-four cranes at the construction of a new terminal at Frankfurt, Germany for the European consortium EADS’ giant A-380,

The revival of Keynesian government that Obama has benefited Wall Street and the nineteen major U.S. banks deemed "too big to fail" as the interventionist saying goes. I felt in the rural population, an implacable hatred against unwarranted rescue of the wealthy on Wall Street. On the other hand, the French are cattle that politicians can say anything to. Arthur Schopenhauer once said: "Hatred comes from the heart, contempt of the brain, and these feelings are beyond our control." The 2010 Congressional elections will prove to be exciting.

The original is here. Shakespeare did always sound better in the original Klingon.