Michael Jackson and International Politics

So last night we had an 80's/90's party at Rogiro's, which is our favorite pub in town. They played a lot of Michael Jackson music, hence the title of the post. It was pretty cool, we stayed out for a long time dancing and talking, our professors were even out on the dance floor with us for most of the night.

One of the more interesting things that happened was I met three Italian guys at the bar who were very interested in practicing their English, and who also really wanted to talk about politics and the differences between Italy and America.

We started talking, and it was pretty interesting becasue they wanted to talk about the war in Iraq and how Americans at large feel about that and about President Bush. I tried to explain American politics to them as fairly as I could.

First of all, they were concerned that the war in Iraq was motivated by oil and money and felt sure that America was going to somehow become richer for fighting the war. I talked to them about that for a while and tried to explain that from our point of view the war was very expensive and had no benefit for America. In fact, I pointed out, the main opposition that people in the US have against the war is that they feel it doesn't benefit us at all, but that the benefit is only for the people of Iraq and their future.

After talking about that for a while we began to discuss the differnces between America and Italy, and mostly the differences between the socialist system they have in Italy and the more capitalistic system we have in the US. They were saying a lot of things about how its better for the poor in Italy and how they are taken better care of, while I was explaining how we have more money because of lower taxes so its easier to get jobs and to not be poor in the first place.

We talked at length about the beliefs we have for our system of Government. One of the things that I thought was particularly interesting was the fact that the people here don't really believe that democracy works. They have been in an aristocratic society for so long that they assume it must basically be the same around the world, and that in America our democratic process is basically a show.

I tried to explain the spirit of American patriotism, and the fervor that we all have for freedom and democracy, that we are all born clining to the essential principles of our founding fathers. They were really surprised to hear me say that I actually valued that, that Americans treasure democracy above all else and want to share freedom and peace to the world.

I think really the exchange we had was very interesting, and it was particularly fascinating to hear them talk about how they view the world and see how their opinions about the US and even their own country were changing as they were reflecting on me telling them what life was like in the US.

I talked to Dad earlier on the phone and as he put it "that kind of exchange justifies the whole trip." I have to say I agree, it was a really amazing experience. I felt like I was witnessing to these people, sharing with them the gospel of American government. It really does make me feel proud to be part of such an amazing system that has endured for 300 years, always adapting to the needs of the people, and continuing to hold fast to the principles upon which it was founded.

A quick footnote here:

The webpage is not going to be updated again until probably next Monday because I'm going on a big trip to Bologna this weekend. Also, other students will gradually begin adding things as they get a chance. We are always busy over here, so finding time to write up a good update to the website is hard enough, let alone doing all the work of getting it started in the first place. With any luck the first page or two will be up by next Wednesday, so check the front page at http://italy.tamuarch.com from time to time to see if there are any new pages up. Ok, I'm off to go watch some movies and stuff. Ciao!