Believe that your summation is an eloquent ∑ of the Sailor's; maybe a tl;dr for the reading-averse.
Your experience 'traveling abroad'.. piques my own recollection of First-visit well-outta the ['dis-US'] but not-yet via any realization that your summation would come to apply por moi; that required a few more years of Noticing increasingly: the mean-Spirited cocoon around so many mere acquaintances, mobs, the Guns, the physical-assaults over trivia ..ad nauseum. Still.. My Gramma's encapsulation of the 'Mean-' part never left the hippocampus' er, Library of events. Kinda a leitmotif?
But that first Exit/Arrival @Heathrow (as a momentary-ex-Pat) began before the plane landed; I asked a seat-mate ~~ "Supposing this flight were a sham; they'd flown around in large circles--for whatever cockamamie reason--and we're about to land. What would we see first, as would confirm the cynical version.. or not? He blew it; I Saw it!
>>The little moving-spots on roads were ... ... driving on the Rong Side!
First {chortle} on the grand Tour; first-evah New wheels/tiny A-H Sprite pickup in Londinium (place as had sold moi various Vincent cycle parts over years) thence 'ferry' from Harwich --> Denmark; pick up companion, S. next through Germany + side to 'Holland' on The Day they celebrated WW-II denouement (and Boy Scouts tied flowers to our front bumper!) {{sniff}} thence ---> Zoooom.
tl;dr Indeed my own mien was joyous not merely for the novelty of Grand Tour but ..first inklings that--indeed as you say--the 'Happiness Quotient' in each Country was noticeably different (not that either of us remarked upon the Fact. Then.)
Perhaps you were an incipient-Wunderkind(?) to have grasped both--the Adventure of such a massive cultural-displacement/inescapable, that--but also to have absorbed (not merely 'adsorbed'--cf. chemistry) perhaps the first umm ∆-Humanity you were encountering/Live! I envy you both that mondo-Experience but more: that you Could grok nearly enough to fullness ... those massive Implications. Surely also too: the fact of your upbringing within a cerebral/parental enviro (I can merely surmise) DNA? then.. was a factor. aka Ya Cannot 'teach' Math via rote ..on any level beyond say, arithmetic, I wot. (The point where many Muricans stopped-learning.)
En fin: as a mere Five-yo I am sure that my consciousness was far below that sentience; only a few years later--as a 'feral' in non-Public-schools, thus self-guided throughout the absorption processes unfolding--I at least noticed--First: the incipient-Violence within daily patter; the mondo-BS surrounding all the self-congratulatory anthems, Pledges-to-Flags, the tics of the populace and underlying that-all: the utter absurdity of young boys' 'take' upon young girls. This last remained ever since grokking: that the avge. Murican was The Feral! not moi ..if-I-could? help it.. {sigh} Hypocrisy + Puritans: says Much about the ongoing dis-US. And its prospects.
As for Today: [see CNN's listicle] (Kelly-Ann disgraces self, uses: "Our Great Democracy" nuff said).
as The Menace has hourly orgasms over the er 'Demanded?!' Militarized July 4 DC-Parade excrescences as shall gag-moi-with-a-Spoon:
I expect that we shall remain cohorts @Aux Barricades! ..however separated by mere distance ..as the Fascisti force-babble the Arrant-knave-meeja et alia -->
The incipient New Huge-Win dis-US Warz on Humanity (wherever found.)
Quel Surprise, eh?
Carrion (we're already ("Down-on-your-Knees!™" in that lake-sized shit-hole)
But we gets a sop: delicious schadenfreude-writ-Large,
I told Ya so, Assholes!!
PS: should matters accelerate-in-their-devolution, I could send along the very-simple formula for Phlogiston
which/once evident re its usage ... would greatly magnify one's er Efficiency in Voting-for-Change, y'know?
40
But that first Exit/Arrival @Heathrow (as a momentary-ex-Pat) began before the plane landed; I asked a seat-mate ~~ "Supposing this flight were a sham; they'd flown around in large circles--for whatever cockamamie reason--and we're about to land. What would we see first, as would confirm the cynical version.. or not? He blew it; I Saw it!
>>The little moving-spots on roads were ... ... driving on the Rong Side!
First {chortle} on the grand Tour; first-evah New wheels/tiny A-H Sprite pickup in Londinium (place as had sold moi various Vincent cycle parts over years) thence 'ferry' from Harwich --> Denmark; pick up companion, S. next through Germany + side to 'Holland' on The Day they celebrated WW-II denouement (and Boy Scouts tied flowers to our front bumper!) {{sniff}} thence ---> Zoooom.
tl;dr Indeed my own mien was joyous not merely for the novelty of Grand Tour but ..first inklings that--indeed as you say--the 'Happiness Quotient' in each Country was noticeably different (not that either of us remarked upon the Fact. Then.)
Perhaps you were an incipient-Wunderkind(?) to have grasped both--the Adventure of such a massive cultural-displacement/inescapable, that--but also to have absorbed (not merely 'adsorbed'--cf. chemistry) perhaps the first umm ∆-Humanity you were encountering/Live! I envy you both that mondo-Experience but more: that you Could grok nearly enough to fullness ... those massive Implications. Surely also too: the fact of your upbringing within a cerebral/parental enviro (I can merely surmise) DNA? then.. was a factor. aka Ya Cannot 'teach' Math via rote ..on any level beyond say, arithmetic, I wot. (The point where many Muricans stopped-learning.)
En fin: as a mere Five-yo I am sure that my consciousness was far below that sentience; only a few years later--as a 'feral' in non-Public-schools, thus self-guided throughout the absorption processes unfolding--I at least noticed--First: the incipient-Violence within daily patter; the mondo-BS surrounding all the self-congratulatory anthems, Pledges-to-Flags, the tics of the populace and underlying that-all: the utter absurdity of young boys' 'take' upon young girls. This last remained ever since grokking: that the avge. Murican was The Feral! not moi ..if-I-could? help it.. {sigh} Hypocrisy + Puritans: says Much about the ongoing dis-US. And its prospects.
As for Today: [see CNN's listicle] (Kelly-Ann disgraces self, uses: "Our Great Democracy" nuff said).
as The Menace has hourly orgasms over the er 'Demanded?!' Militarized July 4 DC-Parade excrescences as shall gag-moi-with-a-Spoon:
I expect that we shall remain cohorts @Aux Barricades! ..however separated by mere distance ..as the Fascisti force-babble the Arrant-knave-meeja et alia -->
The incipient New Huge-Win dis-US Warz on Humanity (wherever found.)
Quel Surprise, eh?
Carrion (we're already ("Down-on-your-Knees!™" in that lake-sized shit-hole)
But we gets a sop: delicious schadenfreude-writ-Large,
I told Ya so, Assholes!!
PS: should matters accelerate-in-their-devolution, I could send along the very-simple formula for Phlogiston
which/once evident re its usage ... would greatly magnify one's er Efficiency in Voting-for-Change, y'know?
40