Garrett's blog

Although every one of the journalists here have obviously thought out what they are doing in their investigations of America and take a critical attitude toward their observations of society and it's people, I wonder what it woud have been like if they could actually really go and live for a few months - or years - at a time in the lives of one, or more, of the people they have met.  You know, to actually take up a whole new life, job, place of residents, and the like, the way Cameron Crowe did when writing the screenplay for "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or Renee Descartes when he just wanted to learn more, and philosophize, about life and people.  They all claim, in some way or another, to have gotten a chance at interviewing, and questioning the American people and a couple of them acknowledge that they just do not live the daily lives of these common people and, therefore, can only see so much.  One of them also does express the importance of needing much more time to spend in each place.  The writers themselves generally have stable lives and lucrative careers, affording them the time and money to take these sight-seeing adventures about society, not traveling for work or struggling to make ends meet - certainly good observations, but are they close enough to reality?  I can't say as I would know.  I wasn't there.

I thought that Rorty's more detailed analysis of what he saw when out and about was, both, the most thoughtful and thought-provoking.  If the others had still used their examples of their experiences, and put a more critical view toward what it all meant, as he did, we would have learned more from them.  None the less, they did give descent descriptions of what they saw in the people, cultures and activities as they went through the counrtry, giving us, and even them, only a thin slice/taste of what it was like to be an American at this point in history.  Wild's account was most certainly much more limited, sticking mainly to what life was like living amongst others in the very close quarters of a trailer.  When I first began reading his writing, I had higher hopes, thinking maybe an outsider from a whole different continent, and country of course, could give a new and unique perspective, from the outside in, like an innocent bystander who can often see more then the people involved.

One thing is obviously clear though, through all the readings: most people are struggling, and most people barely have a clue as to what to do about the social and economic landscape, or their own lives.  Every individual in the experiences of these writers has their own personal set of circumstances weighing upon them and the subsequent things that they have come to think and/or believe about it all; there is really not much collective agreement on what's happening in the country or what to do about it.  They all still have the ability to believe though, no matter how far from, or close to, reaity their ideas might be.