So, I think if you shake the hand of someone who shook his hand it will heal you also. Random.

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Something like 95% of human interactions follow almost perfectly predetermined scripts (with monkeys like me, anyway. Makes you wonder if human-level “intelligence” is just a really complex schema of reactions. The recent crisis would suggest we are little more than delusional sheep. Are we even conscious? Think about it, man). 

Lately, the average interaction has been: “So, you’re an American? You know, Obama is the first black president.”

I tend to humor these things, with something to the effect of “Yeah, it’s great. I’m really proud of my country.” After the next (ninety-seventh or so) iteration though, snark will likely overtake patience, and the immediate response is going to be along the lines of: “Wait, WHAT!? No. He’s not black at all. He’s actually Latino-Mexican-Indo-Indian.” Any other suggestions?

President Obama. Has a good ring to it – finally something feels normal. Plus, the rest of the world loves him – this bodes well for we Americans living overseas (fewer public humiliations involving stones)…

HHR links to a post by a Swede* living in China, regarding foreigners’ horrendous behavior towards locals. You do see white people behaving like complete morons quite often, though some of the behaviors she points to (shouting “Waitress!” in restaurants) are perfectly in line with local norms. Of course there is always a question of perception – and whether or not we’re getting the practices right, with all of the nuance (what nuance is there in shouting across a restaurant? I don’t know – that’s why it’s nuanced).  

It is very, very easy to be filled with a sense of alienation in interactions. Simply because of this, my own modus operandi is to err on the side of excessive politeness so that when I am actually being a jerk it might come off as quaint. But that got me wondering – is my insistence on Western ways while here a form of condemnation?

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It’s nice not being in the U.S. right now. As it stands, I still hear far too much about the election – primarily from the internet, and people I talk to here, who speak the name ‘Ao-Baa-Maa’ with almost the same messianic reverence I’ve become accustomed to in my representative demographic (privileged 20 something academe types). It is easier to convince Zhou-sixpack that the two candidates aren’t extensively different on most major issues (a stance popular among those of us who consider ourselves ‘unique.’ Don’t worry it’s just a phase.) 

It’s too bad Obama support stopped being edgy some time ago. Now I must resort to contrarian arguments about America being led down the inevitably destructive path of crowd politics:

As the late Nobel laureate Elias Canetti observes in his great book, “Crowds and Power” (first published in 1960), the crowd is based on an illusion of equality: Its quest is for that moment when “distinctions are thrown off and all become equal. It is for the sake of this blessed moment, when no one is greater or better than another, that people become a crowd.” These crowds, in the tens of thousands, who have been turning out for the Democratic standard-bearer in St. Louis and Denver and Portland, are a measure of American distress.

Maybe? Should he win the expectations seem too high. Regardless, I have plans to eat pizza and drink wine early in the morning as I hit refresh on a browser watching election results come in.

It seems that Barack Obama might be able to save the world. This is unexpected. Rambly personal story follows.

Background: after having failed to find a decent gym within walking distance, I’ve spent the past two months on a more holistic exercise regimen (involving lots of sprinting, and probably ineffectual-but-time-intensive stretches and pulls on gymnastics bars). There are lots of these places in Chinese cities, probably holdovers from state-directed morning exercises?

Such places also happen to filled with lots of middle-aged guys early in the morning. If you ever want to feel special, it’s simply a matter of walking out to such a place and demonstrating that you can speak some Chinese.

They say the funniest things.

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