Half-Empty Planes to a Half-Dead Country

The trepidatious trip report, part one

I made it back to this home that is not home, this trepidatious trip to the US.

I have some philosophical insights to share (it's my nature) about travel and culture. This article will be especially about change, picking up on my previous article's theme about home.

The Trepidatious Trip
They say you can’t go home again

Half-Empty Planes

I love to travel, but I am not fond of airports and planes. I hear tell of a bygone era when air travel was glamorous. Such a time is way bygone by now. The current era of air travel is dominated by our corporate overlords who herd us through paramilitary checkpoints and cram us into flying sardine cans. And how many of my readers are old enough to remember when airports weren't shopping malls?

At least this trip across the Atlantic was much better than my penultimate, tortuous, 39-hour ordeal.

A Rant about Air Travel
A tale of corporate greed

Still, this journey, we had to wake up at 06:30 CET to begin our air journey to the US, a journey that only ended at our hotel at 20:00 CDT, a mere 20 hours later. I know some people who regularly fly back and forth across the Atlantic. I don't know how they survive.

The reports are apparently true that travel to the US is way down. That truth really struck me as we waited in the Helsinki terminal for our connecting flight. The nearby gates had huge jumbo jets and many passenges waiting to go to Tokyo, Osaka, Istanbul, Bangkok, and Zhengzhou, but smaller planes and fewer passengers waiting to go to Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Our mid-sized plane, the smallest I'd been on for a Transatlantic flight, was half empty. When we landed in the US, where you are herded into one of two lines--US citizens and everyone else--our plane from Europe had only two non-US citizens.

Border control was better than I worried it would be. They had me scan my passport, asked me if I was bringing in any fruits, vegetables, meat, or something else I forget, and that was that. My spouse received even less scrutiny. No demand to see my phone or anything invasive. We had dinner last night with a friend who is half Japanese and is afraid to leave the country concerned he might get hassled returning despite being a US citizen. The regime is creating the fears they desire.

Half-Dead Country

Our journey back to the US mixing business and family began where we used to live. It has been years since we were last in this city, which I will not name to protect the innocent.

We've been here three days now and have been shocked by how empty it all looks and feels. It’s still a lovely, upscale area, but what a decade ago was a vibrant city teeming with people, stores, and restaurants, is now a shadow of its former self. Few people on the streets even in rush hour, sparsely populated restaurants, and a disturbingly high number of closed businesses and empty retail spaces. Is it like this everywhere in the US now?

I see that everything, everything is now 20% to 50% more expensive then when we lived here over a decade ago. For example, I visited my favorite bakery, a fabulous family-owned establishment that is unchanged since the 1930s. Well, unchanged except that the pastries that were $2 are now $3. Not their fault. But, interesting that Europe doesn't have anywhere near the level of inflation--maybe 10% but not 50%. It's Europe's "evil" socialism in which corporations are actually held accountable.

At the hotel, we had the chance to partake of current American TV. Oh. My. God. The utter inanity of what now passes for entertainment in the US . . . "America's most wanted . . . fattest . . . stupidest . . . broest . . . redneckest . . ." Yeah, "reality TV." Oh, and wrestling, of course. That's real, right? There are sitcoms, too, laughing at people being stupid. And there are documentaries that combine voyeurism, sensationalism, and exploitation, mostly with a mega slathering of manosphere pandering. No wonder Americans make such disastrous political decisions.

Not that I wasn't aware of forces making America garbage again, but to be back fully immersed in it is unpleasantly surprising. Everyone we meet is friendly, doing their best, but a decade ago, saying we live in Europe elicited curiosity; now, it sparks in people a wistfulness, even a touch of envy.

There are also now fewer people to be friendly with in the US. From the airport to the coffeehouses, there are fewer employees serving you and more machines forcing you to serve yourself. American corporations love automation.

I'm Going to Gripe about Temperature Now

I am averse to excessive heat. I find anything over 80° F unpleasant. What I've always also found unpleasant is the American obsession with excessive air conditioning. Why US businesses have the AC set to colder in summer than they set the heat in winter is a mystery that still eludes me.

I suspect it is part of the Americans' love of excessive energy use. It's a general fixation with excess. Air conditioning to 72° is sufficient, but they need 65°. Water is sufficient, but they need to add tons of ice. A car is sufficient, but they need an SUV or truck. Then they need a three-car garage, a riding mower, the largest TV currently for sale, and on and on. Blind, zombie excessive consumption for its own sake. That's the American nightmare.

Saying America is half-dead is poetic hyperbole, but it’s not entirely wrong. People blame the current regime, but they forget that it was America that created that regime. I wrote a book about that.

Why Trump?
Why Some People Support Him — How the Rest of Us Can Responddgilesphilosopher.medium.com