It's kind of ironic too. You live in Italy, and still proclaim to love "America" (the land) and act as though it's your other home. So what are you then, a no percenter?
That's exactly what I am, a "no percenter". I think everyone should be a "no percenter". I'm impressed by your observation and I like that term. You could say I love everything about America that doesn't include people, but then again you could say that about me regarding any place. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some tree-hugging hippie...I just think that the greatest thing about America now has nothing to do with cities, government, economy, etc.:
I think the greatest thing about America is how wild it is. It's so open and big and free and beautiful, and to illustrate how fucked up Americans are these days, instead of going out and experiencing these wonders of the US and getting centered, getting focused, surrounding themselves with the beauty that can bring peace of mind, they throw thousands of dollars at doctors to prescribe them pills because they're unhappy, then rush off and go shopping to make themselves feel better, putting themselves in more debt and thereby making themselves even more unhappy. The best things about America are all free, and we end up thinking that we have to pay for our happiness because all the shitty things about America AREN'T free, so we end up buying our own unhappiness. This may sound a little out there, maybe a little new age faggotry, but that's not my intent. I'm sure Kevin may understand where I'm going with this.
All we do as Americans is distract ourselves. Everything we buy, everything we do serves simply as a distraction because we're BORED TO DEATH, and people have made so much money on our boredom that it has become a veritable way of life. Everything is just a distraction to us because all the great shit about America is free. We all do this, no matter where we are...it's ingrained into us. I still do it myself and I don't even live in the US anymore. Granted, it's small shit like buying video games that I could honestly do without, but the point is still valid. We need constant entertainment because we're so bombarded with it on a daily basis that we can't just be bored every now and then. We grew up in this "more, more, more" environment and it's a hard cycle to break.
Every morning I go outside with my dog Marduk, my pipe, and a book and I sit in my back yard and watch him play and steal pears from my neighbor's tree for about an hour. It's 70 degrees and there's always a light breeze blowing because I live at the foot of the mountains, and the air is so clean and fresh. I spend my entire morning back there and it's the highlight of my day. Not my motorcycle, not my video games, not my guitars, nothing else compares to that time with my dog and nature every morning. Yet I still have to search Steam every day for new deals for video games that I probably won't even like, but will buy anyway because they're so cheap. This is the American in me. This is an example of our inherent need to be stimulated constantly, and of all the places in the world I've lived and traveled to, no one needs that stimulation as badly as we Americans do. This addiction to stimulation is exacerbated when you live in America because everything's cheap and everything's there for the taking. This is what we need to change about ourselves.
. I wish Friuli would go to Austria, as do most people here. Not a nazi joke, just an economic, social, and cultural truth. It's a somewhat flippant thing to say, and while I'm half joking, I'm only half joking.
