From this excellent article in the BBC today.
Dickens visited the US for nearly half a year in 1842 full of interest in the US democratic experiment and looking to see if US society was more egalitarian than class-conscious Victorian England was. After a good start in Boston, he quickly became dissapointed and disillusioned:
“The longer Dickens rubbed shoulders with Americans, the more he realised that the Americans were simply not English enough,” says Professor Jerome Meckier, author of Dickens: An Innocent Abroad.
“He began to find them overbearing, boastful, vulgar, uncivil, insensitive and above all acquisitive.”
Dickens was even more seriously dissapointed with the political system, however:
“As for the politicians, Dickens concluded that, like everyone else in America, they were motivated by money, not ideals.
“I am disappointed,” he wrote in a famous letter. “This is not the republic of my imagination.”
Washington, Dickens blasted in American Notes, was the home of: “Despicable trickery at elections; under-handed tamperings with public officers; and cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers”.
Fill in “IRS” or “US Government” for his description of American society during his visit and you have an excellent summary of how the US government is currently behaving: overbearring, boorish, vulgar, uncivil, insensitive…I particularly found it amazing that he noticed over 150 years ago the same issues in US politics that plague it today, but first and foremost his appraisal that US politicians and government were driven by money and not by ideals.
Has the “American Dream” been a scam even since before it became famous later on in the 19th century? Has it almost just been about getting rich and nothing else? Is every immigrant to the US inevitably let down by an over-hyped ideal that has never even existed?
During his visit Dickens tried to encourage people to pay for his works, since at the the time there were no international copyright laws in place and most American readers were reading pirated editions of his books. The result?:
“Dickens’s visit to America ended with both sides accusing each other of being vulgar money-grabbers”. 😛
This is why I keep saying this is “cultural”. The US isn’t going to change. Nothing seems to have changed in 200 years in America.
Just noticed another quote on the page that I found entertaining. After his visit to the US Dickens wrote “American Notes”, in which he gave his frank impression of his host nation for 5 months, including pointing out what he thought to be some of its faults. Below is the response of the Courier and Enquirer, two US papers at the time, to Dickens:
“Mr Dickens is a young man who knows nothing of this world, of society, or of government, but what he picked up as a “flash reporter” and penny-a-liner when connected with some of the most scurrilous of the vile presses with which London abounds. No person of ordinary intelligence can get up from the perusal of these “notes” without feeling that the great aim of the writer is produce the impression among the English readers that he is really somebody, and possesses all those niceties of feeling and sensitiveness of contact with the vulgar mass, so frequently assumed by the low-bred scullion unexpectedly advanced from the kitchen to the parlour…
Courier and Enquirer, 17 November 1842″
Is this the original “Love it or Leave it” attitude? Produce a few criticisms of the country and you are suddently a “penny-a-liner” and “low-bred scullion”? I would love to know how offensive these terms were back in the day – They don’t seem like they were particularly congenial!
@ don pomodoro;
Thank you! How excellent to bring Dickens into these discussions….what would he say about the current state of the US tax code, (“The complete Internal Revenue Code is more than 24 megabytes in length, and contains more than 3.4 million words; printed 60 lines to the page, it would fill more than 7500 letter-size pages” http://www.fourmilab.ch/uscode/26usc/ ) and the labyrinthine incomprehensibility of FATCA and FBAR regulations – it reminded me of Dickens’ description of the “Circumlocution office” http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/21cc/lang/transcript1272.html in ‘Little Dorrit’. Much like my experiences with the IRS FBAR helpline, and their IRS questions by e-mail replies:
” It being one of the principles of the Circumlocution Office never, on any account whatever to give a straightforward answer, Mr Barnacle said, ‘Possibly.’
…….. ‘The Circumlocution Department, sir, ‘Mr Barnacle replied, may have possibly recommended – possibly – I cannot say – that some public claim against the insolvent estated of a firm or copartnership to which this person may have belonged, should be enforced. ‘The question may have been, in the course of official business, referred to the Circumlocution Department for its consideration. The Department may have either originated, or confirmed , a Minute making that recommendation’
‘I assume this to be the case, then’
‘The Circumlocution Department,’ said Mr Barnacle, is not responsible for any gentleman’s assumptions.’
‘May I inquire how I can obtain official information as to the real state of the case?’
‘It is competent,’ said Mr Barnacle, ‘to any member of the – Public,’ mentioning that obscure body with reluctance, as his natural enemy, ‘to memorialise the Circumlocution Department. such formalities as are required to be observed in so doing, may be known on application to the proper branch of that department’
Which is the proper branch?’
‘I must refer you, returned Mr Barnacle, ringing the bell,’ to the department itself for a formal answer to that inquiry.’
‘Excuse me mentioning – ‘
‘The Department is accessible to the – Public,’ ……… ‘If the – Public approaches it according to the official forms, the – public has itself to blame.’
Taken from: The Oxford Illustrated Dickens
Author / Creator: The Oxford Illustrated Dickens
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Date: 1953
Copyright: By permission of the British Library
Shelfmark: 12267.b.1/12
” http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/lang/control1/circumlocution1/circumlocution.html
I think perhaps taking a literary approach to could provide a bit of humour to lighten our hearts here (I know it is having a ‘wonderfully improving’ effect to write this): for example, themes in the works of Lewis Carroll (as applied by the IRS in OVDI):
“Sentence first, verdict afterwards.”
The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland
or: As applied to our first experiences with hearing media stories of FBARs and IRS obligations for dual/accidental/US ‘persons’ abroad.
“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. “There’s not use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
and, when wrestling with FBAR forms and definitions of ‘compliant’, or ‘willful’:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
and, as we might be instructed by Commissioner Shulman;
“Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass
Perhaps we need a whole new thread devoted to our IRS dilemmas through the lens of satire? I am certain that there is much much more to be mined in this vein!
@Brock the Badger
Couldn’t agree with you more. I find the whole situation much easier to deal with when dealt through the lens of satire or comedy. I’ve tried to start a bit of a more creative spin on some of my posts to liven up our dilemma a bit. Some shameless self-promotion here for example:
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/02/16/how-would-you-challenge-fatca-if-you-were-a-world-leader/
Also see this brilliant post from Petros about Santa being arrested!
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2011/12/24/breaking-news-santa-claus-arrested/
I would absolutely love a thread where only satire, comedy or quotes from literary classics are allowed. I think it would be great fun and play up how ridiculous/over the top the whole situation really is!
@Don Pomodoro, then let’s see what we can dig up to provide a different type of support!
Be it resolved then ; we need more (curated) levity to lighten our psychological burdens – and help us keep moving onwards (and hopefully upwards).