Freedom!

Firstly to clear something up, the picture below was taken by me when I was actually at The Devil's Tower yesterday. It's not just a random picture off the internet for no reason.

OK so today I went to Mount Rushmore. I had another of those weird feelings that I'd been there before, so ubiquitous is it in pop culture. It was not what I was expecting and then again everything I was expecting. Firstly it is spectacularly well organised, huge multi story car park, walking trails shops, cafés and more shops. The image I had in my head was that it was in the middle of nowhere like most other national parks, but no. It is firmly on the tourist trail. The carving of the mountain itself is an amazing engineering feat but the rest of the place has a whiff of the propaganda ministry about it. For example the sub title of Mount Rushmore is "Shrine of Democracy". The evening lighting ceremony involves the national anthem, a memorial for America's military and the showing of the film "Freedom: America's legacy". Can you see why I didn't stay for it? For a cynical person like me it was all a bit odd, especially as being raised in the UK means you can never be "proud" of your legacy (what with being evil empire builders and repressors of freedom and all that). It is amazing that the american people have this great pride in their Constitution and freedoms while their government is trampling all over those same freedoms in the name of "security". 

It's a pity as I do actually like it here in spite of my pathological unease around any form of nationalism. And it's everywhere here. Even the shopping centre I just went into has a "Shrine of Freedom" on the wall consisting of facsimiles of the constitution etc. and a memorial to the forces. While I was on the coast in the big cities I thought that all the jingoism may have been a beat up by the foreign media, but when you come here, to the country away from the liberal cities you realise that the US is still VERY traditional, conservative and has a strong military and religious streak. I suppose that's what you get when your country is settled by religious fundamentalists and then forms a republic after a military campaign. I do however have faith in the people here to get a grip of their politicians and bring some sanity back to their policies. 

Some other random observations that I haven't blogged about before can go here now, as I have officially run out of things to do in South Dakota, and have to fill time until I fly out in the morning:

Road Rules: I still can't get my head around the 4 way stop. I think it's like a roundabout without the roundabout, you have to give way to the left, but I generally just wait until everyone else has gone and then drive off. The road signs here are also odd. The US seems determined to be different and not use the ISO signs that everyone else in the world has. I have no idea how many important instructions I've ignored because I didn't understand the sign. You have to be careful though as the cop cars are almost invisible here in South Dakota. They are painted beige and have lights on the top that are only about 4 cm high, meaning you cannot spot them in the distance at all! I do think there is one thing that should be copied world wide and that is the ability to turn right on red signals (or left if you drive on the left I suppose). It's great and keeps things moving at the junctions.

Photo ID: I bought beer in WalMart the other day and I had to show ID. I'm very flattered but I'm pretty sure I don't look under 21 any more. I was also surprised that the lady in a supermarket in the middle of South Dakota was able to tell that my Australian driving licence was authentic. They must have a great training program at WalMart. This has also occurred to me when I've shown the licence at every hotel check-in and bank when cashing a travellers cheque. This is apparently for "security" but how can any of these people say that my ID is real when I am pretty sure they have never seen an Australian licence before? This is a perfect example of the "theatre of security"; we do something that appears to make everyone safer but actually does nothing but appear to make everyone safer.

Shopping: There seems to be a very fine line between antiques and junk in America. Pretty much every 'antique' shop I've seen so far looks like an oxfam shop/good sammies. Then there are the abominations available to eat on your local supermarket shelves here. For example a breakfast cereal which is made of chocolate chip cookies. I kid you not, it's called cookie crunch, look it up if you want. Or cheddar cheese in an aerosol can. The label says "Made With Real Cheese!" but I am pretty sure that none of the cheddar cheese I have ever eaten was capable of being forced through a nozzle. God knows what's really in there. The size of the packages is amazing too. For example ice-cream tubs as big a 10 litre paint cans or the 18" pizza to cook at home. How long would it take to eat 10 litres of ice-cream? My little 1 litre tub lasts for months as we all know that ice-cream it the treat you have when you're not really having a treat. I do however like the fact that the packaging for a lot of products here seems not to have changed for decades unlike in Oz and the UK where they change things for no reason all the time (the mint Twix for example). 

Television: TV here seems to involve at least 80 channels, all of which will show Seinfeld at some point during the day. Or more than one point in the day. I love the fact the I can pretty much watch anything at anytime...as long as you can find it among all the ads. These are generally of three types: The owner talking about his business and how great it is, usually involving shouting at the camera. The second sort are infomercials with obviously fake "members of the public" being 'amazed' by the latest knife/swivel sweeper/time life oldies selection/non-surgical face lift. The last ones are just brilliant ads that are better than the shows. There's one on at the moment with Neil-Patrick Harris as a doctor plugging Old Spice. It is comedy gold. There are also an astonishing amount of ads for prescription medicines. I can't believe you would see an advert for asthma medication or impotence drugs or any number of other things and then go and ask you doctor for that specific drug. Oh and there's always Chuck Norris flogging something too. The number of channels here does mean that you get some odd things to watch. For example in South Dakota there are at least two channels dedicated to hunting. I don't know how much stalking and deer killing you can watch but surely not enough for two 24 hour channels. There is also a Catholic channel here. Last night it featured some nuns saying the Hail Mary over and over and  over and over and over and over again. You have to really have a thing for nuns to sit in front of that for an evening.

South Dakota: There are a few things here that surprised me. Firstly you can still smoke in restaurants here! Last night I was asked if I wanted smoking or non-smoking. I think I must have looked pretty stunned as the maitre'd felt the need to apologise and ask me again. I also think that SD must be one of those places where it's almost compulsory to carry a gun, as every shop and restaurant seems to have a sign asking you to leave your weapons outside. Saying that I haven't seen a single weapon since I've been here and the bank's don't even have bullet proof glass between you and the teller, just fresh air and a counter. Perhaps there's something in this right to bear arms thing after all. I have also discovered that cowboys don't talk like John Wayne, at least not the ones from Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska. They sound like they are from Minnesota, and if you don't know what that's like just watch the movie Fargo (which is in North Dakota, who knew). Needless to say it's not the most tough rootin' tootin' talk in the world, in fact they sound like friendly farming folk. Which makes sense I suppose as that's what they are. 

This has been a long post so sorry about that but it's likely to be the last for a while because, due to the inverse square law of hotels, the most expensive place I've stayed so far in New York is also the one without free broadband. Can anyone explain this? The more you pay, the less you get?

So Check back in a few days and see if I've managed to jag some time at the Apple Store and used their Wi-Fi.