What American paradoxes teach us5 reading minutes

Maximum freedom of expression and a ban on alcohol in public spaces. Pornography and prudishness... There's no shortage of paradoxes on the other side of the Atlantic, but not trying to hide them is less hypocritical than believing oneself to be devoid of them. A lesson for Europe.

Take a trip to eight American states, and you'll be impressed by the sheer size and variety of these areas. As disproportionate as the skyscrapers are in height, these surfaces contrast above all with the density of Swiss living space, one of the highest in the world. A feeling no doubt common to all Swiss people making their first trip to Uncle Sam's country. Nevertheless, I understood what the superficiality often attributed to its inhabitants by Europeans had to say about these expanses of land as far as the eye can see, promises of adventure, mistakes and success.

The long, deserted roads we criss-crossed in Texas and Oklahoma were a shock, counterbalanced by the hyperactivity of the megacities. And that's just one of the many contrasts this land has to offer. Some of them even take the form of paradoxes: what can we say about the gap between maximum freedom of expression and authorized carrying of weapons, on the one hand, and the ban on alcohol and tobacco consumption in public spaces, on the other? The reign of pornography and prudery? Wokism, which was born in opposition to racism, yet takes on its main hallmarks? The omnipresent use of air-conditioning, albeit at an exaggeratedly low temperature in relation to the heat outside?

Read also | Le Regard Libre in the United States

Even the present, in America, seems to be constantly at odds with the past. To the point of insulting it. Here, in the nation's capital, black Jewish supremacists from the Black Hebrew Israelites - whose members present themselves as the true heirs of Israel - howl their hatred of whites into a megaphone in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where African-American activist Martin Luther King delivered his universalist «I have a dream» speech. There, in Memphis, Tennessee, cradle of the unifying music of blues and rock, what was once an artistic and economic Eldorado has become a city that empties year after year, and now boasts one of the highest crime rates in the country.

Other reversals are less gloomy and rather amusing. This is the case of the territorial and ideological inversion of the Democratic Party, which was originally a slaveholding, Southern formation, and the Republican Party, formerly Northern and in favor of central power.

Unlike contradictions, which are by definition impossible, paradoxes have a way of life. They are everywhere, expressing the shortcomings of human life and the randomness of the universe. Americans seem to be full of them. Individualistic, yet conformist. Friendly to everyone, but friends with no one. The list goes on and on.

Read also | Megalopolis, the twilight of an idol

The rest of the world, however, is not spared. Every individual is a walking paradox. Every nation is a mass of contrasts. Perhaps the United States simply makes less effort to hide them, and is therefore in a sense less hypocritical.

The worst thing is not to sink into American-style extravagance. It's thinking you can escape it, European-style. This is a lesson for Switzerland and the Old Continent, which are overly won over by the spirit of seriousness. The United States, a land of contrasts, invites us to be lucid about our own paradoxes. To reconsider some of our opinions and actions, and hope to escape from inconsistency. To act with more confidence, so that things can move forward. Even if it means sometimes having to put up with ridicule, which is the lot of every enterprising soul.

Read also | The reciprocal institutional influences of sister republics

It's just one of the positive elements of this country that we could learn from. For it would seem that Switzerland and Europe are taking on the worst of it, from fast food to communitarianism. What if, before lamenting our «Americanization», we selected the good imports from the USA? Starting with the joviality and optimism of its people, against all odds.

Graduate in philosophy and journalist by profession, Jonas Follonier is the founder and editor-in-chief of Regard Libre.

You have just read an open-access editorial from our dossier «Switzerland and the USA, past and present», published in our print edition (Le Regard Libre special issue N°6). Debates, analyses, cultural news subscribe to support us and access all our content.