lunes, 30 de mayo de 2016

A country or a lifestyle? ... THE AMERICANS

The best way to analyze something or being analyzed is to take a perspective out of the subject, so if we want to understand a different culture, for example, or get to know someone different from us, we need to experience it and take a step back being able to see and recognize all the differences from in and outside of it. It's hard to make a point or understand it when we are use to it. When we don't know anything else but that. And also we can't compare or criticize it just for being different, we need to understand it and get to know it first to be able to be objective with our own experience to understand two different perspectives. So in order to expose a culture or a way of life nothing works better than an outsider that will sumerge into this new reality and make it his own while struggling to deal with his past and what his new future offers. And since American culture is being thrown out all around the place by entertainment media, all the globe has been witnessing American ideals, traditions, way of life, by the news, movies, tv shows, music, fashion, politics, exposing themselves to the best of the world as trying to become more popular among tourist destinations and to expand business in all different industries. But as we all know, once you put yourself out there some might like it but some others might not, so you get fans and haters.

Lovers will fall for it but haters might want to destroy it. So while we have some american idols in music, movies and tv, there are some haters on politics, economics and life style. So why is that?, well there are many factors but just to mention an example, when trying to create and show your country as the number one in the world, the one that matters while the world is being destroyed by an alien invasion or a world war, but being the only one able to save the day, for fun will be nice to watch but in reality will turn some heads down as politics and economics will question why can't be global and why things have to be one way, since history has proven that everybody body wants to rule the world, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Italy, UK, France, Spain, China, Russia, Germany had tried to colonize the world and set empires, but now is the time for the Americans to get to the top as they been since the second half of last century. "The Americans" (2011-current) is a tv show that serves equally as a thriller show, where a couple of russian spies moved to America in times of the cold war just to infiltrate to  different levels of the main politics and economics of the country trying to get some information to deliver back home in order to help their mother country to win this silence war, but also serves as an intense drama where this couple, figuring their life in a different country and culture get to cover themselves as a real couple, building a real family and raising it, suffering from all what any other family will.

How can you mix  a job where you have to hide and pretend to be someone else without losing yourself so you can actually have a life even if that life isn't supposed to be real? It's all complicated. As a spy your duty and only object is to serve a bigger purpose. You serve your country and as any other soldier, even putting your life first if necessary,  so nothing else matters, so are able to sacrifice family and friends in order to accomplish your targets, but what happen when part of your duties are to raise a family and pretend that this is real to use it as a cove to infiltrate in the system and embrace the culture you are trying to destroy? How can you stop developing feelings or caring about others when this is your life, a life you didn't choose but now is there, and now gave you two kids, of your own but are just part of a bigger plan, and not a one made by choice. How can you not enjoy this new culture when it's your daily basis, and is what you do or need to do every day, has become part of you but you still fighting against it? How can you be part of it without be involved? Is it too complicated to understand?, well imagine how it could be experiencing it.

This is the story of Phillip and Elizabeth, a couple of Russian spies that were couples to be assigned to move to the U.S. in order to infiltrate their system and get all the info possible to the russian government and help them to do the dirty job needed to win this war, a one that was silent, but was happening raising tension and threatening to explode anytime and start a real conflict where nuclear bombs were involve, so the only way to win this is getting as much information as possible and avoiding being caught. So this man and woman, one of the best spies of their country, being pretending to be a real couple, then got married, and then have kids, like any other couple, but they can't get involved because their job will need them to get involved with other people, seducing them , fucking them, killing them, so they can accomplish a mission. But how can you not develop feelings for someone that is your partner in crime and has been there for you for years, saved your life, ad sex with, is the mother or father of your kids and you sleep next to him every night? Well that's actually the real mission and the biggest target of the show. The struggle of having a double life and fight wth the fact of become or being the best at what you do, feel passionate about your job, be able to do what it takes to accomplish what is needed from you but also be a good father, partner, neighbor, a good citizen of two countries, one that demands you and other that embraces you. How can you live a lie big enough that is becoming a reality for you and all the people around you, making that line between reality and fantasy so thin that you can't even notice what is real or not.

How can you stop to develop feelings like love, compassion, jealous, attraction, passion, when you have two kids at home waiting for you and you are trying to raise them as good human beings and citizens of their country but you are killing people and lying to orders in order to get something from them. And while all this drama goes on, and more questions pop out and are drop to the table, also comes the fact that while we are witnessing all this drama about this two individuals, the american culture is been exposed through there eyes, two russian eyes and some other foreign eyes looking to bring down America as a threat of a world that seeks to become the next number one after the old big countries are recovering from a devastated world war. The way Americans behave as individuals, looking out for their passions, trying to achieve goals as part of their personal success and check list, how do they raise their families and interact as neighbors and citizens, their traditions, their relationships, the way the seek for love and embrace it, how good or bad are they at it, it's all exposed from different perspectives, the insiders and the foreigns, and no one is right or wrong, there are no moral discussions, no finger pointing what we should do, or what works better or how to work out wth both, on the contrary, is all just drop there, able to become a subject to study and analyze, a subject for discussion, and everyone can have a different opinion but seeing your culture being naked that way through different eyes definitely will bring some questions and some affirmations and won't be easy to swallow but also can be an eye opener to break the bubble and take some perspective. As said at the beginning it won't be easy and very complicated but will be a fun and intense ride for sure.

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