For people over fifty, starting over in a new country is like dropping a lab rat in a complex maze. Like the rat, you suddenly find yourself in a totally unknown environment that constantly confronts you were new decisions and dilemmas. For example, learning to use a new phone system. It took me months to figure out the Christchurch phone book, owing to the unique alphabetization protocol New Zealand uses. I also had to learn to dial 111 for emergencies, 1 for an outside line and 0 if I wanted to call a cellphone or long distance number. And not to waste hours redialing a number when I got a “fast busy” signal. Unlike the “slow busy” beeps, it means the number has been disconnected.

It helped a lot to meet other American expatriates struggling with the same problems. It was also extremely gratifying to realize I was not alone in my absolute repudiation of Bush’s wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. As I would later learn, tens of thousands of American progressives and liberals left the US during the Bush years. In November 2003, expatriate Americans led the London demonstrations protesting Bush’s London visit and the war in Iraq (see www.independent.co.uk/…/american–expatriates–to-lead-the-protests-against-bush-735836.html). American expatriates also formed major voting blocs for Kerry in 2004 and for Obama in 2008 (see http://www.wordhcmc.com/insider/160-general/662-democrats-abroad?tmpl=component&print=1&page).

Americans in Britain organize for Obama

My Struggle With American Exceptionalism

Ironically the biggest hurdle I had to overcome was my own lack of objectivity regarding my native country. Given that my decision to leave the US was politically motivated, this really surprised me. For some reason, no matter how strongly Americans consciously reject America’s immoral and corrupt political system, we all unconsciously buy into the American exceptionalism that is pounded into us in school and via the mainstream media. The belief that the US is not only the foremost military and economic power, but also the most productive, efficient, cleanest, healthiest, transparent, just and scientifically advanced.

This is an extremely rude awakening for many Americans. It certainly was for me. In my case, Kiwi colleagues confronted me for my attitude that the US was more advanced in medical research. As I look back, I am both mystified and embarrassed that I took this position. I have known for at least two decades that US medical research is mainly funded by drug companies. I also know that Big Pharma has a well-earned reputation for buying and publishing research that promotes profits at the expense of scientific objectivity. Two examples are 1) research that promotes fictitious illnesses (such as estrogen deficiency disorder in menopausal women and serotonin deficiency disorder in depressives) to market marginally effective and frankly harmful drugs (estrogen replacement is in large part responsible for high rates of breast cancer); and 2) research that grossly minimizes the role preventive medicine and non-pharmaceutical interventions have in promoting and maintaining human health.

The Link Between Exceptionalism and Empire

Over time I came to understand that citizens in all great military empires are under enormous pressure to hold and express patriotic and exceptionalist beliefs. In Nazi Germany, you could be shot on the street for unpatriotic statements. The British public was under similar pressure when the Britain was the world’s greatest empire. In Victorian England, women were expected to engage in marital sex as a patriotic duty: “Just close your eyes and think of England.”

This is the second major awakening for many American expatriates: we never fully appreciate how much US militarism overshadows all aspects of American life until we leave. Again I have known for decades that the US government spends more than half their budget on the military – that they do so to guarantee US corporations access to cheap natural resources and sweat shop labor, as well as markets for their cheap agricultural exports. However until I actually left US, I was largely unaware of the enormous personal price Americans pay – in terms of personal liberty, freedom of speech and thought and quality of life – as subjects of a great military empire.

To be continued.