Forward Thinking

I have seen the future. Actually, I have seen two versions of the future: one energized, bustling, and dynamic; one slipping quietly, comfortably into the past. One feels like it is chomping at the bit, restless to break out and take charge. The other wants a cup of tea and a book of history in an armchair. One wants to be a regional role model; the other wants only to develop its own region in peace. One is Turkey. The other is the European Union. My question: Which way is America going?

But to begin from the beginning: At the end of August, I packed my bags for my junior year abroad—what was to be my first experience of more than a week outside of North America—and boarded a flight from Boston to Istanbul. So began a year that, at the halfway point, has already been the most exciting, challenging, and transformational of my life. After a two-week orientation program in Istanbul and Ankara, I traveled with my fellow students to a Mediterranean seaside town called Alanya, where we lived and studied for four months. From there, we also explored the region, traveling to Syria, Cyprus, Cappadocia, and—in the case of my roommate and myself—to Italy on fall break.

At the conclusion of the semester in mid-December, we all went our separate ways. I set off with my girlfriend on a three-week whirlwind tour of Europe, touching Vienna, Prague, Brussels, Antwerp, Cologne, Dublin, Cork, and finally Galway, where I am now settled in and beginning my second-semester studies. In many ways, life could not be much more different: I have gone from a 15-student program to a 17,000-student university; traded my five-minute walk to the Mediterranean for a 15-minute walk to the edge of the Atlantic; left an economically booming Eastern country and European Union applicant for an EU member state and one of the infamous "PIGS" countries dragging down the Euro; and finally undergone a drastic shift in cultures from a 99-percent Muslim country precariously balanced between Europe and the Middle East to a majority-Christian and English-speaking country on the western edge of Europe. Life might look a lot different now, but the differences are telling. What really separates Turkey, Europe, and—most important to me—America?

Taking some time away from America has granted me an unquestionably different view of my home country than I could ever have obtained without leaving. In my reflection on all that I have learned abroad, what has stuck out the most is that America's can-do spirit and promise of a bright today and a better tomorrow are what really make our country unique. Even if we have a somewhat loud, in-your-face, monolingual culture (from which I by no means excuse myself), Americans are—in the experience of myself and nearly everyone else I have discussed this with—almost always a fundamentally friendly and optimistic people. We might tend to know only one language, we might have a little extra bluster, we might be viewed as a bit childish, and we might not have buildings and culture that are basically older than dirt (there is a reason "European" is synonymous with "cultured/refined" in American advertizing), but I have come to see these traits as some of America's greatest and most endangered strengths.

For the basic paradox of Europe is that it is a collection of new states living primarily on the past glories of bygone empires. ("Italy is a young country," my tour guide at the Coliseum gravely intoned.) America, by contrast, is technically older than most European states in the sense that its current constitution dates back further than theirs, yet America and Americans in general have retained the energy and enthusiasm for life of the young. Our boisterousness might make us appear juvenile to others, but it is the source of our famed ingenuity and of the enduring promise of each generation to leave the country and the world a better place for its children.

To me, this is the challenge of my generation and those to follow: Will America remain focused on providing a better future for its children and their children as candidate Obama promised and President Obama often says but does not seem to do? Or will we go down the European path of keeping the 40-and-older crowd happy? The latter constituency in Europe and America votes in force to keep its entitlements and its retirements on track. The under-40's, by contrast, often cannot seem to bestir ourselves enough even to vote. Future-thinking necessarily implies responsibility and morality; I would argue that a future-thinking citizen would have thought at least twice before creating a "credit-default swap" or authorizing the Deepwater Horizon to drill.

The Turks get it. Their economy is growing, they are modernizing as fast as they can, and they want nothing to do with the IMF's money. They are convinced that their country is on the move and that there is a bright future just around the corner. Turkey is loud, gritty, and bustling, but (in contrast to Syria) has the feel of a place gathering itself for a big forward jump. The Europeans, on the other hand, have universal health care, highly refined culture, and beautiful old buildings. But their population is rapidly aging, with births significantly below the replacement rate. To a large extent, Turks are picking up the slack in youthful labor within the EU. The Europeans seem quite contented to quietly ride social democracy into the sunset, hoping above all to be left alone to develop their post-modernist socio-political project. The Turks want to take on the world.

If the EU is the future of humanity, it is eminently civilized, but there does not seem to be much "future" in it. Everywhere I have been so far in Europe has the feeling of being a living museum or perhaps a movie set: everyone plays a role, but it is unclear what anyone does. I am fully aware that there are plenty of highly successful European businesses, yet there does not seem to be the same sense of urgency that exists in America and Turkey. Turks drink a lot of çay (tea), but they bring their teapots to their construction sites; by a professor's admission here in Galway, it is no use going to anyone's office between 1 and 2 pm, the sacred tea time (different from lunch) of Irish culture. I am painting with an extremely broad brush here, but I still think the basic point is instructive: do we (America) want to follow in the European mode of going along to get along or the American mode (emulated by the Turks) of creating our own future?

 "Success is tasted sweetest/by those who ne'er succeed," wrote Emily Dickinson. Her poem might as well be the "first amendment" to the American Dream, which always burns brightest for those (often non-Americans) who have yet to achieve it. Growing up in Wellesley, Massachusetts, I saw plenty of those who ever succeed. The same is true at Georgetown University, where too many of my classmates have never pulled any literal or figurative bootstraps whatsoever.

Something ugly is brewing in America when we start putting limits on the American Dream. The Southwest is in the throes of a xenophobic paroxysm of hate and fear directed against "job-stealing" Mexicans, a situation that uncomfortably mirrors the EU's attitudes towards Turkey. Turks, like Mexicans in America, have long been a source of cheap labor in Europe, largely overlooked when times are good but railed against in times like these when they are accused of "stealing" jobs that most Europeans, in their more honest moments, will admit they did not really want anyway. After seeing its membership application rebuffed for a half-century, Turkey is now strongly considering moving on without the EU. And why should they not? They rebuffed IMF loans, weathered the storm of the financial crisis, and are tired of reading between the lines of EU progress reports that they still are not white or Christian enough for the EU family.

Combined with my experiences abroad so far, my reading of American history argues that we are at a crucial turning point. Our culture, history, and social contract are all predicated on the promise of a brighter tomorrow. From the Pilgrims to the pioneers, from the Founding to the 21^st Century, the underlying goal of America has been to provide each generation with a better future. At this point, we—and I would argue that "we" are really my generation and those younger than us—are faced with a choice: do we want to go the way of Europe, celebrating our past and making life comfortable for the present and past generations, or do we want to get back in touch with the idea that it is our responsibility to manage the country that is our birthright in such a way that our children and our children's children may make it still better?

I am nobody's partisan. I have tremendous issues with both major political parties and most especially with the rapidly-deteriorating tone and tenor of American political debate. Fear-mongering, lying, and playing to the lowest common denominators and fringes of the fringes on both sides is nothing short of shameful. Rather than looking to either party for salvation, my most fervent wish is that we, the 20-somethings and younger generations of America, get our act together, make our voices heard, and start taking responsibility for ourselves, our nation, and our future.

President Obama's anecdote is right: "they" did drive our country into the ditch. But "they" are not any one party or ideology so much as a generation of politicians out of ideas yet desperate to keep its hold on the wheel. Maybe it is time to enlist the help of younger and stronger backs to pull the car out of the ditch and clearer eyes to keep it on the road.