An egalitarian society

"America is an egalitarian country, where everyone treats others with a lot of respect," observes a person fresh off the boat from a long trip across the pacific. Elaborating further in a comforting tone, he adds, "Everyone holds the door for the person following him/her. Every passers by is greeted with a broad, contagious smile. You go out on a hike and the fellow stranger hikers are all friendly and helpful." "And their dogs no shout, no byte, no eat. Them so adorable," adds his smug wife in a thickly accentuated adaptation of a language surprisingly similar to English.

Such conversations are not uncommon to observe; they are ubiquitous. Assuming even a slightest truth in these widespread convictions about the American society, one tends to belief this society as a social utopia. Well, that might be a stretch with all those allegations about racism, xenophobia, and suchlike hypothetical scenarios, particularly in a community above par in terms of affluence and education. Imagine the settings of a tiny college town with ninety percent population comprising of students, faculty, staff, and their families. Although the students may not really be addressed as financially better off than the average Joe, but still have better prospects, nevertheless. The point is that an assumption of a minimal social etiquettes and human respect would not be completely ridiculous.

"So what is this minimal set? I am sure the standards are better than those in my native country and my neighbor's native country or my native country's neighbor or my neighbor's native country's neighbor and other permutations and combinations," inquires the same old chap, who is sporting a McDonald-ey "I am lovin' it" smile.

Thus goes the conversation between some workaholic, international graduate students waiting at a bus stop. The bus arrives about two minutes late. Everyone looks pissed: the Indians, for not having enough time to ogle at the "bus-stop beauties", the Chinese, for seeing only fifty percent of them in the crowd and thus losing majority, and the Europeans, "ditsh bus ict 120 shekends late"; the only blank faces being American. Among the four people sitting in the front seats -- that are reserved for handicapped and elderly -- are a guy in the gym shorts, a blond girl with a coffee mug, an unshaven nerdy dude in shabby attire: all of them staring in the void, and holding armor against every possible foe that attempts at peeking in their hearts. Oh, and the fourth one is an international student, who hurt his knee enough to prefer sitting and is reading a book to avoid being carried away with the depressing, insipid environment. Another person hops into the bus and suddenly a couple of these dead faces come to life with a little chit-chat with enthusiasm that lasts for like five shekends; Dirac would be so proud of his delta function, now.

The bus makes another stop to pick up an old lady pushing a perambulator with a cute kid with squinty Oriental eyes. From the prior probabilities associated with the correlation between age and pregnancies and a lack of the display of age progression in the bamboo drinking civilizations (so if you do have wrinkles you should have seen at least one of the world wars), it could be inferred that she was that kid's grandmother.

All the "reserved" seats in this bus were already occupied. The occupants showed a common display of adoration of the "cutatiousnes", "cutacity", or simply cuteness of the kid, and continued warming the seats. The bus starts to move causing clear discomfort to the grandma and the baby as the pram makes Brownian motion and the old lady makes transitions from the state of struggling to stand straight to anchoring the pram in the corner, putting Cirque du Soleil artists to shame.

All this is being witnessed by the educated, relatively well-off members of this utopic society. No help was offered, even when the reservation policy for the front seats is sort of violated. Who cares? First, she is not technically handicap and she might not be above sixty or something to qualify for an elderly. Second, and most importantly, there is really no one to enforce this rule anyways. So she swivels with every slight turn the bus makes. And nobody cares. Not exactly everyone. The temporarily handicapped looks at the athletic, muscular guy in the gym shorts and observes no response. The hand holding the coffee mug is moved to the lips in an unaffected fashion, and the glasses on the nerdy guy's nose stays at the same awkward position. The next thing happens is he closes his book and pursues the old lady to take his seat while he struggles to stand straight in the place previously occupied by the old lady.

At the destined stop in the University, this limping guy says to the happy immigrant, "Yes, America is an egalitarian society - a society OF the equals."