The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Absolutely the most eerie and disturbing thing about returning to America is being unable to find the Americans. Washington is so empty that a first-time visitor could be forgiven for imagining it had been the victim of a neutron bomb attack.
There is no one here. Even at the height of rush hour, there's almost no traffic. Off of the main streets, you can walk for blocks without passing another soul.
There are almost no young people. I've seen none playing in the yards, and certainly none playing in the streets. I've seen a few parents with strollers, but not many. I don't think I've seen a single teenager.
I'm looking out the window right now and seeing parking lots with only a handful of cars in them, empty streets with no one at all walking down them or driving, almost no sign of life. I'm in Georgetown. It's not the middle of nowhere. But it's empty.
And it's kind of giving me the creeps.
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May '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
And oddly, the news channels are playing stuff on a continuous loop, like a security camera that's been tampered with.
Jul '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
The open bar at CPAC may be the explanation.
Aug '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
The nomenklatura are in their winter dachas, St Barts, Antigua, Turks, and some with the proles in Florida. The poor republican cloth coats go home each weekend to eat.
May '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Reminds me of the time I flew into Seattle form Tokyo. The airport was so empty, I thought [****] the airlines are on strike and I didn't read about it. But they weren't on strike. It was a normal day.
Jan '11
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
It's 10am on a Saturday morning... People are recovering from the bar hopping. It'll be unbearable again tonight. Don't worry.
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Keep laughing, everyone. I'm totally freaked out by this. The hallways of this building are empty. It's utterly silent. No horns, no shouting, no construction noise. It's like an Antarctic graveyard at midnight. Has it always been like this? Who else has realized that America only exists in the movies and on the Internet? How have we kept this secret for so long? How do journalists here interview the man on the street? How far would I have to walk to find him?
This demography business is no joke.
May '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Exactly. A poor reflection on the youth culture in the USA.
May '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Hope you packed an extended magazine. If not, go just outside DC limits and loot a gun store.
Dec '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
More or less. Don't know about Manhattan, but even densely populated near north Chicago, packed with high rise condo and rental buildings, will be fairly quiet at 10am on a Saturday morning in the dead of winter.
Edited on Feb 12, 2011 at 7:24amJun '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
You're generalizing about all of America based on one Saturday morning in Washington DC in the middle of February?
Jan '11
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Nickolas
More or less. Don't know about Manhattan, but even densely populated near north Chicago, packed with high rise condo and rental buildings, will be fairly quiet at 10am on a Saturday morning in the dead of winter. · Feb 12 at 7:23am
Edited on Feb 12 at 07:24 am
Manhattan is more or less the same way at least on Sunday mornings.
Claire, we are no longer a morning people. Our children no longer play outside, they have Nintendo and Facebook. You're also in the swanky part of the heart of the world's biggest bureaucracy. We tend to open late and close early.
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
No, I've noticed this before, a lot. But I keep forgetting how spooky it is. You can't help but notice it when your eyes are used to streets like this.
Sep '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
This demography business is no joke.
I don't think the title America Alone was meant as an ironic riff, but it certainly works in this case.
Oct '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: Keep laughing, everyone. I'm totally freaked out by this. The hallways of this building are empty. It's utterly silent. No horns, no shouting, no construction noise. It's like an Antarctic graveyard at midnight. Has it always been like this? Who else has realized that America only exists in the movies and on the Internet? How have we kept this secret for so long? How do journalists here interview the man on the street? How far would I have to walk to find him?
This demography business is no joke. · Feb 12 at 7:14am
It's not that bad. I'm sure everyone is huddled in smoke-filled rooms plotting and scheming. It's that time of day.
Aug '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Go to the big Barnes and Noble and figure out why Borders is going bankrupt.
Nov '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
No, I've noticed this before, a lot. But I keep forgetting how spooky it is. You can't help but notice it when your eyes are used to streets like this. · Feb 12 at 7:55am
Okay, I sort of get it. But try driving through Bethesda some time this afternoon and see if you can imagine the area with any more people in it. I wonder how much of your reaction has to do with the population shift to the suburbs.
And remember, we've got a lot of land here. You can spread a lot of people out pretty thin in the area we have.
May '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
I was at CPAC yesterday. What freaks me out about DC (which is, from a NYer perspective, beautiful, and makes me want to move), is the Metro, which apart from being in decay, is dark, fairly empty, and aesthetically cold--like something from a cheap sci-fi film. Was it built so deep for fallout shelter use? What's the deal with the Metro, especially the dark lighting?
Dec '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Claire, Have you ever read The Sex Lives of Cannibals? It is a fish-out-of-water story of a young couple who go to live on Tarawa, the island capital of Kiribati. It is purportedly true, although the author admits to taking license with some facts.
Kiribati is a very laid-back place where sleeping on the job is not cause for comment (according to the book. I have never read much about this place other than the WWII battle). Upon returning to Washington DC their reaction was the opposite of yours. Everything was just too frantic. They had to leave.
Edited on Feb 12, 2011 at 9:22amJun '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Here in sunny Southern California, the sun is out, the birds are singing, the streets are quiet. It's supposed to be 78 degrees today...there isn't a cloud in the sky....
AAARRRGGHHHH!!! I can't stand it, I tell you! It's just not right! I think I'm going mad!
Oct '10
Re: The Most Unnerving Thing About America
Claire, you have made my day. The thought of nothing happening in Washington D.C.is a desiderata!