Last month, abroad in the United States, I had the opportunity to experience something I’d only seen mocked on satirical TV news shows: a good ole American gun show.
Well, since I’ve written this, clearly I took up the opportunity.
It was eye-opening – some things were expected, some other things not expected at all (how family friendly it was?).
The following are six observations/themes I picked up at the gun show near Palm Beach, Florida.
1. Ideology identity.
The epidemic of ideology is everywhere in the US, affecting every corner of the spectrum. The disease is chronic loneliness, the cure is ideology. Not every belief system, every ritual, every gathering is negative (not even this one). But there’s a level you can get to, a place you can reach, where the cure makes the disease stronger. Grasping at ideological touch points is the currency. I find these two juxtaposed interesting:
Then of course, the obvious… the most popular… the modern, western, American badges of ideological fervor – the unfiltered t-shirt.
2. Community
However… community is truly the cure. Haven’t we always been driven towards creating community? Healthy ones, a few levels before tribal bloodlust? This is so apparent here, where families come on family tickets, kids walk through the halls unfazed, lunch is served. The ideology is the welcome mat (or sorting hat?), you stay for the corn dogs.
3. Nazi paraphernalia: Fanboying the past
This is a tough one because I think for a lot of us, we see the symbols and the paraphernalia and we can’t wrap our heads around why. It’s way too personal to us in a painful way. There seem to be two kinds of collectors: Actual neo-Nazis, and the American with WW2 hero syndrome. The conquering force, the great American save the day complex. Good versus Evil, the inspiration for the Marvel cinematic universe.
4. Israel
Here, in the midst of the great antisemtiism awakening of 2023-24, I felt ok about saying I’m from Israel. It took me a few encounters to get there.
5. The one Israeli guy
I mean, of course. The one with the smallest Israeli flag is the one Israeli present. We lock eyes; I see his flag, he sees my #bringhtemhomenow necklace. We have traded places in the world; 20 years here, 20 years there. An Israeli for an Israeli. The circle of expat life.
6. Consumerism
Question, for real: Why do you have to kill someone more killy-er if you’re killing in self defense?
There were a lot of, let’s call them, accessories… and I don’t only mean the poor taste t-shirts and mahagony gun cases. But gun add-ons, specialized bullets, and even the colors – ‘girl color’ guns and the like.
People mentioning they are looking for another one.
Overall? The obvious:
Times are rough, everywhere. People are desperate to outline and define who they are and what they stand for, but above all, people – the person sitting next to you on the train right now, the loud talker down the hall at the office, the guy avoiding eye contact on the street – people are desperate to belong.
Our desperation for belonging, as humans, can lead us in many directions, namely two: polarization, or unification.
Big, world shaking events – like October 7th – rapidly bring us all together, even if it’s (very) temporary, (very) delicate. Necessity, survival, grief are powerful things. But just as quickly, being human, we crack apart at the fault lines of our differences, and shrink back to our smaller polarized groups – the sense of belonging there is tighter, narrower, more… secure.
Maybe if it wasn’t such an emo time for me, I actually would have come at this in a negative way, a political way. But being such emo times, I find myself desperate for human connection, connection to anyone dressed any way around me. For those of us who don’t shrink back from people who are different, believe different, act different – we have a role in this.
Ask someone a question. Listen to the answer. Nod, smile.
We’re not getting out of this by closing off.
Whadya got: