Confessions of a Failed Expat

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I began traveling overseas in search of examples of positive social change that could fire people's imagination about what's possible. I went to Germany and the Netherlands to look at their ambitious plans to reverse environmental damage. I went to Denmark and Sweden to investigate the accomplishments (many) and pitfalls (a few) of their generous social policies. In writing up my findings in Utne, the English magazine Resurgence, and in a series for The Nation called "What Works," I encountered steep skepticism -- including many progressive thinkers who were convinced that we couldn't learn anything from Europe or anywhere else. "That won't work here," they told me, because we're not ethnically homogenous like France, or because, unlike the Germans, we love our cars. But travel instills me with optimism, in part because I've seen that French cities are surprisingly diverse and that Germans do love their cars, but not enough to destroy their environment.

As a loyal American, I'm not willing to write off my fellow citizens as too stubborn to embrace a good idea when they see one. We are an energetic, enterprising people, generally willing to try something new and happy at the chance to improve our lives. The problem, I think, is that we are seldom exposed to the truly important news from abroad. Foreign countries are places that we can learn from, not just targets for military or economic invasion. While I once looked for a way out of America, I now feel patriotic pride in trying to bring fresh ideas into the country. We need them now more than ever.

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