The North American Continent is host to several states, or countries, the largest of which is composed of several smaller states: the aptly-named The United States of America. The United States of America is a ratified union of 50 states and administers to 14 territories. You may wonder why these territories are not ratified into statehood and granted state status, bringing the total to 64. Those citizens of America I asked were equally unsure, 98% of whom did not understand what I was talking about. For a time I considered that the number 50 was considered sacred or holy by T.U.S.A. inhabitants. But I have since discarded this theory. In all seriousness it seems that the majority of Americans in my sample had no comprehension of these territories' existence, much less their political affiliation.
I took it upon myself to educate them that American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Bajo Nuevo Bank, Baker Island, Howland Island, Johnston Atoll, Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, the Midway Islands, Navassa Island, and the Palmyra Atoll were all classified as T.U.S.A. territory. On several occasions I was told to "get lost"; I explained as best I could that I was indeed lost and trying to work my way back home by compiling a report on their ridiculous human customs--in two instances I was asked for my papers of identification. I handed the first a receipt for a "fast-food" hot dog. This did not go well. The second individual made a rude noise in his throat and muttered something about the "state of the country".
What is the state of the country? Unlike matter, which comes in five states: gas, liquid, solid, plasma, and Oregano Thompson; the "state of the country" is a colloquial phrase (spread across at least the 50 "accepted states") meant to indicate, by way of omission, that the sentence "state of the country" is followed by the predicate clause "is [negative]". With so many states and countries being bandied about--with very little in the way of universal terms--it is no wonder that this civilization has confused itself into thinking it is democratic.
I use the above discussion of territories to illustrate this point. Again and again on T.U.S.A. media programs mention is made of the "state of the democracy," the "democratic nation," or even (shades of old time imperialism) "making the world safe for democracy." In my short time on this planet I have come to believe that T.U.S.A. has no internal concept of "democracy" beyond its collective, superficial incantation. A democracy, as I understand its use in this state's own history books, is a system of government whereby rule is the domain of the masses, the population as a whole. T.U.S.A. operates under a representative democracy, a republic, in fact, with far less than the gross domestic population participating in the electoral process--and the territories excluded from the proceedings entirely.
Thus far I have seen what I can only describe as a weird dichotomy in human culture--so far as this continent's inhabitants are concerned: personal compassion on a scale heretofore unexamined in galactic observations, and widespread ignorance comparable to a working virtual reality. What is accepted as fact, general knowledge, "day-to-day life" is not, objectively, accurate. Instead the inhabitants of T.U.S.A. operate in personal spheres that, when called upon to participate in the grander civilization, resort to mass assumptions predicated on an outdated zeitgeist.
I will go no further except to say that currently T.U.S.A. is SOL-3's leading industrial and cultural organization, or super-power. But rather than a limited oligarchy of educated elites in charge of a plebian voting bloc it seems that the governmental figures are just as--if not more--misinformed as their districts. There is no sinister conspiracy of willful obfuscation here, just a random conglomeration of misfiring sprockets.
This is mind-boggling. It's just like home.
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