Need for Change

Sontag kind of makes me feel embarassed to be an American. She depicts most Americans as close-minded, unsympathetic, self-centered individuals who will never truly understand other cultures and people-"An American has no way of incorporating Vietnam into his consciousness" She says that any person who visits Vietnam has the task of trying to "understand what one is nevertheless barred from understanding" Seeing the Vietnamese people be so understanding and welcoming in such a time of hardship and destruction showed her how drastically different our culture is. She feels America has "betray[ed] its ideals," (which is how I'm sure many felt about America during this time of war) But I think she feels this way not only because of the war, but in general thinks America needs to drastically change. She does have hope that this change will occur-"Increasing numbers of people do realize that we must have a more generous, more humane way of being with each other; and great, probably convulsive, social changes are needed to create these psychic changes." But the realization that it needs to occur, and it actually happening are two very different things- I mean, its been over 40 years, have we changed?