I think I'm being watched

1) One thing that’s pretty disturbing about England is its reliance on CCTV. In London, practically every intersection has a camera on it. London is not alone in its usage; Oxford relies on it to a lesser extent. Further, the British advertise their reliance on CCTV. Big Brother truly is watching. But at the same time, it’s not quite 1984, because these cameras haven’t invaded the home. An example: if I were foolish enough to grow pot on my front lawn, and the police passed by and saw it, it’s a tenet of both our systems that you’re pretty fucking dumb and should suffer the consequences. But constant surveillance, to me at least, feels qualitatively different from, say, patrols. It occupies that gray area, you know? And that’s no fun.

2) Boot’s is the English equivalent of CVS. In my visits there, I’ve been impressed. It’s so clean, and there are a battalion of people whose only job is to hang around at attention and answer your questions. Very helpful, especially when you need something obscure; but at the same time, it feels somewhat superfluous. Although it might be that that’s cultural influences at work; US capitalism is focused on cutting costs over good service.

3) Interestingly, although the US is often decried for rampant consumerism/materialism in comparison to our European counterparts, my amateur sociology indicates otherwise. There are two malls and lots and lots of shoe stories, clothing stores, and the like for a city of about 150,000. This seems perhaps a bit high although not particularly unusual for the United States. Qualitatively, the people in Oxford definitely dress a little more designer-y, but not by much.

Related to the charges of consumerism and materialism are charges of statusp-consciousness and conspicuous consumption. I’ve always felt college stores and college memorabilia to be related to the latter phenomenon. Look how cool I am! I go to Harvard/Stanford/Oxford/other school here! Oxford has about three of those stores, I think, and none of them ever fill to bursting or at all.

4) Tidbits: The bathroom nearest me has no doorhandle on the inside, even though it opens towards you...Every door claims it's a fire door that must be kept shut...English pronunciation is similar to New England’s pronunciation in that it is fucked up: if someone can explain to me why Magdalen is pronounced “Maudlin”, or Worchester is pronounced “Wooster”, I will buy them a pony and call them a genius...Budweiser Budvar puts American Budweiser to shame, not unsurprisingly...This is how soccer-obsessed the nation is: the front page of some paper today contains a picture, center and top fold, of signed soccer shoes a professional player donated to a family grieving its football-obsessed son...

5) The only worn religious iconography I’ve seen has been this: a neon-orange cross, matched perfectly with his Dorito-orange Nike shoes, and his orange-text A&F shirt.