Unlike Pyle (played by Brendan Fraser, previously in George the Jungle and the Scout), his Vietnamese quiet counterpart – let’s call him Phuc – is truly quiet. He wouldn’t venture out to dance or to make waves. Not until and unless he ends up looking anti-social in a socially mediated society.
Unlike Pyle, he wouldn’t dare proposing to Phuong, Fowler’s live-in girlfriend – to him, it’s too short a dating runway. Not without first bouncing off a trusted matchmaker (Pyle later cleared with Phuong’s older sister, a go-between). Like AI, he needs to gather enough data (Fisher Temperament Index) ” xem xet tinh hinh” before letting the process/fate run its course (just like cooking rice: not too soon, not too late).
After all, our quiet Vietnamese has already lived a dozen lives: inoculated against “mal jaune” (Bernard Fall’s term via Ron Nessen, Ford’s Press Secretary) commonly occurred among Euro expats who traded individualism for a sense of belonging (in the Deer Hunter, it’s an extreme case of endorphin addiction to stay on in Cho Lon for a game of Russian roulette).
By nature, he treks and talks with caution (“uon luoi hai lan”). Walls can hear. In Hamburger Hills, G.I. draftees were warned that the enemy might lay quietly, face down in the mud, to fake dead, but hear everything. In the fog of war, even Mc Namara couldn’t “empathize” with what’s in the head of “dead” people. Clan conformity scores higher than compliance to Western abstract notion e.g. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
To no one’s surprises, his roots reach back thousands of years with millions of edit i.e. whitewashed mythological heroines and heroes, defenders and offenders, swords and elephants, ships and even tanks. Our quiet Vietnamese was taught not so much in school nor at home, but by a life-long learning process of course-correction enforced by a host of tradition (ancestral altar, with hologram eyes lurking and ever judging) and by wise sayings, repeated by the living. It’s a permanent village life – a village within city walls. In Houston (top 5 largest city in America), there is a restaurant called “Hem” (alley) to reinforce the concept of geographical and cultural scarcity.
In short, everyone is a quiet “law man” without a shield or being deputized. Good luck with abortion, contraception etc.…in a pre-dominantly Catholic agricultural village (in this case, a double safety guard).
So ingrained he is more at home with peasantry (que qua!) e.g. dining on the floor from an oval tray (Canh Dong Bat Tan), as opposed to sit at an outdoor cafe in District 1 (as our TIME magazine perfect stringer/spy – always seen with his German shepherd). In the case of class and caste, even Alain Delon, as the talented Mr. Ripley, acted awkward with fork, out of place in a rich-man’s yacht (as opposed to a quick bite of the “banh mi” – le pain).
Phuc is content with voluntary servitude, having lived “downstairs” for so long: Oui oui Monsieur. Excuse Moi, Mademoiselle (Ong Tay, Ba Dam, thang tai-xe). Not just race but revenge in the wait that eats him up. It’s suffocating and self-imploding (in “Fog of War”, when war was behind, McNamara learned that Vietnam wanted independence – Colonial context, while him, former Sec of Defense thought it was in the context of the Cold War.)
High and long in context, Phuc is reluctant to assert himself in an egalitarian debate (again, caution is virtue – besides, being assertive needs constant practice and free speech 1st Amendment). The mike is on “mute” comes his turn in group setting. It keeps people guessing. Silence is golden. If it were perceived as wisdom all the better. The more unscripted, the more vulnerable. Only in tight circles would one shoot the breeze. Unedited speech and unchecked rants only in unguarded moments or over drinks: “Look, my scars are bigger than yours” (fake left go right, one step back two steps forward.)
Most times, he just observes and stands ready fully loaded with stock reply – to deflect and discourage further probing (Xoay tua). Dale Carnegie would be proud.
He wouldn’t want to give away proprietary wisdom e.g. the second mouse always gets the cheese etc.…” An co di truoc, loi nuoc theo sau”, “Nhat phao cau, nhi dau canh” (chicken ass tastes best, then come wings and heads).
Always humble and unstated (in major religious instruction, humility ironically ranks on top) he would wait to be situated i.e. never out front in those empty seats. This reverse psychology is all too familiar to local event organizers who had anticipated and proactively prepared flex seating e.g. folded chairs. Wedding invitations print precise venues but not prompt start-time (punctuality is understood as when everyone in the village gets there, gift in cash to transactionally pay for the banquet).
Status and face-saving are more guarded than gold at Fort Knox. Showing up too early might be misconstrued as not having enough to eat at home.
Answered Yes to a negative question, by reflex (supposedly “No” in English) to avoid disagreement. Being uncertain and wavering on issues like Western journalists: “only time can tell”.
Since any version of truth is time-tested, he would lash out if forced (down the funnel of binary choices e.g. AI voice prompt). Always he lives and breathes synthesis and harmony i.e. someone’s brother, Phuong’s sister, a Ba, chi Tu …Brother 3 Sister 4 …numerically branded in the order one is born. In fact, salesmen always cut through the chase to close by naming prospects as if they belong in the same birth bag (100 eggs).
More lineage-centric than future-centric, Old Testament than New. It’s as if once he switched to his native language, lineage and seniority/status is accorded, damn thousand-years weight just sits on you, without wiggling room. “Kinh lao dac tho”. Older = wiser. Don’t argue or disagree.
In early 80’s, World Relief organization built a model of an American house at Bataan, Philippines for Cultural Orientation. Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees might need to adapt to future environment, where language and acculturation were taught (their kids later out of reaction swung far the other way…” hey, bro” in Stockton or Long Beach to display their “Born-to-run West-Coast Americanism) forcing” fences make good neighbors” (R. Frost).
The organization might as well hang NO LOITERING and “NO TRESPASSING”. “This land is for you and me?” What kind of a C.O. lesson!
Once under Colonial power always under colonial power (1000 years then 100 years) i.e. habitual servitude “luon cui”, positioning at a low posture to prevent hard fall. After all, foreigners e.g. Chinese, French, Japanese, American always bear bad news (except for Fowler, a brief brush with the British). After centuries of hard-wired occupation by “the 0thers” i.e. foreign “devil” or invaders – pushing opium and opioid, leaving behind half-breed babies, best option is to stay quiet, to be flex, to assess and reassess the situation (danger brings hidden opportunity). Xenophobia hampers full integration into current tech-enabled global family.
Foreigners! the best one can hope for were “Ma-Roc” (Ma = ghost from N Africa) French Legionnaires: brown half-breed, despised and unwanted. Amerasian, in the 80’s saw a reversal of fortune with “Homecoming” status, once rejected stone now corner stone. On Earth we are briefly gorgeous, yeah!
He himself knew racism in and out. His people did the same to the Chams (Cochin China). Westerners often misread non-verbal cues (Gooood Morning Vietnam, where a date is not a date, unless accompanied by an entourage of chaperons. On film set, they call this “sex coordinator” in case the scene gets too hot. Courtesy of Michael Douglas on Politically Incorrect.)
Only after repeated invite and insistence, (khach sao) that No yields to Yes, as if eating free foods were doing the host a favor. Unlike Western counterparts who, without hesitation, jump right in” Oh fish sauce!” (Anthony Bourdain). Second serving, please. One errs on the side of caution, the other fast reaction.
Sociologists noted third-generation immigrants would eventually study Urbanization and Migration (Roots?). Meanwhile, having survived the Killing Fields and bombing fields, these extended families evolve by shredding old-world ideologue. Crossing over means transitioning from ancestral worship to Thanksgiving, from duck to turkey, chopsticks to forks, straight to gay, politics to economics.
With high-context/circular existence vs Western low context/linear thinking – he – deer facing headlight – found himself speaking out of turn and living out of place (Woody Allen once said” nobody is walking in LA”. Otherwise, it would be out of place to see pajamas and cone hats on city streets). Unlike in colonial days, with Sunday stroll, everyone now drives in Little Saigon, then “parked” himself and his Lexus – much like Pham X An – our perfect spy’s German Shepherd – at outdoor smokers’ cafe.
He is not apt or up for a panel discussion (ready 2, take 2 – on camera we see him only in reaction shot – self-conscious and nonverbal nod in agreement). Due to fear of missing out he would self-designate a “tension relief” role in group dynamics. Sarcasm greases social. So are gums that water the mouth e.g. Fowler’s Vietnamese contact in Cho Lon warehouse – or our Indian friend in One flew over the cuckoo’s nest. One didn’t speak much English, the other, pretended to be “quiet” until the very end:” Want some Juicy Fruits?”. The 60’s Ken Kesey and our quiet Phuc would get along fine, as both are anti-social, anti-war and establishment.
To him, disagreement and resolution are settled via a third party and never in direct confrontation. Passive aggressive disorder he was. Offline rant to sympathetic ears or online to no one in particular. What worked always works, as he saw his ancestors got by being Stoic since even Karma seems to show up late. Why now, why here, why him. The nail that sticks up always gets hammered down e.g. 1963 seven successive coups.
Meanwhile, low context individualist couldn’t control his/her urge to over-talk (let’s not get sidetrack at the mentioning of the American electorate, who nowadays are nothing but quiet:” Hang Mike Pence!”). Here in the West, one must toot one’s horn and chant the chants (often in 3 words e.g. “Push them back, push them back, way back” at Game Day). Greene notes in sarcasm: “the only quiet American is a dead one”.
By contrast, the only quiet Vietnamese was Phuong, given in to all stakeholders e.g. sister, lover and future suitor, as they fought over her future as if she weren’t there. It’s pre-ordained, like “beo troi song” – raft that floats, wherever the river leads, until and unless intervened: “If you don’t ask, I (older sister) will”.
“How are you” = “hi”. It’s an acknowledgment of your existence. Not to be milked out and followed by a series of “how is your buffalo doing “(ke kho – sympathy-seeking). Time = money (In and Out burger). In the West, we found plenty of psychiatrists. The East, not too many, since all already are (Phuong’s sister and neighbor).
To no one’s surprises it’s Kissinger who caught the drift ” Vietnam would find more ways of breaking one’s heart than anyone could ever have conceived” (pg. 11 Making the News Taking the News). As it turned out, he and Le Duc Tho split a” Peace with Honor” Nobel Prize for crossing the chasm, with the later declined.
The West and the Rest, time vs eternity, the Past and the Future, being stoic vs move-fast-break-things. On Russia’s centuries-old ambition, Undersecretary for Defense Colin Kahl ” It’s always weird to read things like that – Russia Imperial Ambition- as an American, because our history doesn’t go back very far. So the notion that countries would give a shit about what happened 9,000 years ago or whatever or, you know, 2,000 years ago or 1,000 years . Americans don’t think like that.” (Woodward’s War pg. 45).
That explains Pyle’s messianic complex (per Graham Greene). After a brief brush with death – hiding in the tower with Fowler, he offered Fowler’s “birdy” a way out: a more stable American Dream (a Green Card = more future). Legally she was not married, just a live-in girlfriend. The fact that drove her sister to protectively and proactively (lo xa) arrange security-marriage for her sibling – Quyen Huynh The Phu – in the absence of parent, older siblings stand in as double” What would become of my Phuong, my young sister, once that old geese repatriates!” (almost recalled to England HQ).
Feeling humiliated, our old reporter played by Michael Caine, failed to divorce his ambivalent wife (London). Even among “white folks”, there exists razor-thin nuance i.e. for Pyle “I have all the advantages of a strong and sustained commitment, Hell, we won at D-Day; hence, I can provide more for her, with your permission, of course”.
For Fowler:” we have been going steady and sufficiently i.e. already a win-win arrangement, why rock the boat?” His face-saving and being in denial (of the Law of Diminishing return)– between black-market exchange rate and a live-in housemate, he could get by spartanly on just a typewriter and books. What’s is this all about! in Caine’s “Alfie days” there was always someone younger (Pyle?) and more qualified” to “take over the account” (played by Susan Sarandon).
For context, it turns out to be Dien Bien Phu 2.0 = Da Nang – China beach, where the French handed off hot potato to the American (Eisenhower’s footing 75% of the war bills).
{You are here, per Thich Nhat Hanh. Existence and presence. There is no need for self-justification. Walk the ground and feel the grass. Smell the sea. Savor your uninfected hemoglobin (Measel or Covid). Let it (illusion) go. What happened in far shores e.g. repeated rape and robbing (in the case of our quiet boatpeople) stayed in far shores. Even when labeled by sheer and shanty mode of transport, you are to keep the faith. Count the beads. Focus on your breathing.
Nothing to fight for. Nothing to prove. Each moment links up to the next. Endless. Raft or boat. Just a journey. One of many. Unlike the Mayflower which BTW got fireworks treatment, you are to remain incognito. Just be quiet. All blood and illusion.}
Stealth mode is Phuc’s modus operandi. He just listens e.g. News, from the BBC in Vietnamese etc. without volunteering his opinion (years of focus listening to the radio as in “Yesterday Once More”.) He exhaustively bounces off others, soliciting their opinion and comment (group think) to solidify and reinforce prejudice.
The Orient mystique is non-absolute non-binary; a yin/yang relativism. Our own Viet Thanh Nguyen calls out” the man with two faces”. One is always right and only is wrong because of circumstances, bad luck or hasn’t yet found someone or something to assign blame. No individualism, no individual accountability. Only harmony and centuries of past. Today’s news is tomorrow’s history in endless cycle.
That situation ethic accommodates and entertains various interpretations i.e. the more power, the more correct – per Balzac, “a man might be wrong, but not his money”. Or else, how could you explain the multitude of Nguyens and Trans. He who paid bribe finds a seat on a crowded sampan. Out at sea, it’s 50-50 toss-up. It’s best not to draw any attention.
Let the other 50% discover Nirvana first. Get in the longest beheading line. No eye contact (but once in America, get behind the shortest cashier line). Andrew Lam once mentioned it’s unadvisable to stare at someone in that culture. (Daughter from Danang).
Versions of “Truth”, not The Truth, are distilled from multi data points, by multi generations. Like an old IBM mainframe with garbage in/garbage out “facts” filtered, refined and sanitized via a huge propaganda machinery that tranquilizes. What Harari would coin a “Nexus” of inter-subjective reality. Business decision or marital decision, public or private, expert or amateur, all consensus/compromise. If that doesn’t work, blame it on fat Buddha (“cuoi tru”) who smiles away and smooths out all troubles.
“Truth” is subjected to endless wash/dry cycles, like those faded torn-off jeans. There will always be plenty (Eves and eons) to spread the blame around e.g. not a boy? No problem. Let me connect you to your next mistress (“di hang hai”: man of two minds). One-child policy, then, reversing. War then peace. It’s pragmatic, not principled. Harmony, not revenge. The age of delayed karma.
{I saw you (generic) lie there in the infirmary, upstairs of a make-shift camp (Jubilee prison in Hong Kong). Eyes closed, bodies still. Passive and stoic. Your boat behind, but nightmares were not. Perhaps you were still shaken and paranoid. Strangers (male) reminded you of foreign (Thai) aggressors who attacked in waves. What do they want this time? Shouting in undecipherable voices. Another pound and pleasure of the flesh? Wow! Rape = power. Gratification via self-elevation (gifting their compatriots with geo-location pinpointing).
At sea, you either get beaten or eaten. You must have felt convulsive and consumed by survivor’s guilt after helping yourself to dead passenger’s stale flesh, while offering your own unwashed for survival. Against all odds. If it were today, they could have used Facebook to post and brag about their “coonskin” to fellow “bros” after having their fill.
Far out in blue ocean, pirates could easily spot Boat people. Human traffic to them were just a flow of fresh “meat”. It’s easy a harvest, both profitable and pleasurable (BTW, they would never wish for their mothers to be on the receiving end).
Having absorbed all the punches (oppression, persecution, deprivation and desperation), you passively and reflexively make concessions beforehand. Self-recrimination mode beginning to end. It fits the bill. Consistent with Phuc’s upbringing.
Syncretistic Cao Dai-ism appealed to Pyle as a possible Third Force for a nation of bamboo branches which sway spinelessly. Bent but unbroken, just like that quiet, slim dancer at Continental Dance Hall. All the reason to use the analogy of chopsticks i.e. stayed in group, strength in numbers not to mention anonymity – minimum accountability.}
So far, it seems to work, wolf-like. To buy time, until the last “domino”: Pentagon Papers, Santa Monica and Watergate break in (“Game over” as Ford said)
Our foreign-affairs expert x-president thought his voice alone could “trickily” have won him the Kennedy debate, if only American voters had listened to him over the radio e.g. “World News from the BBC” – a hot medium – and not watching him sweat on television – at the time a new and exciting cool medium which required powdered nose. As it turned out, it’s his VOICE on two WH “missing” tapes that did him in.
{After repeated and failed attempt at bribe, suddenly you were told to leave without a hush-hush goodbye. Equipped with just a faint hope and an ill-defined notion of Social Contract i.e. La Liberte, egalite and fraternite – you ignored the absurdity and futility of it all (if vanished at sea, at least you would float and be joined up with previously deceased loved ones.)
Like Ukraine and Palestine displaced today, you spilled out to sea. Out in the middle of nowhere, and in the absence of coast guards, even the USA-flagged Mayaguez was vulnerable (76)
So, you remain quiet, scrolling self-distractedly through trivial posts without “going postal”. You block out drama of the past and fill the void with other’s self-induced click-bait drama. In today’s TikTok space, the only quiet Vietnamese are the ones who stand at the crossroad of assimilation, not sure which way to turn. All the while, his countrymen already leverage YouTube incentives to stay nothing but quiet. In compliance, you fill out forms (INS) and stop at STOP signs (who wants citation). Human-to-documents chain, as mentioned in Nexus.
So, Peter, Paul, and Mary, whatever you are called nowadays. May I call you by your new name, since it’s still better than John/Jane Doe. After all you’re naturalized American, a quiet individualist who stops at traffic lights (lots of and with increasingly longer wait). You have shredded your ID, burned your document, erased your identity and ideologue to blend in (during the Pol Pot regime, wearing glasses was asking for trouble). You face not just “fear of missing out” but fear of being found out (that you do still owe a moral debt to both old and new society – BTW, per Christopher Lasch, in the Revolt of the Elites, globalists with subtlety double-dip at the top, but evade responsibility toward the bottom billion).
When it comes to human acting inhuman, it’s best to keep quiet, in denial (of the guilt of complicity). It’s bad enough that your mere presence already serves as a walking reminder of CREEP (Committee to re-elect Nixon) and CRAP (Constructive Republican Alternative Proposals). From Pol Pot to Post-Cold War. End of History. Then post-post-Cold War World (per Friedman). Why do the birds, go on singing…All quiet on the Cambodian front.
{That night, that first night out to sea was the longest. Sunrise couldn’t come sooner. Your old self sunk to the bottom of the sea, next to tons of chopper steel. To live on is to exist, between self-loathing (survivor’s guilt) and self-acceptance.}
Yet, it’s been decades since. Today’s people found it easier to air dirty laundry, their prejudice and rant – sponsor-paid and powered by AI programmatic ads Tiktok. High context living low context asserting e.g.” Where’s the beef” (as opposed to “Anh xoi com chua?” have you eaten yet? Yes, but actually No).
Not on Hamburger Hill nor Capitol Hill. Not without future-forwarding statement in fine-print disclaimer. Digital preying and virtual pirating, maximizing our eyes balls, and monetizing our attention; turning grievances into gold, tragedy into treasury. Get to the point before they “SKIP AD”. We need more “Likes”. Chuck Chink! More revenue to pay for those not so hefty fines (anti-trust or Cambridge Analytics).
You left things unsaid. By default, your no-contest = voluntary servitude. Even with selective past, it was not all that romantic e.g. Camelot via Colby and Lodge, a few degrees of separation = plausible deniability e.g. Diem and Nhu – then found himself (JFK) and his brother with the same fate (1963/68). Our guy is in deep thoughts and with heavy burden. The weight of war sat invisibly on his stooped shoulders
But for those brief moments, between red and green light, you want to scream: “I don’t just exist”. Yes, they can rob, rape or draw blood. But per Victor Frankl “they cannot harm or hurt you, who resides inside your body”. Hey, you can’t just press a button and expect:” How high?” Like Born-Again Chuck Colson, “Hell I even run over my grandma!” Talking of politicians and D.C., where 58,220 names are on black marble, deep dark sorrow of war. echoing “voices never share…the Sound of Silence”. You can be done with the killing, but not the healing.
Ironically, you participate in the long Silicon tradition, turning calculation into communication, defense weaponry into peace-time consumption of excess goods, goods (hand-finished by fellow native) sold by algorithms, yet you stay incommunicado and in cognito.
Unlike Pyle, Phuc doesn’t succumb to love at first sight (in the opening scene, we find Pyle face down in the gutter while Fowler, for alibi, ordering drinks and nervously looking at his watch, torn by guilt from having “ordered” the assassination. All quiet on 1952 Colonial China Town (Cho Lon). Really!
Country folks often equated white American with French counterparts, since European migrated and made up early American (France, British and US Embassies even located on Thong Nhat boulevard – much like Chinese ghetto). European view Asian as monolithic. The reverse is just as true. Graham Greene foresaw the implosion and erosion of the colonial way (total war vs limited intervention, thousands of years vs every four years, kill ratio of 10:1 or 16:1 casualties).
What can you do, given your short life against a long war (of attrition) nightly on Network News beamed straight into America’s living room: My Lai and Killing Fields, look, look (more TV dinners, please) all the shooting in “shit-ass countries” (BTW, during the Nixon’s era, “going downtown” meant “carpet bombing” with more bombs than WWI and II combined, 400X Hiroshima. Operation Breakfast meant switching bombing targets once airborne. Army surplus or freshly manufactured, exploded or un-exploded ordinance, not the hit song “Downtown” which Madison Avenue uses to sell Tiffany jewelry). All contributed to defoliated and deformed land and people (ecocide) with visible and invisible scars e.g. PTSD as in the Deer Hunter.
By estimate, it would take another 350 years to rebuild Gaza. Often times, as Greene’s novel last line,” How I wished there had existed someone to whom I could say I was sorry”. Xin Loi Vietnam. Xin Loi 58,220 American families. Xin Loi the conscientious objectors – who can’t or no longer want to come home (no yellow ribbons on summer oak tree).
The quiet Vietnamese. God knows the things he carried: millions of mini calculations? Inarticulate thoughts and immature impulses? Survivor’s slow-burn guilt? Pain hidden in plain sight. In the absence of war, you create your own mini-Trinh-Nguyen Civil wars and US Civil Wars against neighboring countries.
Instead of roaring like Tiger in triumph over Elephant, you can’t handle victory. Uncertainty within or without is never good for business and the flow of FDI. Synthesis is the new thesis to be challenged by anti-thesis.
Hence, your anger turns inward while others Rambo. What’s unprocessed occasionally and eventually flares-up. Most times it’s self-mutilating (armed to the teeth per Second Amendment, not unlike Japanese in the jungle without war-end breaking news – out of catharsis (in 1975 Congress refused funding request for ammo resupply… so “…Asian boys ought to do it for themselves…”)
War-torn world with intangible and tangible damage e.g. enemy ears for trophies (S Korean joint forces at the urge and nudge of LBJ to replenish his Hill Country coonskin collection). His successor resigned, while he himself refused to be nominated for a second term. Remember Kissinger’s comment about Vietnam ‘s more ways than one…(from Eisenhower to Ford).
In reality, DOD in the time of DOGE, needs to account for everything e.g. Army PX or ammunition inventory, kill ratio as KPI since “winning is the only thing” (from Vincent Lombardi football field to McNamara’s “Vietnam Muon Nam” – Vietnam wants to lie down – mispronouncing “Forever” for “wanting to lie down” in his 1964 field visit). Later, he went from crunching numbers for DOD to World Bank. Per Mac Bundy” the price to keep up appearance is still cheap” (3 million men war).
At LBJ urging: ” …Asian boys ought to do it for themselves.” during Tet 68, it took Col. Loan only a fast High-noon draw to execute a terrorist where Graham Greene had his Continental Hotel terrorist scene (with Pyle helping like a Red Cross nun). Meanwhile, it took the Longest War for the West to get OBL. (Col Loan later went from pistol to pizza, fast draw to fast food, from barking out arrest orders to taking down phone orders, one of our new quiet American).
Yet, even when everything is lost or looted, when your gun (VP Ky’s gun, a gift from John Wayne) or radio confiscated, you still can hear “News from the BBC”. Ear-deafening explosion might muff out Bolero beats but not heart beats.
For Boat People, the journey was a tossup, with destiny in the hand of whichever vessel happened to sail by (Statue of Liberty both in France and NYC welcome the huddle mass, not Jerry Brown who at first did not want Pendleton to be repurposed from a boot camp to a refugee camp. The irony that did not escape neighboring Orange County’s beach bum.)
In today’s environment, they would be grouped to “sanctuary city”, to reoccupy vacancy left by Hippies and War deserters. Back then, those Pennsylvania Quakers did not want to “barn-raise” for Vietnamese state boys either (even when one non-violent conscientious-objector Quaker burned himself at the steps of the Pentagon to protest; later, his fellow congregant, sitting in the Oval office, cursed in baritone – now available on DVD – de-classified WH tape: ” Bomb the s.o.b. back to Stone Age” per Curtis LeMay). So much for the Quaker declaration of “sanctity of human life” per Yoder’s conscientious objection.
Having found safe harbor, you remain shamefully and sinfully quiet. As a survivor, you tell no tales, not even to your American-born (Mom! I want to go to prom). By now your Anglicized name and naturalized status (FICO score helps) upgrade you to a low-middle class life. You AKA Peter, Paul or Mary, with divorce and remarriage, child support and alimony afforded by law.
You’re poised to climb up the Immigration and Naturalization chain (the bottom rung now occupied by Haitian and Puerto Rican – the receiving end of “Uncle Sam – doesn’t – want you” mad-max 2025 campaign). You glide through with Model Minority insignia and convention-hall badge (for entry and exit – a legit appearance of false equality per paid color-coded convention hall pass).
That arduous journey stripped you bare. It’s stressful enough to turn stoic into shopper (of goods made in China – ironically, your old arch enemy), as if one could resupply what’s been lost. Life exterior to refill and substitute for life interior (President Carter saw and spoke of this “malaise”). Instead of the call to serve, it’s the call of the mall.
On rare occasion, while soul searching, like Jacob in the well, our quiet Vietnamese asks himself: “What’s it all about, all this and this (suspenders and shoulder pads, yew!);” at what cost “to spend the money he didn’t have, to buy the things he didn’t need just to impress neighbors he didn’t like – or will never meet”.
Oh, how I wish there had been someone to whom I could say I was sorry.
Then as if on cue, off he goes, to the store, Black Friday or any Friday. Amazon-recommended and Prime delivered.
Congratulations! Now let’s yelp and help us do better on Cyber Monday. When it comes to self-service, our quiet Vietnamese calculates quietly (tinh nham) much faster than others. From Phuc “Muon Nam” to “F**k” “wants to lie down”, from pajamas to tuxedo, from all-white funeral to all-black funeral. In group picture, he is timid standing a bit sub-due toward the middle for “safety”. But, unwatched, in Armani with subtle Art of not giving a F**k, all bets are off (this is universal).
What happens online, stays online. Offline? Our quiet Vietnamese always washes his hands, as if history could be scrubbed away with hand soap or sanitizer. Heck, the past is not even past.
He gets it (those SNL punchlines). After all, he’s trained in the art of “noi lay” (the punch line is in reverse order, much like Japanese books that flip from the back). He reflexively curses in English (what the ….) just as his kids. A badge of honor. Acquisition of an US passport always comes with acquisition of speech – colloquially, F**k this, F**k that to prove complete assimilation.
No longer quiet you are. Per Greene, it’s to show you are not dead yet. Not in the time of TikTok. Liberated and unshackled, sterilized and sanitized, vetted and tested, fully inoculated against mal jaune or measled: picture perfect! Our entire extended Model-Minority family! Well to be truthful, except some unfortunate deaths by attrition, or suicide – hush hush – deleted or edited for the sake of saving face to put PTSD behind, only pension ahead.
All set (who would want to “vach ao cho nguoi xem lung” – shame to show off your scar).
Just click “I agree” (to the terms of agreement). Advertiser-paid, after all. Unlike Thai pirates that took, took and took (then passed on geo-location as social deposit tips to fellow pirates).
Our modern society is an advertiser-supported funnel with database replenishing and resorting. Data = 21st-century gold, rare Earth new diamond.
No one knows where the line is from being a Quiet Vietnamese to being an Ugly American. Up to you, the last line of defense, having paid dear price while evolving and assimilating.
Remember, don’t be first to the floor, Pyle. The journey of a thousand miles starts with that single step. Of all people, you should know and foresee that undesirable end (face down in the Cho Lon gutter).
Since time = money, we now resume “our sponsored podcast schedule” i.e. day-time soap TV, “Brought to you by”. As long as someone out there can capitalize on eyeballs 24/7. On the Net, nobody knows you’re a dog, a robot or a man, anti-social or quiet one. American or Vietnamese. Just dumb and dumber data, flowing through an agnostic firehose. Our vast waste land. “Hello! Is anyone out there!”
Everyone by default becomes quiet, low or high context, in the end.
Thang Nguyen 555 