“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

Sometimes travel will hold up a mirror and let you encounter your own prejudices. There have been several times when I arrived in a country with a set of opinions that didn’t last the exposure.

After hitching through Ireland and Northern Ireland for six weeks, I was forced to completely reverse my opinion about the political troubles there. Due largely to our media, the great Irish poets and Leon Uris’ “Trinity”, I arrived 0n the island staunchly pro-republic and anti-orange. I left as a chastened Orangeman. It turned out the protestants in the North supported equal rights for women, the separation of church and state, non-sectarian education and science, while the institutions of the republic at that time were in the grip of superstition and ignorance.

I changed my sympathies in that struggle while simultaneously developing an appreciation for draft Guinness, properly poured. Like the Irish say: as good as food. ‘Tis.

 

After several months in Israel, I spent a few nights with a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem. Experiencing just a tiny shred of the oppression they suffered forced me to examine my prejudices, take a hard look at Israeli policies and modify my views. There were a lot more shades of grey than I had realized. Of course.

In Vietnam, I worried I might encounter some anti-American feeling. There was none – they forgave us long ago, and love to see Americans now. It’s enough to restore your faith in humanity. Never have my fears of any country survived a visit to it.

On the other hand, my weeks in Vietnam also confirmed for me that communism really is a shitty way to organize things.

In China I met a very bright young graduate of Beijing University – the country’s most prestigious. She told me she’d been there during the Tiananmen Square massacre, and knew some of those killed. When I asked her about it, her comments surprised me.

“I opposed the demonstrations, which demanded changes similar to those occurring in the Soviet Union. I believed then and now that China badly needs a strong central government as it transitions to capitalism, lest tribal-nationalism rip the country apart as in the Soviet Union. If that were to happen, the entire planet would be destabilized. Further, the one-child policy would collapse. Without that program (only possible in a harsh authoritarian state) there would be about 300 million more Chinese right now – completely disastrous for our planet.”

It makes you think.

She later moved to the US at the age of 25, and soon made herself a millionaire. It hasn’t changed her mind about China’s government, though.

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins