How Observing American Tourists Taught Me a Brutal Lesson in Hyper-Individualism

<p>A few weeks ago, I saw a lady bawling her eyes out in an Italian airport security queue.</p> <p>At first, I thought perhaps she had just said goodbye to someone she won&rsquo;t be able to see again for a long time. Or she was&nbsp;<em>really</em>&nbsp;sad to leave the country where you can buy a bottle of decent wine for just a few euros.</p> <p>But she continued to cry for long enough to get people around her looking increasingly startled and worried.</p> <p>Eventually, one of them asked if she was all right.</p> <p>She replied, in an unmistakably American accent, that she&rsquo;s sure she&rsquo;ll miss her flight because of long queues.</p> <p>&lsquo;Well&hellip; you can just&nbsp;<em>ask</em>&nbsp;people to let you through?&rsquo; they said back to her.</p> <p>The American lady froze in confusion. But a group of people in front started to make way for her to pass, and so she snapped out of it, grabbed her backpack and went ahead without saying a word.</p> <p>Even after her figure disappeared in the sea of travellers, I couldn&rsquo;t stop being confused at her confusion, though.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/the-no%C3%B6sphere/how-observing-american-tourists-taught-me-a-brutal-lesson-in-hyper-individualism-59a66953e93d"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>