Saturday, April 10, the Elizabethtown College Democrats Club hosted a virtual recording of Rick Steves discussing some of the ideas shown in his well-known work, “Travel as a Political Act.” Steves is a well-known travel guide and has authored multiple books about traveling both Europe and the world, with his guidebook to Italy earning the title of best-selling international guidebook in the U.S. He has also hosted multiple television programs and a weekly NPR program called “Travel with Rick Steves. Travel as a Political Act,” now in its third edition, which has helped to open many Americans’ eyes to the importance of traveling abroad.
Traveling out in the world is an activity Steves considers extremely important: “It’s important for our very democracy that we get out there, we travel and we gain an empathy for the other 96 percent of humanity.”
In line with this statement, he has spent nearly his entire life trying to get Americans to go abroad, not as tourists but as independent travelers. A significant issue Rick Steves sees with current travel in America is that it often is disconnected from the real issues of the world, happening in the fantasy worlds created by amusement parks and beaches. While these worlds are certainly profitable to those who own them, he believes it is far more constructive to experience parts of the real world, to learn about the different passions different people have.
Traveling also helps dispel false beliefs, as Steves outlines in a somewhat silly encounter in Italy. A young Italian boy happened to be staring at him due to a false idea that Americans have no teeth. This belief came to the boy after asking his father why Americans have such soft bread. While his father had meant this response to be a joke, this misconception still made itself present when this boy realized Steves was an American tourist.
While this is a somewhat comedic example, it highlights the importance of dispelling cultural misconceptions by traveling to those places and breaking them apart by being in those places. This story also highlights another key point in Steves’ talk, that people make for a much more vivid travel experience.
One of the most interesting differences that Rick describes in his talk is the difference between the American work ethic and the work ethic of those in Europe. It is no secret that Europeans work less and produce less per person than Americans, but this comes with more time on their part – more time for those people to spend with friends and family and more time to simply enjoy themselves.
Steves reinforces this idea that no one ethic is superior by saying, “this is not a right or wrong, everybody has the right to choose how to organize their society.” This again reflects on the larger cultural advantage of travel in his eyes, that going abroad helps Americans learn not about better or worse societies but different ones.
While the Elizabethtown College Democrats are allied with the Democratic party, by no means does that limit them to only discussing issues related to the party. This event is evidence of that, with senior and Secretary Meghan Kenney describing this as, “a more neutral topic even though Rick Steves is democratically aligned. He kind of shares the same views, but we were more looking for fun events to do during COVID. We felt this was a very educational event we could put together, hopefully helping people learn about how travel can help teach about other cultures.”
Given Steves’ large depth of knowledge about various cultures, it is not surprising to know that this belief is true.
