US Culture

An attempt…

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty” - JFK

sovereignty (Treaty of Westphalia 1648) and geopolitics

Politics play a part in how US citizens view other nations (the Cold War, prejudices, perceptions) and thus it is important to take into account political terms and ideas when studying a culture

The wave of immigrants: Northern Europe (British Isles, France, Germany)

The US is very young, just like the rest of the Americas! (236 years old versus you could say Europe is at least 364 years old if not much older)

Idea that certain individuals who left their own country were searching for the values or ideals offered by the US

Melodrama or the “Cowboy” meaning good vs. evil

European tragedy and view on life is different than the “young” Americans who see everything as black or white

How can you explain this? Religion! Calvinists, Protestants, and Puritans only believed in Heaven or Hell. Catholicism and other religions saw spaces in between, Limbo and Purgatory.

September 11th and the changing of the “enemy” with much more

Use of media to create a society based on fear and violence

“About one-third of Americans read a newspaper every day and these are mostly local newspapers. Only 12 percent read national newspapers. Although Americans are increasingly using the internet to find national and international news, most are not viewers of cable newscasts”

Out of Many “One” and the idea of a commonality amongst all Americans

“there have always been more similarities than differences among the American people”

Ideals of individualism, economic mobility, hope for a better future, escaping from discrimination, or moving towards equality

Becoming an “American” is based on accepting principles/ideals versus becoming a “European” is based on historical circumstances

“Fairness in America is not simply a matter of eliminating discrimination. It is also a matter of providing equal opportunities for everyone to succeed”

Affirmative Action- “To make up for over 300 years of racism and discrimination, and to provide an opportunity to succeed, programs were developed to ensure that the federal government and its contractors--in public housing, education, law enforcement, the military and every aspect of life--actively recruited minorities and ensured that they were represented in all jobs”

Reverse discrimination, is this fair, should you continue, and other questions still dominant this issue

Europe versus the United States (politics) “No states within the EU have the death penalty, and

Europeans support the International Criminal Court, which the Bush administration refused to join. Many public opinion polls show that Europeans are more concerned than Americans about such environmental issues as global warming, and they are more likely to support cooperation between nation-states to solve problems. On the other hand, President Bush began his first term of office with an isolationist and unilateralist foreign policy”

“Of course, on the other hand, it can also be argued that the American willingness to use power has probably maintained order and prevented local conflicts from boiling over to become major world wars”

“The good news is that the world is mostly disappointed with American governmental public policy and not the cultural and national values that are shared by most Americans”

Multilateralism, the IAEA (international atomic energy agency), environmental issues, human rights, etc. (this begins to complicate and get into deeper political theories and ideas)

“All societies have a dream and a nightmare. And our nightmare has been, I think, our racism. We practically committed genocide on the people who were here, the Native Americans. We enslaved another race of people, the Africans. And then we dropped the atom bomb on Asians…That’s the nightmare of America. The dream of America is enunciated by the great speech by Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream. The dream is that there is no country on earth that has tried to actually embrace all the people that we have tried to embrace. All you have to do is walk through New York City to see that or any of our cities and not a few of our country sides at this point. We could be called the most racist. Or we could be called the least. We are both. And it always remains a tension and a question as to which side of us, the good side or the bad side, will win out in the end. And I think that’s true for every society” --Thomas Cahill

The “Melting Pot” concept. This term came from a play by Israel Zangwill in 1907 and attempts to explain the US culture

The “cookie cutter” or “mold” is another term used to describe culture. Stemming from the idea that mainstream culture creates a mold in which immigrants must form if they are to be accepted in society

Ultimately an immigrant can change their religion, their language, their values maybe, their food or other factors but have no control over their skin color (problem of the cookie cutter)

The idea of Manifest Destiny or that Divine Providence had given white settlers the entire continent from the East to the West Coast. Leading to over 70,000 Native Americans giving up their land, not to mention the Trail of Tears and many thousands who died

Slavery/Civil Rights movement. All the affects of injustices caused by slavery and inequality

Overall history towards all immigrants; Irish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese.

The new immigrant or racism faced today: Mexican immigrant or Latinos

“A good enemy is necessary to maintain a sense of national identity”

Culture, history and politics are complicated subjects :)