This is not really particularly well thought through and as such will be lucky to be the introduction to a larger discussion, and that in and of itself is a good thing.
The Myth of America: Hardworking Pioneers versus Better than my Shitty Life in (insert European country here)
There is a deeply held belief that the people that immigrated to this country were go-getters, people willing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and do whatever they needed to to make a life for themself. While they were certainly tougher than modern Americans (me included), what if they weren't what we think they were? What if they were simply leaving their really shitty life in the coal mines of Wales, or a farm in France that had been farmed for centuries and yielded almost nothing, with no chance of ever improving their situation? What if they saw America as the equivalent of winning the lottery, or some other sort of get rich quick scheme?
Of course, once here, most learned that their dreams were not quite the reality they found, and so put their heads down and suffered through the decision that they had made, often with a better chance of improving their situation than they would have gotten in the old country. Even still, their reason for coming was one that held out the hope for sliding onto easy street.
There were the gold rushes - both in Alaska and California
There was the Homestead Act and all of the manifest destiny, shit on the Indian mentality, that went with that
There was all manner of other mineral and natural resource plundering
So what does it all mean? This whole thread crossed my mind as a result of a conversation with Dan about our obsession with celebrity (America's, not Dan's or my). There is apparently a fantasy celebrity game out there, where like fantasy sports, you pick your celebrity and get points based on the amount of times that celebrity shows up in USWeekly. I don't look anymore down on this activity than I do on fantasy sports (in which I have participated, if poorly). Both are pretty gross, if superficially harmless.
But nestled into this was my ongoing belief that we Americans ignore history at every opportunity believing that we are always heading into uncharted waters, always the first to deal with every problem and threat. But that, in my opinion, is total bullshit. We are constantly making the same mistakes made by ourselves and our forebearers without often realizing it, and only acknowledging it reluctantly after it's too late. Then we launch into our next fuck-up in a vacuum.
But again, what does that have to do with my premise? Basically that we as a nation have been on a near constant quest for the easy answer (only reluctantly standing up to do what's right) and all the while creating our own mythology, one that sets us apart from everyone else in the world, harder working, more honest, more diligent, etc etc. But does it make you harder working to abandon everything you know, and all your family ties to head off in the hope of making it easier than you were back home? What of all those poor bastards in Ireland, for instance, who stuck it out through the Great Famine and all the rest to now find themselves in one of the most prosperous countries in Europe? Were they more lazy, to do the best they could with what they had? The reward for that sort of hard work clearly wasn't visible like a golden sunset on the horizon, whether you could ever reach it or not, but it came.
or this could all be half-assed...
you decide.
7 comments:
Interesting theory!
Possible hole in theory: American innovation (e.g. invention of automobile, airplane, most of our electronic technology, cotton gin, etc. etc. etc.), as well as capacity for industry through that seemed to nearly outpace the rest of the world combined the first half of the 20th century.
Perhaps our bountiful natural resources were responsible to a significant degree. But the traditional theory has certainly perpetuated the notion that adventurer = innovator.
I tend to lean towards the somewhat less sexy theory of us being generally no better or no worse than anyone else, intrinsically. I think people only act according to their circumstances, period. In other words, our culture does not have a tendency of a spoiled adolescent because we're idiots, but simply because we have been spoiled like adolescents. Give anyone else in the world more money than they know what to do with and see what happens (building 12-square mile artificial islands with manicured green grass and names like "Atlantis" while 99% of your Muslim brothers and sisters subsist on crumbs is what happens).
But that sameness is, in and of itself, blasphemy.
In fact, the craziest among them think that there was some magic date at which the great melting pot was full, and everyone that came after should fall into the fire (just to push that analogy a bit farther).
As if the current crop of immigrants aren't almost universally working harder than they are, for less. And also that every wave of immigrants was seen as the worst kind of people, the thieves, etc. It happened to the Irish. It happened to the Italians. And on and on.
Once again that blindness to history rears its ugly head.
To that train of thought, I give my full agreement. Without a doubt, people in this country appear to be the worst kind of historians.
On a side note, and covering a multitude of topics...the worst character assassination you can do to someone in this country these days is to "question their patriotism." What is the deal with that, anyway? What do people really mean, or think they mean with the whole "I love my country" bit. I mean, the sentiment is running so high, it's apparently sacrilege to even examine. But what does it all really mean?
I'm all for making the country (and all countries) as good as possible, but another lesson of history, I'd have to say, is that nationalism (just about anywhere), for the most part, is a more a pestilence than a positive thing.
Another of the many things that Al Franken has said.
Democrats love their country like adults.
Republicans love their country like children love their mommies.
I'm eternally glad to have been born in this country, but it hard for me to mindlessly say it's the best country on Earth in any reasonable and objective manner. If I'd been born in Iceland, or Sweden it might be a little easier.
My country becoming a better country is not an option for me. It's not 'as good as it needs to be' as implied by it being beyond reproach. It's fucked up in all sorts of serious ways that need to be dealt with.
a very wild theory
I agree that the country is suffering from an epidemic, of sorts, of celebrity obsession, but these are the same folks that mention a trip to Walmart 40 times a day.
I also see what you are saying with regard to making the best of what you are dealt with. Americans, without a doubt, feel entitled to all the worldly goods they can get their hands on, almost as much as they feel entitled to the latest celebrity news.
These people that speak of Walmart 40 times a day, they LOVE to talk about how much money a given celeb or sports figure makes (we've all done it - though I do not much at all these days) - men will be close to weird tears with other men when a bond is made concerning the acknowledgement of the mucho bills that Randy Moss makes per year.
A country of slackers though, no. We are a nation that loves to work hours and hours and fucking hours. Who needs vacation? We are having so much fun keeping up with Japan. Not slackers. SWe love to work at work (not talking the arts). We are insane and foolish, but not slackers.
We work, but our productivity is lower than almost every other industrialized country.
So we slack, and keep up the appearance of work, to impress other people who appear to be working more than they are and competing against others who may or may not be working more than they actually are.
We don't take enough vacation. We don't spend enough time with family and friends. We're in a race with no end, egged on by everyone else in the race, none of us willing to admit that they don't know where the hell we're going.
We're doing it to live up to the myth of America.
'keep up the appearance of work'
totally insane
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