Monday, January 09, 2006
American Identity
Recently I suggested to my fellow blogmates that we do a 3-part series on American identity- basically what being American means to us personally, to Americans in general, and to the international world.
In my view, to be American is to embrace the paradox that invades American life. It's this paradox that allows us to crown Bill and Melinda Gates as 'People of the Year' in Time magazine for being great philanthropists and entrepreneurs, yet forgetting (or perhaps blocking out) the fact that their wealth may well be causing the problems they are donating charities. I know that Dave might be tempted to say that Bill Gates and Microsoft aren't the Evil Corporation that we sometimes want to make them out to be, but in a world where 1% of the wealthiest people own about 25% of the world's wealth, you can't pretend to be a great philanthropist curing the world's ills just because you donate 1% of your wealth.
And I don't mean to single Bill Gates out here, because indeed, he is one of the 'better' wealthy people out there. But Mr. Gates is simply a microcosm of the larger paradox- that America uses about 50% of the world's resources (and uses them poorly) and doesn't 'give back' that amount- in fact we inflict damage on poor countries, indirectly (through environmental, perversion of human rights), and directly (economic sanctions, war, unfair trade practices). I think as Americans, (and I count myself in this, being an American) we have blinded ourselves to this paradox in order to live our lives without distraction. Simply by being an 'average' American, we're automatically among the wealthiest people in the world. We blame those around us for the troubles going on- the fact that there are hungry people out there, the fact that even within the US, there is homelessness, poverty, injustice- we blame the politicians, we blame the system. But we work within that system, we live within it, play by its rules and yet we condemn it.
Our paradoxical beliefs have Americans supporting a culture of life in some areas of society, like abortion, and supporting a culture of death in the death penalty.
We condemn racism and tyranny, yet we support racist policies and allow our own government to conduct torture and carry out an illegal war in the name of humanity.
We say we're for freedom and equality, but yet purport to love a society where gays are denied equal rights and the prison population is exploding with a mostly African-American populace.
We have Sierra club members who count themselves are environmentalists, yet drive SUVs, don't recycle, and don't care about what happens to the Amazon rainforests.
These are just the most obvious examples. To be American is to be mostly blinded by the fact that we live in the wealthiest and most powerful country in the history of humanity. Our consciousness- what tells us that racism, sexism, equality, and injustice are evil, are blinded by our own desires- our drive for wealth, material, fame, and power- the American dream.
Perhaps to be American is to admit deep inside us, that while we hate the ideas of nuclear warfare, conflict diamonds, and AIDS epidemics, we hate the ideas of being militarily weak, cubic zirconia, and unprofitability even more.
'Proud to be an American' is a misnomer. We're glad to be American, because we're glad to not have been born in abject poverty- to not have died at the age of 3 because of malnutrition. We're glad that we have a chance to play the game of life, and buy our houses. But are we proud? Should that even be allowed? Isn't 'Proud to be an American' akin to saying "I'm proud to have won the lottery?"
And to be American is also to forget about the dilemma that has us spending hundreds of billions of dollars on military spending. Billions more are spent by some of the same corporations lobbying our government officials. Yet we like to think we live in a republic- where everyone's vote counts equally to our elected officials. The reality of American life is that it is indeed controlled by the wealthy and the corporate.
It's that paradox that allows (forces?) us to quiver in fear about terrorism, because our homeland must remain secure. Yet we've spent billions of dollars in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that we can show our military might and so we won't mind that our government doesn't have universal health care, proper education funding. We don't mind that the government spends those billions of dollars, because the idea of foreigners killing citizens on our soil is abhorrent. But we don't care that many millions more of our citizens die for much more pressing problems.
And we say we are trying to make the world a better place, but we don't bat an eye when the President says that at least 30,000 Iraqi citizens have died. Better them than us, even though the war was supposed to be about Iraqi freedom.
And to return to my Bill Gates example, he's indeed one of the wealthy and corporate. Bill Gates is one of the people in power in the US. He gives money to charities, but he lobbies against corporate and technological taxes. And some of the charitable initiatives are designed to increase power, not distribute it (like donating computers to third world countries, which obviously run Windows, and there's nothing Microsoft would like better than to have be the technological foundation in those countries) By their nature, corporations are there simply to do whatever is necessary for them to create profit- and if that requires changing laws, international or US, to suit their needs, then they'll do that.
I don't want this to be a personal attack on Gates. I don't expect him to donate all his money to non-denominational, non-partisan social welfare charities. I don't expect myself to do that either. But that may simply be because I'm American.
We live in this system, and though there are a few people trying to change it, the most American paradox of all may be this: our capitalist society may be creating almost all the evils that we, as moral actors, are trying to erase.
In my view, to be American is to embrace the paradox that invades American life. It's this paradox that allows us to crown Bill and Melinda Gates as 'People of the Year' in Time magazine for being great philanthropists and entrepreneurs, yet forgetting (or perhaps blocking out) the fact that their wealth may well be causing the problems they are donating charities. I know that Dave might be tempted to say that Bill Gates and Microsoft aren't the Evil Corporation that we sometimes want to make them out to be, but in a world where 1% of the wealthiest people own about 25% of the world's wealth, you can't pretend to be a great philanthropist curing the world's ills just because you donate 1% of your wealth.
And I don't mean to single Bill Gates out here, because indeed, he is one of the 'better' wealthy people out there. But Mr. Gates is simply a microcosm of the larger paradox- that America uses about 50% of the world's resources (and uses them poorly) and doesn't 'give back' that amount- in fact we inflict damage on poor countries, indirectly (through environmental, perversion of human rights), and directly (economic sanctions, war, unfair trade practices). I think as Americans, (and I count myself in this, being an American) we have blinded ourselves to this paradox in order to live our lives without distraction. Simply by being an 'average' American, we're automatically among the wealthiest people in the world. We blame those around us for the troubles going on- the fact that there are hungry people out there, the fact that even within the US, there is homelessness, poverty, injustice- we blame the politicians, we blame the system. But we work within that system, we live within it, play by its rules and yet we condemn it.
Our paradoxical beliefs have Americans supporting a culture of life in some areas of society, like abortion, and supporting a culture of death in the death penalty.
We condemn racism and tyranny, yet we support racist policies and allow our own government to conduct torture and carry out an illegal war in the name of humanity.
We say we're for freedom and equality, but yet purport to love a society where gays are denied equal rights and the prison population is exploding with a mostly African-American populace.
We have Sierra club members who count themselves are environmentalists, yet drive SUVs, don't recycle, and don't care about what happens to the Amazon rainforests.
These are just the most obvious examples. To be American is to be mostly blinded by the fact that we live in the wealthiest and most powerful country in the history of humanity. Our consciousness- what tells us that racism, sexism, equality, and injustice are evil, are blinded by our own desires- our drive for wealth, material, fame, and power- the American dream.
Perhaps to be American is to admit deep inside us, that while we hate the ideas of nuclear warfare, conflict diamonds, and AIDS epidemics, we hate the ideas of being militarily weak, cubic zirconia, and unprofitability even more.
'Proud to be an American' is a misnomer. We're glad to be American, because we're glad to not have been born in abject poverty- to not have died at the age of 3 because of malnutrition. We're glad that we have a chance to play the game of life, and buy our houses. But are we proud? Should that even be allowed? Isn't 'Proud to be an American' akin to saying "I'm proud to have won the lottery?"
And to be American is also to forget about the dilemma that has us spending hundreds of billions of dollars on military spending. Billions more are spent by some of the same corporations lobbying our government officials. Yet we like to think we live in a republic- where everyone's vote counts equally to our elected officials. The reality of American life is that it is indeed controlled by the wealthy and the corporate.
It's that paradox that allows (forces?) us to quiver in fear about terrorism, because our homeland must remain secure. Yet we've spent billions of dollars in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that we can show our military might and so we won't mind that our government doesn't have universal health care, proper education funding. We don't mind that the government spends those billions of dollars, because the idea of foreigners killing citizens on our soil is abhorrent. But we don't care that many millions more of our citizens die for much more pressing problems.
And we say we are trying to make the world a better place, but we don't bat an eye when the President says that at least 30,000 Iraqi citizens have died. Better them than us, even though the war was supposed to be about Iraqi freedom.
And to return to my Bill Gates example, he's indeed one of the wealthy and corporate. Bill Gates is one of the people in power in the US. He gives money to charities, but he lobbies against corporate and technological taxes. And some of the charitable initiatives are designed to increase power, not distribute it (like donating computers to third world countries, which obviously run Windows, and there's nothing Microsoft would like better than to have be the technological foundation in those countries) By their nature, corporations are there simply to do whatever is necessary for them to create profit- and if that requires changing laws, international or US, to suit their needs, then they'll do that.
I don't want this to be a personal attack on Gates. I don't expect him to donate all his money to non-denominational, non-partisan social welfare charities. I don't expect myself to do that either. But that may simply be because I'm American.
We live in this system, and though there are a few people trying to change it, the most American paradox of all may be this: our capitalist society may be creating almost all the evils that we, as moral actors, are trying to erase.
# posted by Stuart @ 11:01 AM 
Comments:
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Are you suggesting that hypocrisy itself is a main characteristic of being American? Or the specific way in which we practice it?
To be fair, I don't think it's an American only trait, but I do think that it is endemic to being American. Maybe I did overstep my bounds- maybe it's simply endemic to humanity. After all, we are selfish beings by nature, as are all organisms.
And of course there are exceptions, activists who toil and work for change, missionaries who go to other countries and build churches, etc. These people are usually more consistent in their beliefs than the average Joe. But it comes at a cost- a cost that most of us aren't willing to pay, whether it be a normal life, eating meat, buying a car, etc. And in general, the general populace sees activists as being hopelessly narrow-minded and boring, because they tend to see everything in terms of their one issue (racism, feminism, environmentalism) and it tends to warp their world view because of it. That's just my opinion, of course.
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And of course there are exceptions, activists who toil and work for change, missionaries who go to other countries and build churches, etc. These people are usually more consistent in their beliefs than the average Joe. But it comes at a cost- a cost that most of us aren't willing to pay, whether it be a normal life, eating meat, buying a car, etc. And in general, the general populace sees activists as being hopelessly narrow-minded and boring, because they tend to see everything in terms of their one issue (racism, feminism, environmentalism) and it tends to warp their world view because of it. That's just my opinion, of course.
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