What Defines American Culture?
If everyone in the world was asked to define American culture, every answer would be different. It's hard to believe that a culture can be a subjective thing, but it is! Culture is generally based on racial and religious beliefs. American culture is better told as ideas followed by a group of people. The ideas Americans attempt to follow: freedom and fairness. I believe American culture is best defined by the documents we Americans hold dearest.
It all began with the Declaration of Independence. This country was founded on freedom. Freedom from tyranny. Freedom from what America's earliest people believed to be wrong and unjust. What happened when America's motherland, Great Britain, seemed too controlling? America sent them a strongly worded letter, and ended fighting for freedom. The three main rights spoken of in the Declaration of Independence were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. From this point on, Americans had the right to life, the right to create a happy life, and, most importantly, the right to liberty. Americans used it to label everything. Lady Liberty, the Liberty Bell, but liberty is just a fancy word for freedom. Americans can't get enough freedom.
Americans will usually speak highly of themselves. That's because we always think of all of what we have conquered (always starting with winning our independence from Britain). America, however, has not been around along. The American people have made some mistakes. These mistakes can be seen in America's second most beloved document.
The United States Constitution and it's list of Amendments, or laws, set in place and basically lays out the freedoms and rights of the American people. It is some of these amendments that also shows where America has made some mistakes. The thirteenth amendment for instance freed slaves. This amendment alone proves that while early American people's intentions were good when writing the Declaration of Independence, it's arms of freedom and fairness didn't extend to everyone initially, and most Americans followed along for a long time. It wasn't until the nineteenth amendment that women were finally able to vote. Prior to that it was only men that could vote, and prior to the fifteenth amendment, it was only white men that could vote.
Slowly but surely, Americans are learning how to better represent the ideas that they so closely try to follow. All that being said, America is still a young nation. She's not even 250 years old yet. So, to sum up America's Culture: America is a country that seeks freedom and fairness for all, but is still trying to figure out how to create this utopia.
Culture is context dependent, and so your beliefs about American culture are just as correct as my own. I think this is part of living is such a large (physically) and diverse (population/natural resources) country that we've got here.
ReplyDeleteBut the part that I think might be suspect is that the DOI was about freedom from tyranny? Of course, if one was a land-owning white male, then sure, I'd agree with you there. But most of the population was not in this category, and I think this just goes to show that proclamations and the corresponding laws that come with them are always earmarked toward the group in power to begin with (or the group vying for power). It looks like you and I agree on that. And you're absolutely right. In the scheme of things America is a young nation. Hopefully we'll learn from those who are still coming to her shores?
Hi Troy,
ReplyDeleteYour main argument or point is very interesting. I never thought of looking at American Culture from an historical point of view. I think I agree in that American culture can be defined by the historical documents we have in place. Of course, I do think that this definition of American Culture can be used to describe it to someone who is unaware of the basis to which the United States came to be. I’m not sure there can be a definite definition of what American Culture is as many people share different views and opinions. While freedom and fairness is something everyone seeks, there are others as well who want to seek more than just freedom or fairness. I think to further enhance the points you are making, add a few outside sources and look at other perspectives so it is not mostly one sided. I found one article that I think would support a few points you made. Overall, I think your take on this was very interesting!
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1939/03/what-makes-an-american/309021/