Utopian America

The question is: what would make America Utopian? This is a challenging question. If there was a simple answer, however, America would already be Utopian. A great American (and global) flaw would be the lack of trust for one another, and the fear of each other.

This fear comes from not knowing what the other person has. What kind of morals do they have? What kind of values do they have? Are they looking for someone to rob? Do they have a gun on them? Now, this topic can be turned into a debate on gun laws, but this post is about Utopian America. The weapon doesn’t matter, guns are modern, if this post were 2.5 million years old, it would be about fearing a stone-wielding robber. The point is, Americans have slowly, over time feared each other more and more. It has created a lack of trust so terrible that when walking down a sidewalk and waving to a stranger, there's a fair chance they won't wave back. In 2016, one of America's biggest fears was being a victim of terror. Terrorism doesn't have to be a radical group from one country terrorizing another country. Terrorism can be defined simply as violent or destructive acts.


American's lack of trust for one another has shown through in more aspects than just walking the streets. When learning to drive, teens are taught to drive like playing a game of football. At times you must play aggressive, but the key to winning is playing good defense. Most parents’ reasoning behind driving defensively is “it’s not yourself you should be worried about, it’s the idiots around you.” Again, everyone fears what the other person may do. 

If America could somehow make this fear of one another disappear, America would be THE most perfect country in the world. There just doesn't seem to be a way to make everyone trust each other.

Comments

  1. Julie Quinn TACApril 21, 2018 at 10:22 AM

    Perhaps what you're saying here is that people are inherently violent. Just look at the Stanford Prison Experiment from the 1960s to give you an idea of what people will do if they get a bit of power over others. I wonder if we research more peaceful societies (those with undeniably low rates of violent crime) what would we find? And how is America different? I know you say guns aren't the problem, but what if they were, to an extent? If less than 1 justifiable killing out of every 32 murders? (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-guns-self-defense-charleston-20150619-story.html) of all gun use is in self-defense, what does that mean if guns were out of the equation?

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  2. UnknownApril 22, 2018 at 6:15 PM

    I do agree with you in the sense that some Americans do tend to fear one another and think of others as untrustworthy. Much as we might prefer otherwise, there’s solid evidence that, on average, people are quite cynical. When thinking about strangers, people may think others are more selfishly motivated than they really are and that others are less helpful than they really are. This doesn't help us in our quest for a utopian society, that stems from trust and motive to do better. I can see that people's biggest fear at one point was being a victim of terror, being helpless in an unsafe situation could cause anyone to become scared. It doesn't help our hope for a utopia that this is even an option to be afraid of though, as terror attacks are much more common today.

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