What Is America - Essay Example

Running Head What is America What is America America represents a unique culture and land shaped by historical and political traditions, social and cultural values of different nations. Culture is one of the main ways people express their identity and ethnicity. To some extent, culture reflects a person's identity and helps him/her to preserve unique national values and rituals. The word 'America' means much more than a state or continent but unique traditions and way of life spread across the world. It means unique way of thinking and attitude towards the world, personal relations and life chances. America means a land of freedom and liberty, equal rights and opportunities. Sitting Bull, a leader of the Lakota Sioux says: "The life my people want is a life of freedom" (Foner 1999, p. 49). Ideas of freedom and liberty define America and its style of life influenced by historical events and struggle for independence. For a long time, freedom was at length granted the slaves, not as a measure of social justice, but as an act of war. Emancipation came as a more or less accidental by-product of a titanic conflict between two powerful classes, each seeking in its own self-interest to dominate the Federal government, and neither concerned with the moral aspects of slavery (Bigsby, 2006). Studies of ethnicity in the United States have tended to emphasize the significance of large-scale social, economic, and political processes to account for the demise or endurance of hyphenated-Americans. It has been shown that, after arriving as immigrants, such groups search out economic opportunities and employ ties of common origin to create or occupy economic niches. "The idea of wage slavery served to deconstruct, as it were, the sharp contrast between slavery and freedom, to expose the forms of coercion and hidden inequalities inherent in ostensibly free economic institutions" (Foner 1999, p. 58) Long struggle against oppression has created some stereotypic impressions of American as liberals and fighters. The stereotype of the American is used in a variety of ways in reference to a number of social traditions and values. It embodies all aspects of human activities reflecting historical and social development of the nation. Americans develop the specific system of standards or rules a person attributes to the membership of the group as a result of her experience. A person's cultural preferences may contain several cultures which he/she attributes to different sets of other persons. Again, "The long contest over slavery gave new meaning to personal liberty, political community, and the rights attached to American citizenship" (Foner 1999, p. 83). America means the land of immigrants who come to America looking for better life and unique destiny. The Old World background made in new social surroundings created the role of environmental factors, and finally, the relation between institutional forms (social classes and authorities) and cultural values. The settlers created new social order in order to meet specific local conditions. The new comers were involved in public policy and social life, religious and political affairs. Probably, since that time, the national idea of the land and equality has been central in American culture. The new comers brought to America a common set of values affected church, state, and social order. It was amazing how much they changed in the American land bringing new religious traditions and values. The land symbolized unity of the nation and its traditions, resistance to foreign influences and interactions (Bigsby, 2006). There is no question that this common set of ideas and beliefs, assumptions and customs shaped the character of the new World that the immigrants founded. The most part the colonists' notions about economics, politics, and society were indistinguishable from those of their countrymen who never contemplated moving to the New World. Catholicism and Protestantism influenced morality and goodness, human values and attitude towards the world (Foner, 1999). Church popularized independent thinking and promoted personal uniqueness of every individual. "In the eve of independence, virtually every black person in America had been a slave. Now, a free community, with its own churches, schools, and leadership class, came into existence, constituting a standing challenge to the logic of slavery, a haven for fugitives" (Foner 1999, p. 35). These values became a set of moral norms that rule society from ancient times. It determined such cultural values as hard work and individualism, friendliness and openness typical for most Americans. Americans operate under a double influence of Native American religion and the Puritans, between past and present, "us against the other". Using these facts, it is possible to say that the strength of the modern American character can be explained by strong influence of destiny and religious beliefs. Americans are able to accommodate themselves to any hostile conditions supported by strong faith and personal traits. "New insight was presumed to offer the possibility of personal transformation and greater self-authenticity. A stress on individualism suggested that faith or spirituality were primarily matters of personal choice rather than cultural inheritances" (Bigsby 2006, p. 119). America is interpreted as a land of innovation and technological discoveries which influence life style and values of people. Modern American lifestyle is influenced by industrialization and innovations coming from other countries. Thus, Americans value their old traditions and rituals adapting them to new social environment. In short, the American self, characterized by its diffuse nature or individual orientation, represents a self who lost its space to be free of the omnipresence of the social network in American society in return for being taken care of by its group. The strong sense of belonging assures one materially a comfortable life at the individual level and stability and safety at the social level, making America relatively free of violent crimes. Americans manage to keep a sense of alienation to a minimum as it industrialized and urbanized by maintaining its virtually "village" mentality and social network. However, the value the American gain by observing the traditional code of conducts is material and psychological welfare, which is provided to members of American society more or less equally and fairly at the individual level, and public safety, which is provided at the collective level in America today (Huntington, 2004). Processes of globalization and modernization have an impact on western cultural trends and values. Modernization embraces all spheres of life changing gender roles and status of women in the society. In contrast to Muslim culture, American culture embodies recent technological developments and innovations, and it is opened to new ideas and innovative tends (Huntington, 2004). Modernization has changed the nature of social relations in the West. It is important to understand the role of equal rights policies and the pervasive influences which it exercises over the behavior of people. Modernization process has changes cultural traditions which previously restricted women's activity outside the domestic sphere. Following Bigsby (2006): "Sometimes the demands of hyper-patriotism reflected the efforts of private mployers, sometimes of self-appointed monitors of political morality who acted with official complicity. Sometimes the private sphere was ahead of the government in such" (p. 259). Changing production patterns have restructured agriculture, social landscape and traditional sources of income (Bigsby, 2006). The main impact of modernization of the American continent is on cultural development and traditions as well as development of social institution of marriage and justice. In America, modernization has resulted in social and cultural decay. In spite of great liberal achievements and human rights movement, gender battles have a negative impact on modern cultures leading to cultural crisis. What is new in the modernist era is the attempt to gender mass culture as feminine in a wholesale way (Huntington, 2004). American culture is often associated with traditions, values and life preferences. It has a great impact on world views and way of life, work and education opportunities and self-image. Ideas of freedom and democracy determine my way of life and life choices. A code of honesty helps many Americans to survive and adapt to any circumstances. Such a code meets with supposedly universal human motivations and virtues typical for the American people. Competition and individualism force Americans to achieve the best results in education. Growth needs are concerned with the development of potential, and cover self-esteem and self-actualization. Individualism is reflected in my cloths and self-image. To some extent, the idea individualism and competition provide the best opportunity of proving personal skills and uniqueness. Productivity and speed are interconnected concepts which determine modern life. For an American, personal satisfaction derives from the accomplishment of the task, and recognition need not come from other people. Wealth depends on productivity and speed, ability to compete with other people. To some extent, wealth (financial success) determines productivity and ability of a person to compete (Huntington, 2004). In America, young people have great opportunities to start their own business and amass a fortune. Similar to many young people around the world, a young American values good education as the main source of success and good career. Modern society values wealth and prosperity, leadership skills and professionalism. The key to understanding a social order, as a part of American values, is an appreciation of those features that differentiate social and political forms and which provide a focus for individual identity and loyalty. Influenced by western values, Americans value knowledge as the main source of personal success and wealth. The desire for confidence, strength, independence and freedom, and achievement are a direct result of a personal creative potential (Bigsby, 2006). New technology and internet have created a new culture which affects traditional one. For instance, Internet chat rooms have a great impact on personal identity and inner "self" of visitors. In recent years the understanding of "self" has been changed, because as a collective sentiment, it needs to be upheld and reaffirmed. Internet and chat rooms open new opportunities for people to change their identity and a social "self" (Turkle, 2004). It means that a man can communicates as a woman, or a child can identifies himself as an expert in particular field (Huntington, 2004). Cyberspace makes it possible for every person to create a unique identity according to personal expectations and desires, but it hides negative and even dangerous consequences for people he/she communicates with. In this situation, stipulated gender identities exist only in cyberspace, which defines and organizes them. The search for identity includes the question of what is the proper relationship of the individual to society as a whole (Huntington, 2004). This tendency is closely connected with historical traditions and liberalism of American people. "It is not hard to see how this gave birth to classic nineteenth-century liberalism, to a practical stress on the self-made man, on private charity, and, indeed, to an emphasis on capitalism" (Bigsby 2006, p. 7). America means the Internet and computer industry, and associated with such names as Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Steve Jobs (Apple). The most important, the Internet chat rooms represent a new form of social interaction which affects and changes human relations towards impersonal communication changing culture of people. Language of signs and symbols becomes the embodiment of culture and is a means whereby people communicate to other people, either within their own culture or in other cultures. On the other hand, Internet chat rooms deprive every user a chance to send verbal and non-verbal messages to the recipient. Internet creates its own culture which reflects in its language what is of value to the people (Turkle, 2004). When one has identity one is situated; that is, cast in the shape of a social object by the acknowledgement of his participation or membership in social relations. Violence and aggression are the main things expressed in chat rooms through "wrong" identities. The main effect of online communication is a "dual nature" of people who use chat rooms. Autonomy is not established by a kind of release from social constraints, so that the unencumbered self can realize individually-determined ends, but is realized through full participation in the civic order or disorder (Huntington, 2004). The word "America" is often associated with cinema and Hollywood. American was one of the first countries developed the film industry and cinema entertainment. The cinema of the early period, from the mid- 1890s to the mid-1910s, is sometimes referred to as 'pre-Hollywood' cinema, attesting to the growing hegemony of the California-based American industry after the First World War. It has also been described as pre-classical, in recognition of the role that a consolidated set of 'classical' narrative conventions was to play in the world cinema from the 1920s onwards (Belton, 1993). These terms need to be used with caution, as they can imply that the cinema of the early years was only there as a precursor of Hollywood and the classical style which followed. In fact the styles of filmmaking prevalent in the early years were never entirely displaced by Hollywood or classical modes, even in America, and many cinemas went on being pre- or at any rate non-Hollywood in their practices for many years to come. But it remains true that much of the development that took place in the years from 1906 or 1907 can be seen as laying the foundation for what was to become the Hollywood system, in both formal and industrial terms. By the end of its first decade of existence, the cinema had established itself as an interesting novelty, one distraction among many in the increasingly frenetic pace of twentieth-century life (Belton, 1993). Yet the fledgeling medium was still very much dependent upon pre-existing media for its formal conventions and story-telling devices, upon somewhat outmoded individually-driven production methods, and upon pre-existing exhibition venues such as vaudeville and fairs. In its next decade, however, the cinema took major steps toward becoming the mass medium of the twentieth century, complete with its own formal conventions, industry structure, and exhibition venues (Bigsby, 2006). America is often associated with 'the revolution' in cinema and entertainment industries. For instance, in the 1960s and 1970s there was a revolution in film criticism and theory. Starting in the world of specialist magazines, it went on to affect both journalistic and academic writing on the cinema and to influence many aspects of filmmaking, not only at the margins but also in the mainstream. Like any such revolution, its effects were only partially irreversible. The bolder insights of the new writing failed to find general acceptance, while many originally radical ideas became routinized and academicized with the spread of film studies in the universities and the dwindling interaction between academic study and world outside (Belton, 1993). The period of which Terminator 2 is representative is often called the era of the modern blockbuster, and stretches from George Lucas's 1977 state-of-the-art space opera Star Wars up to and beyond Steven Spielberg's 1993 state-of-the-art dinosaur epic Jurassic Park. As many critics have observed, the period is 'post-generic' in the sense that, while films belonging to the traditional Hollywood genres were still being made, they coexisted with an explosion of emerging new categories which made use of the older elements by recombining them in various ways. One example of such a 'hybrid' genre is, of course, the special-effects oriented blockbuster. It is also a period marked by an unusually strong and self-conscious convergence between American popular culture, especially Hollywood movies, and American political culture. The most highly successful and broadly popular movies of this era are best understood as ideological fantasies about the relationship of the American nation to the realities and implications of its own recent history, which included the assassinations and social upheaval of the 1960s and the political scandal and corruption of Watergate in the early 1970s (Belton, 1993). America is often called a fast food nation. This stereotype is influenced by development of fast food industry and McDonald's Corp (Schlosser 2001). Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century, fast food culture is negatively perceived by the global community because it ruins traditional food patterns. Most fast food restaurants popularize and promote unhealthy eating behavior which leads to obesity problems. Most food proposed in such restaurants is fat saturated with high caloricity level. In spite of advertising efforts to promote health conscious menus or calorie free diet, hamburgers and fried potato are the most "dangerous" products sold by fast food. Following Schlosser (2001) social dimensions are manifested in the ability of mass media to control the circulation of ideas about body image and fashion. People copy or borrow their identities from the media, and very often body images are misrepresented and just exploited by the media. Unfortunately, many people forget about an old method created to solve health related problems without any artificial substances. Many health professionals are concerned by the prevalence of distorted body image which may be fostered by their constant self-comparison to extremely fat figures promoted in the media (Bigsby, 2006). In sum, America means the land of opportunities and freedom, human rights and individualism. Also, it is often associated with 'revolutions' in different industries including technology and cinema, food and entertainment. The American can be described as a person of strong personal values and sense of self, fighter and liberator. In general, the ideas and values of the Americans who settled in New England influenced perception of the self and personal values of the nation. Morals and traditions created a strict, unwritten code of essential rules followed by generations of Americans as their personal religion which helped to control social life and social order. . References 1. Belton, J. (1993). American Cinema/American Culture, McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. 2. Bigsby, Ch. (2006). The Cambridge Book on American Culture. Cambridge University Press. 3. Foner, E. (1999). The Story of Freedom, W. W. Norton & Company. 4. Huntington, S. P. (2004). Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity. Simon & Schuster. 5. Schlosser, E. (2001). Fast Food Nation. Houghton Mifflin. 6. Turkle, Sh. (2004). "Cyberspace Identity" in Behrens, L., Rosen, L.J. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum. Ninth ed. pp.275-283. Read More