Something that has always been somewhat of a myth to me is the idea of a ‘North American’ culture. Looking at other countries (excluding Canada and the U.S.) a sense of ‘culture’ is usually pretty prevalent. Europe is a good example. Each country has generally a unique type of cuisine, style of music, traditional festivals and dress, and of course etiquette and behavioural standards.
Germany has Oktoberfest, Russia has more songs and dances than I can count, Italy is THE place for Renaissance art, music, literature etc. These are just a few examples, but other places, such as Japan, India, China and the Middle East have just as strong and varied things that make those places stand out.
Now I look at our lives here in the west. I ponder at what makes us US. In comparison, North America is the younger sibling to the rest of the world. I can see things that make Canadians and Americans different from each other and the rest of the world. We can all list such things, but that’s not what I’m getting at here.
It would seem that, instead of the hundreds (thousands in some cases) of years of tradition that most other places have, we have very little to look back on. Our backward glance is, in essence, a glance back only as far away as 1600-1700’s England and France.
I track ‘our’ (henceforth known as Canada & the U.S.) development as nations as one that has occurred in relative isolation. We’re geographically separated from the larger continents of the world which means we’ve been hard to attack militarily, and due to the 200 years or so of peace between us, we’ve never had the daily fear that many citizens of the world must endure.
Hence, I put forth that our culture is a product of peace, prosperity and often (but not completely) unwitting disregard for the other people of the globe.
North American culture begins in the 1950’s. The western powers have generally settled into an easy day-to-day grind of Dad working, Mom cooking and cleaning, and the kids playing ball in the yard after school. No daily threats, no starvation, minimal poverty. And I suppose for this, we can thank the military industrial complex (which essentially kept the economy of NATO countries booming along by cooking up not completely unfounded Soviet threat stories in order to keep factories pumping out goods, as well as promoting the perceived value of material items over traditional culture such as customs, celebrations, festivals, language etc.).
Immigrants have been told that they must leave who they were at the dock or airstrip and step forward as citizens of the new world. This is the ‘Melting Pot’ effect.
Fast cars, drive-ins, rock and roll and hamburgers became the American Dream.
Population increase, economic power (achieved through much enslavement of the developing world [Mexico, India, China, etc.]) and the phrase ‘Keeping up with the Jones’s’ amplified the new prosperity of post war North America into what it is today.
So. What IS it today?
Well, this is my perspective on the notion of defining a North American Culture.
We live to consume. We always want to have the latest and greatest piece of soon-to-be obsolete material. Ipods, Iphones, Ipads… Cars.. Clothes.. Houses etc. (yes, I have a few of such things, just so we know the depth of my hypocrisy here)
Competition is glorified. UFC, Football, The Olympics, Capitalism (yes, even my much beloved Paintball); they’re all just extensions of the (apparently) inherent human trait of needing to be on the top of the garbage heap. Incidentally, this is the view that I have of a lot of the Hip-hop/Rap culture. Highly materialistic, highly competitive, highly primitive (in case anyone wonders about my musical taste; I’ll go into this in a later blog I’m sure).
Even in the idea of health care, it appears that the American view is ‘Look after thine self first’ and ‘survival of the fittest’.
Why the disregard of our fellows? Are we really as selfish as all of this? Driven to be the best at all costs, including our souls. Is it really more important to be liked by everyone else and to be who they want us to be, instead of to be who we are and be loved for that instead? I don’t personally think so.
We idolize celebrities and feed on the drama of their ever-so-tragic and exciting lives. We become obsessed with such people and model ourselves on them, setting ourselves up for the inevitable disappointment when we discover that we’re only, in fact, ourselves.
Because of this, (and the fact that it’s unlikely for our lives to be snuffed out because we boarded a bus [like it is in Palestine, Indonesia, Iraq…]) we are bored with our lives and who we are. We accelerate our need to keep up and make sure we’re running at least WITH the pack if not in front of it. This comes at the expense of our sanity. People feel that they can’t meet the standards set for them by the advertisements, the beautiful celebrities, the people they know and admire.
I know a fair amount of people that suffer from depression. In my opinion, it’s this fast-paced dog-eat-dog ‘holy shit, I’ll never get to the finish line’ world view that drives so many young people to drug and alcohol addiction and abuse, use of prescription meds, and visits to psychiatrists. Maybe if we shed our cares about what people will think of us because of our possessions and status symbols, we’d all be able to slow down a little and enjoy our lives.
So, North American Culture, in my opinion consists of:
-Materialism
-Competition
-Drama queens
-Boredom
I know we can do better than this. Take the time to value the small things, the irreplaceable things, family, friends, memories, time. These are things that should matter. We need the antidote for our diseased culture. Evaluating our priorities, in my opinion, is that antidote.
Peace, Love, Unity
Justin
