On another thread Patricia asked the question, "What is American culture?"... in the sense of United States culture. I thought that would make a very good topic for a thread.

In my opinion, the briefest summation of US culture would be to quote the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness [...]"

This started the free-for-all. That "pursuit of happiness" phrase was utterly brilliant. For almost everyone, the basic components of happiness are pretty standard issue - they are Maslow's heirarchy. That's why our culture is into material abundance - big time. Those Billions Sold of standard issue McDonald's hamburgers.

But the other meaning of "pursuit of happiness" was more elusive and remarkable. That one idea has imbued the whole country with the belief that our own personal quirks are a treasure, not a defect. Americans are liable to do weird things. We create a lot. We are not afraid to be grotesque. In fact, we create a lot of stuff that is clearly grotesque. We don't care. It is ours. Rock and roll. Elvis on black velvet. Stretch limousines. Hubcap art. Music synthesizers. Far Side cartoons.

That is the US culture. It is a constant celebration of the personal, the excessive, the grotesque and the materially satisfying. And it is intensely human.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Answers

I'm sure most of us college types have heard this before, but I never get tired of mentioning it:

Many of the founding fathers were admirers of English philosopher John Locke. That phrase in the Declaration Of Independence was ALMOST directly lifted from one by Locke:

"every citizen is endowed with natural rights to life, liberty, and property."

So - our culture is pretty much what it was designed to be.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

American Culture:

Tacky,

Exuberant,

Generous.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Yes, it's a celebration of materialism, but we personalize that in so many ways -- with art, with music, with "hamburgers".....

We take a hubcap and we paint on it; we attach a deeper meaning to it. We take a hamburger and we add stuff to it to make it *ours*. We take a piece of music -- we run it backwards, scratch it up, insert new words, and voila! we've created something new. We are the refiners of the flea market, where One Man's Garbage is Another Man's Treasure. We make the "simple" into the "magnificent".

Ingenuity; creativeness; overcoming obstacles -- these things can be said to characterize An American. The products of those endeavors are just now beginning to characterize An American Culture.

Like I said, we're still developing. I wonder what it will be like in the distant future when archaeologists of that time "dig up" our "artifacts".....

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

>> We make the "simple" into the "magnificent". <<

Not exactly the words I would choose. Consider St. Patrick's Day. It was celebrated for centuries before an American thought it would be fun to put green food coloring into beer. Now, this was obviously creative and fun-loving and irreverant - all American qualities - but "magnificent"? Not hardly.

Or consider pizza. It began life in Italy as a humble flat bread smeared with a bit of olive oil and tomato paste for flavor. In America we reinvented pizza in our own image, by progressively piling more and more toppings onto it until the flat bread was just a conveyance you used to shovel the good stuff into your mouth. Where else but in America could "Hawaiian pizza" have been invented?

Now we have re-exported the idea to the world, so that in Japan you can buy a squid pizza. But I gravely doubt the Japanese would have arrived there on their own if we hadn't shown the way.

But, this is not really my definition of magnificence.

Or consider the movies. In France they make great, enduring movies like Grand Illusion. In Sweden they make great, enduring movies like Wild Strawberries. In America we make great, enduring movies like Citizen Kane, or The Maltese Falcon.

Charles Foster Kane is intensely human, full of appetites and given to material excess, and ultimately grotesque. Very American, I'd say. And Sam Spade is just the right mixture of cynic and romantic.

Anyway, I object to the hooey that the right wing has been trying to peddle to us since the 1950s, about how our strength as a people is in our upstanding, god-fearing, sanitized-for-your-protection morality. That isn't who we are. Americans are not Ozzie and Harriet. We are much worse, much better and much more interesting than that.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Brian:

That's very well written. Please, though, don't confuse the religious right with the libertarian right. The religious right may worship a sterile and fictional Ozzie and Harriet morality, but the libertarian right celebrates the real-life creativity of a Las Vegas insta- marriage drive-through chapel. Ain't that America?

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Well, Flint, I have sometimes wondered if the Religious Right are destroying the fabric of our society by their constant repression and insistence on snooping into consenting adults' private lives. Why is this group so damn concerned about other people's behavior? Please don't tell me that they are trying to enforce a "moral" code. It's been widely observed that most of the leaders in this sect cannot abide by the code of conduct they enforce against others.

As we have been fortunate enough to travel a bit, I observe how different our culture is to other countries. In the USA, life speeds by, and everything is "instant", if not faster. The luxuries we take for granted are astonishing to those of other countries.

I believe, though, that even with the excesses and material focus in American culture, the thing that makes us different is the limitless possibilities that still await those in the USA who have a dream, and have the guts and determination to follow their dream, no matter how improbable. The freedom to remake your life, to be hugely successful, to be a huge failure, and try yet again. I still believe that this is possible.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2000

For disagreement on usage of a "word", I get a lecture. You went to the Flint School of Posting, didn't you?

You then go on to list some of the kitchy-est things imaginable, and hold them up as if they were examples of what I was discussing.

I wasn't aware this thread was going to be a "debate"; I was under the impression you asked a question, and were thus soliciting answers. I didn't realize it was going to be a test.

Think I'll just bow out gracefully. My butt hurts from having it kicked once too many times due to my **opinion**.

Happy Holidays all and perhaps I'll see you all in cyberspace somewhere.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2000

>> You went to the Flint School of Posting, didn't you? <<

Ouch! I suppose I deserved that.

>> I was under the impression you asked a question, and were thus soliciting answers. I didn't realize it was going to be a test. <<

My humble apologies. I did not wish to give pain. Sorry. I get that way sometimes and it is not my most attractive side. Thanks for poking back.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2000

Patricia:

Brian doesn't deserve such an insult. He doesn't mean any harm.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2000

LOL.....points taken. Touche' to you both ;-) But I do tend to see the "magnificent" in the simplest things.

BTW, according to my Dad (born in Italy and lived there 'til he was 7) the original pizza is closer to what we know to be a calzone. It was served for breakfast. The prior evening's leftovers would be wrapped in dough, cheese was added to bind, and it would be baked.

The other original type of pizza (depending on where in Italy you lived, I suppose; he lived in Procida, off the coast of Naples) was much as you describe, Brian. It's close to what we know as foccacia. It might be Sicilian in origin.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000