THE AMERICAN CHARACTER
What is an American? What are his attitudes and values? Is there a typical American personality or outlook?. Dare one generalize about 212 million people living in an area of 3.615.123 square miles?
The United States is a huge nation, the fourth largest in the world. Within its borders, there are vast regional differences in climate, geography, and historical experience. Each section of the United States is ofeten thought to have its own customs and attitudes, and stereotypes have developed about the people of each region. For example, The New Englander is tlescribed as stern and self-reliant, the Southerner as adacious and leisurely and the westerner as casual and friendly.
Most regional distinctions, however, have been erased by modern transportation, communication, and mass production. From coast to coast, we find the same kinds of shopping centers, supermarkets, motels, suburban houses, and urban apartments. National advertising has created national tastes in consumer goods. Home furnishing, cars, and clothing look much the same throughout the nation.
Though some regional differences remain, most notably in cooking styles and speech patterns, the attitudes and values that Americans share are of far greater significance. The pioneering spirit of the immigrant is still and important part of the American Character. Except for the slaves brought from Africa, immigrants came to America voluntarily, eagerly, in search of greater prosperity and freedom.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the pioneering spirit led Americansettlers to travel westward by the thousands in search of land and gold. This westward movement has never ceased. Today, Northerners and Midwesterners are attracted to the West because of good business oppoortunities and a mild climate. From 1.950 to 1.970. Los Angeles (the nation´s third largest city) grew 43 percent in population, while Tucson and Phoenix (Arizona´s two major cities) grew more than 400 percent!.
The desire to start a new life in a new place is noticeable throughout the nation. About 40 million Americans change residences every year. The average American moves fourteen times in the lifetime, compared to five moves for the average Japanese. Because so many people move. so often, even those who stay put have a steady supply of new neighbors. In the United States, one cannot go home to find one´s past. The old neighborhood revisited usually looks completely different, with high-rise building on the old softball sandlots. Childhood friends have long since moved away.
Much os this residential shifting is local and primarily related to the need for bigger or smaller living quaters as family size changes. Some local moving is also related to neighborhood changes. When families move into higher income brackets, they often move into nicer residential areas, leaving the older, deteriorating neighborhood to poorer people. Long distance moves are often related to job opportunities. Some workers move from a city where there is little chance of employment to another city where industry is expanding. Some workers move from a city where there is little chance of employment to another city where industry is expanding. Some workers, employed by large corporations, move from one city to another because job promotion within the company requires such changes. In addition, about half of the natio´s young single adults live away from their home tows because they are attending college, serving in the armed forces, or just seeking new and independent lives.
What does all this moving about do to attitudes and values? Vance Packerd, one of the nation´s well-known nonfiction writers, discusses the problem in his popular book A Nation of Strangers. He belives that the highly mobile American society leaves individuals with feelings of rootlessness, isolation, indifference to community welfare, and shallow personal relationships. He urges that efforts be made to stabilize our shifting population so that Americans can "rediscover the natural human community"
Americans who do not change residence are also on the move - traveling by air or auto to see their own country and to visit others. The need to explore a new frontier is basic to the American character. Now that most of the nation´s wilderness is settled, the frontier of outer space has become the latest challenge.
The corage to try something new has been an American characteristic since colonial times, when the nation´s founding fathers started one of the greatest experiments of all times - The creation of American democracy. The citizens of the United States, through their elected representatives, establish the nation´s laws and determine its foreign policy. Those who disapprove of the laws and policies established by their representatives may openly express their disaproval and try to elect new representative to carry out their wishes.
American democracy means majority rule, but it also means protection of minority rights. There are certain freedoms which the United State promises to all its citizens, and members of minority groups cannot be denied these rights by a vote of the majority. The basic rigths of every citizen, outline in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, are known as the Bill of Rights. These rights include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from unreasonable search and arrest.
In the United States, democracy is not only a form of governments; it is a way of life. The belif that those who must live by the rules should help make the rules is basic to nearly all American institutions and organizations. American children are introduced to the democratic concepts of majority rule and representative gorvernment at a very early age. Many families hold weekly meetings to determine household rules and activities. Most schools have a student council with elected representatives so that students can voice their opinions about school regulations and activities. Social, civic, labor and charitable groups elect their officers and vote on issues. In business, stockholders elec the directors they feel are best qualified to control de company. Local and state governments are also based upon democratic principles.
"All men are created equal," says the Declaration of Independence. This statement does not mean that all human beings are equal in ability or ambition. It means, instead, that all people should be treated equally before the law and given equal privileges and opportunities, insofar as government can control these. In practice, this ideal often does not work perfectly. There have always been those who would deny the rights of others for their own self-interest. There are times when the American people need to be reminded that any denial of basic rights is a weakening of the total system. However, equal treatment and equal opportunity for all are ideals toward wich American society is moving ever closer.
The American belief in equality of opportunity is ilustrated by the Horatio Alger myth. Horatio Alger was a nineteenth-century American novelist who wrote stories about poor boys who becames successful. His books told about the little newsboy or bootblack who, because he was hardworking, honet, and lucky, grew up to become rich and respected. These popular "rags-to-riches" stories exemplified the American Dream - the belief that any individual, no matter how poor, can achieve wealth and fame through diligence and virtue.
For many immigrant Americans, this dream became reality. Most of them, particularly those who came to the United States during the nineteenth century, were peasants and laborers in their native lands. Wiithin a generation or two, nearly all these immigrant families rose on the social and economic scales. Financial success was often the result of taking a risk, of quitting a salaried position and starting a new business, Becoming an entrepreneur is still an open, though sometimes rugged, pathway to prosperity.
Social mobility - movement from class to class - has always been characteristic of the United States. However, although sociologists talk of the country´s class structure, most Americans do not think in these terms. They do not see themselves as struggling to move from the lower middle class to the upper middle class. Instead they think in terms of higher income to pay for a bigger house, a trip to Europe, summer camp for their children, or more retirement insurance.
Prior to the mid-1.960s, American initiative to experiment was encouraged by a generally optimistic outlook. The typical American believed in trying something new in an attempt to make life better. He had a firm faith in the possibility, even the probability, of progress. This attitude was based upon his own and his family´s past experiences. Older people often told their children about how hard life had been before the invention of countless work-saving devices and read-made products. Parents could remember tha days when orange juice had to be squeezed from oranges by hand rather than poured from a can and diluted. Grandpa could recall mowing the lawn with a manual mower. Grandma described the old-fashioned washer and feeding the clothes into the wringer, piece by piece. Great-grandma showed the blisters on her hands from churning butter and cranking the ice-cream maker. Great-grandpa talked about walking five miles to school before the days of public transportation and car pools.
Because life was getting easier, people assumed that it was getting better. The prevailing American attitude was one invented by a French pharmacist who, in treating his patients by hynopsis, instructed them to say. "Every day in every way I am getting better and better." Until the mid-1.960s, the typical American had this kind of faith in automatic improvement. But by the end of the decade, this national optimism, which set the United States apart from all other nations, was gone.
Before the mid-1.960s, Americand shared another happy attitude - a naive patriotism that said the United States was the best of all posible places; that American policy was determined by ethics, not expediency; that we had never fought an unjust war; that we were always on the side of right and ruled by noble motives.
Then came the 1.960s, a period when Americans realized that if conditions could change for the better, they could also change for the worse. Even more frightening, people began to notice that the quality of life in the United States was already changing for the worse, and that if serious and immediate efforts were not made to stop the trend, life would soon be unlivable in this best of all possible places. Americans also realized that their government, big business, and other major institutions were not always ethical and could not always be trusted to do what would be best for the nation and the world.
What killed American optimism? First and perhaps most important, there was the Viet Nam War. During the 1.960s, American involvement kept growing, and the bloodshed entered the American living room via TV. The horrors of our twelve years there - 46.000 American dead and many more Vietnamese - formed only one part of the violence which characterized the decade. Several assas sinations of public figures and a continued rise in the violent crime rate led to a great demand for gun control legislation. There were race riots in many cities, student riots on many campuses, policemen with tear gas.
Disposable,, but indestructible products of plastic and metal were cluttering the land. Consumers were asked to buy only products that could be recycled ( converted back into raw material and manufactured into usable items over and over again) . Recycling centers were created for the collection of newspapers, glass bottles, aluminum cans, and other reusable items. Americans were encouraged to bring these products to the recycling centers rather than discard them with other garbage.
Ecology, wich refers to the interrelationship of living things and their environments, is a word which became familiar even to children. Everyone was urged to ask himself, "What effect will my actions have upon other living things and eventually upon the quality of life it-self?" Americans, who produce about 30 percent of the word´s pollution, werereminded that the greatest polluters of all are people and perhaps the greatest of all threats to the enviroment is overpopulation. Birth control was strongly advocated, and Americans responded by having fewer children.
Out of all the negatives of the 1.960s came a great deal that was positive. as Americans became fully aware of existing evils, They began to look for ways to combat them. Americans responded in a typically American way; by organizing. Throughout the nation, groups of concerned citizens banded together to exert their united influence against the forces they dreaded. There were anti-war groups, women´s lib groups, population control groups, groups asserting the needs and rights of various cultural minorities, groups fighting to protect the environment from pollution, and so on. In general, these groups had two goals - first, to educate the public and thereby alter attitudes and behavior; second, to influence governmental bodies to pass ligislation that would benefit their causes.
Many people described the 1.960s as a decade overcome by pessimism and despair; yet during this period activists all over the nation still believed that by working together they could improve conditions. Although somo activist groups were revolutionary, most were merely reformist. Their members believed that necessary changes could be brought about without overthrow of the nation´s political and economic system. Many problems of the 1.960s have remained with us into the seventies, but vigorous efforts to deal with them have met with some succes and have given the nation new hope.
Problems of pollution and consumption are greater here than elsewhere because Americans are dependent upon a great many possesions. The United States contains only six percent of the world´s population; yet this six percent makes, buys, sells, and uses more than one third of the world´s goods and services. Americans produce and consume more than any other nation. Less than a century ago the average citizen had a list of seventy-one "wants". Sixteen of these were considerednecessities. Today, the average American´s wants have grown to 464, and only about ninety-four are considered necessities.
The American need to own things is partly the result of mass advertising, wich urgen consumers to discard last year´s car or clothing in favor of the current models with the latest designs. Some people are convinced that they must "keep up with the Joneses," that they must have whatever their neighbors have. The old car or the old stereo set may work perfectly, but a never and biger one might raise the family´s esteem in the community. Posessions become symbols of finnancial success; they elevate one´s social status.
Advertisers also appeal to the American desire to look youthful and be physically attractive. Commercials attempt to sell many products- shompoo, toothpaste, deodorant and soap, for example - by implying that their particular brand will help its user be more appealing.
But Americans also make many purchases for practical reasons. The buy labor-saving devices to do routine household chores more quickly and easily. Every house-wife wants a vacuum cleaner, an electric mixer, a steam iron, an automatic clothes washer and dryer, and a dish-washer. Nearly every home-owning husban would like a power lawn mower, a snow-blower, and an electric drill.
Americans also buy things because they like to do things. Equipment for hobbies and books about "do-it-yourself" proyects are are very popular. Americans want to know how to cook with a "continental" flair while refinishing the bedroom furniture and making a million dollars in the stock market. The American love of activity is part of a generally pragmatic outlook on life, a belief that the value of knowledge is related to its usefulness.
Because of their tremendous expenditures for goods and services, Americans are often accused of being materialistic, the valuing above all else money and the conforts and pleasures that money can buy. However, Americans are, on the whole, quite idealistic. They ask much more of life than just day-to -day enjoyment and financial security. They ask that life be meaningful. In choosing careers, Americans consider the significance of their work just as important as the income the job will bring. Also, most Americans are still under the influence of the protestant ethic, which considers a life of pleasure sinful and hard work ennobling. Americans place great value upon useful activity. In fact, many cannot enjoy their expanding number of leisure hours unless most of their "free" time is spent doing something constructive - such as working on the lawn or cleaning out the garage.
True Americans enjoy money and the things it can buy . But in defense of the so called materialistic. American one expert in American culture points out. ".... however eager we are to makemoney, we are just as eager to give it away. Any world disaster finds americans writing checks to relieve distress. Since the war we have seen the spectacle of the United States sending billions and billions of dollars worth of goods to contries less fortunate than we. Write some of it off, if you will, to a desire to buy political sympathy; there is still an overplus of goodwill strictly and uniquely American. Generosity and materialism run side by side.
The average American is also accused of being "rough around the edges" - that is, of lacking sophistication in manners and understanding of things cultural. He tries hard to polish those edges trough education and travel. But no matter how much he learns and sees, his interests are less with the past than with the present and future, less with the decorative than with the functional. He may be bored by medieval art but fascinated by modern engineering. Foreigners will find him always ready to compare cultures, though he may conclude that American methods are more efficient and therefore better. In expressing his views, he may be blunt to thr point of rudeness. He admires efficiency and financial success.
Eager to get as much as posible for his time and money, he is sometimes impatient, tense, and demanding. Often, he is in a hurry and unable to relax. His intensely competitive outlook is probably his greatest fault. But one must give him credit for his virtues; he is friendly, spontaneous, adaptable, efficient, energetic, and kindhearted. All things considered, he is a likable guy.
Immigration took a tremendous leap after 1.880. Between 1881 and 1920, 23.5 million aliens were admitted. Nearly 90 percent of these newcomers were from Europe. The government kept Asian immigration to a minimum after 1882 because American labor unions opposed the entry of immigrants from the Orient, fearing that they would threaten the jobs and depress the wage levels of white workers. In the 1890s the sources of European immigration began to shift. Between 1881 and 1890, 90 percent of American immigrants had come from northern and western Europe. By 1911, 77 percent were coming from southern and eastern Europe - Italy, Russia. Austria - Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece, and what were later to become Poland and Czechoslovakia. Many of those from Russia, Rumania and Poland were Jews fleeing religious persecution.
During World War I, immigration declined due to traveling difficulties. After the war, Europeans once again began crowding aboard ships to the United States. But American industry no longer needed them. In 1921, Congress passed a quota law, limiting the number of Eastern Hemisphere immigrants for the first time. The limit was 350,000 annualy, Subsequent laws reduced the annual quota even further.
From 1930 to 1945, legal limits and World War II kept immigration at a minimum. But after the war, immigration rose sharply because millions were left homeless by the war. About 4 million immigrants came to the United States between 1945 and 1964. Special legislation admited large numbers of war brides, displeced persons, refugees, and orphans. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the United States relaxed quotas to allow thousands of Hungarians and more than 150,000 cubans to enter the country. To relieve crowded conditions in Hong Kong, several thousand non-quota Chinese were also permitted entry.
The American population probably includes representatives of every existing nation. However, certain nationalities have dominated the immigration rolls.
THE USA CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS
Claudia Tatiana Palacio Vasco
Administradora de Empresas
Especialista en Mercadeo Internacional
TP- 07362 de Ministerio de Desarrollo Económico
Con licencia Office para compilar.
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