I’m gonna pull a Germaine on everyone and give you a monster post. Hey, turnabout’s fair play, my friend! 😜
A week or so back, one of our (ir)regulars here, Adam G. Yoksas, made an excellent point about the status quo of America. It has to do with how the U.S. Society has become culturally and patriotically “fractured.” Here’s an excerpt from one of Adam’s post:
Despite over two hundred years of effort, any attempt to give the Americans a common culture has failed. In fact, the longer that time goes on, the less Americans think of themselves as a people, but as peoples. What unites us is law, not culture. That Constitution is really the only thing that makes us a single people.
Without it, we become--at best--Italy during the Renaissance, a collection of small principalities, confederations, and oligarchies all vying for advantage, with mercenary inclinations. At worst, we become post-Yugoslavia, a chaotic mess of ethnic, religious, and cultural tribes that view one another with suspicion and even open hostility.
The only language that cuts across the cultures in America is the language of the Constitution, the debates over rights, limits, expressed and implied powers, ambition cheching ambition, freedoms and equalities. That these things exist "under the law" is assumed, given that there's no source available to grant us these things outside of the law of that Constitution. No king is going to guarantee them. No church is going to make a case for them. No deep cultural myths are there so that notions of justice can take root.
Only the Constitution keeps us together. It is far more essential to us than any other civilization before or since.
Now, for my thoughts.
As our U.S. melting pot grows more diverse with each passing decade, I suppose a “cultural and patriotic separation” was destined to happen. As a result, there become fewer and fewer “focal points” for the greater society to hang on to, other than our Constitutional system of laws. I agree with Adam, we still do have those in common… at least for the moment.
I think it’s true, one’s heritage plays a big part in how we see each other. For example, in Spain, indigenous people all consider themselves to be Spaniards. Or, in Greece, all indigenous people consider themselves to be Greeks. But here in America, we don’t have that common ancestral heritage to cling to. (Btw, the Native American Indian would have something to say about that!!) So while we may each, individually, revere our familial ancestry, as a group, there is no common “heritage bond” to hold us together, like in other countries.
Still, I love our country’s diversity. I think it can (and in theory should) make us stronger, in a lot of ways. I think it could (and should) be that “shining city on the hill” model to help show the rest of the world “how it’s done,” or can be done. But that’s not what’s happening; indeed, the opposite.
Seems our familiarity and freedoms have instead bred contempt among our people. Like with our personal families, we can and have gotten “too comfortable” like that. But unlike with our families, where “kinship forgiveness” seems to have a way to survive the family discord, cultural differences tend to breed a kind of paranoia and take on the form of “otherness.”
Because we are all so different, with different values and from different ethnic backgrounds, it seems too many groups want to vie for some kind of dominance in the U.S. (or feel they must defend their perceived dominance (e.g., see Whites supremacy groups). Every group seems to aspire to get to the top of the “alpha dog” totem pole; some groups more than others. Some just want to live in peace and rather not get involved; at least for the moment, until they one day may have the numbers to back themselves. In the meantime, they are just happy/grateful to be here to enjoy our cornucopia.
Personally, I think that alpha dog dominance is a lot of what the MAGA movement is about. They call it Make America Great Again, but what they really mean is, Make American WASP-y Again… because they feel they are “losing dominance control.” That’s what all the hullabaloo is about with illegal immigration. And, don’t get me wrong. I agree there has to be some kind of immigration controls. I understand that too.
Okay, now for the questions:
Do you agree that America has become a fractured society in the ways I’ve mentioned? If you disagree, give your reasoning.
As Adam Yoksas surmised, is the Constitution now the only “glue” that holds us together?
What can make the U.S. an e pluribus unum (“out of many, one”) country again? What is it going to take?
I had suggested mandatory paid community service of some kind, say two years right out of high school, and not many here agreed with that. They didn’t like the idea of the government controlling people in that way (even though I think it would be for our own long-term good).
Is some sort of innate “human decency” a contender for bringing the US together? Or is that kind of caring/compassion a thing of the past? Or has paranoia and suspicion taken over a majority of us and we can’t trust anyone anymore. Has human decency reached a low point of no return, thanks to distrust and paranoia?
[Your e pluribus unum suggestion(s) here]
Is the true (root) problem here that “division is just the nature of diversity?” In other words, a built-in problem/condition that’s never going away?
Take your time and think about it, even into the weekend. 😉😁
(by PrimalSoup)
