Articles
The American Character - Douglas Coulter Alternative Views
by Emily John Digital Marketing Service Provider“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy
brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own
eye?” Luke 6, 41
Given the flourishing Christian life in the United States, which you would
think would lead us to strive to live up to the underlying beliefs, I find it
surprising how little Americans pay attention to Christ’s famous statement, as
Americans generally concentrate exclusively on other nationalities’
shortcomings without paying the slightest attention to our own. This
has caused enormous injustice and incalculable death and destruction.
I would like to enumerate the psychological assumptions in the American
character that living abroad for the past thirty years has enabled me to
observe from a distance. These determine our thoughts and
actions and I have observed them in myself. First, and simplest,
Americans believe that because we have “objective accounting” we are simply
better human beings than those in other countries that don’t.
Once you raise this to the surface, the weakness immediately
appears, and Americans may react with horror to the idea, but I assure you that
this assumption resides deep in the American psyche.
Second, Americans have to have control, in the literal, unambiguous,
Anglo-Saxon sense, differing substantially from the way control is achieved in
most countries of the world. If you reflect upon this for an
instant, I don’t think you will find it difficult to see evidence for this
every day in the news.
Third, Americans want to settle all questions “once and for
all.” Again, I would cite every day’s news. But what we
consider “once and for all” is not what others consider “once and for all,” and
since we always seek to do this in somebody else’s country, you would think
that they know what “once and for all” is better than we do.
Furthermore, since most of these issues have been going on for centuries, maybe
there isn’t a “once and for all.”
Also Read: - The
American Character
However, nothing has had greater consequence for the world than our moral
self-righteousness and moral self-superiority, a deep constant presence in the
American outlook. We think we have morally purer
motives than everybody else and, for this reason, know what other people should
do whether they know it or not, and are entitled, therefore, to force them to
do it. This seeps, both consciously and unconsciously, through
everything Americans say and do. We, moreover, are completely
blind to how deeply and pervasively other nations see this and resent it.
To cite an example, I occasionally conduct a class on cultural understanding
for mixed international students. The business case concerns
misunderstandings between an American and the Chinese. Normally, I
leave the students to interpret the details of the misunderstandings on their
own, but last year I decided to end by making my own views clear and described
the American character as I have just done. I have never at any
time had a more spontaneous and emotional reaction. Several very capable
Indian and Chinese women came up to me after the class with the warmest and
sincerest gratitude, thanking me for saying what they had never heard anyone
say before. I offer this as a measure of what other countries
really think about us.
Since the Korean War, moral self-righteousness and moral self-superiority have
motivated all of our wars, the Vietnamese War, Afghanistan, and Iraq, all
failures and leaving countless deaths and destruction, so that you wonder where
the justification for our moral self-righteousness and moral self-superiority
comes from.
The American
character is a little tricky to understand. If you get a chance to stay abroad
for so many years, you can truly observe these characters enjoying a macro
view.
The first thing that I noticed about my own American
Character is that because we believe in “objective counting” we are considered
at the top of the other human beings in the world.
Sponsor Ads
About Emily John 
Digital Marketing Service Provider
167 connections, 5 recommendations, 745 honor points.Joined APSense since, December 29th, 2018, From New York, United States.
Created on Mar 14th 2020 01:07. Viewed 264 times.
Comments
No comment, be the first to comment.
