Ingrained?

According to a report in the New York Times, “Americans and Europeans stand out from the rest of the world for our sense of ourselves as individuals. We like to think of ourselves as unique, autonomous, self-motivated, self-made. As the anthropologist Clifford Geertz observed, this is a peculiar idea.” This in itself isn’t particularly shocking news. We know- or should- that the United States was founded largely on the belief in individual rights…granted by the creator.

The article, written for the Times by a professor of anthropology at Stanford University, goes on to state that “people in the rest of the world are more likely to understand themselves as interwoven with other people- as interdependent, not independent. In such social worlds your goal is to fit in and adjust yourself to others, not to stand out.”

The crux of the article, however, was a study published this past May in the  journal ‘Science’ that “ascribed these different orientations to the social worlds created by wheat farming and rice farming.”  Really. You see, rice farming is complex, requiring complex irrigation systems that affect one’s neighbors and have to be built and drained each year. “A community of rice farmers needs to work together in tightly integrated ways.

“Not wheat farmers. Wheat needs only rainfall, not irrigation. To plant and harvest it takes  half as much work as rice does, and substantially less coordination and cooperation.” The authors of the study in Science argue that over thousands of years, rice-and-wheat-growing societies developed distinctive cultures: “You do not need to farm rice yourself to inherit rice culture.”

You can see where this is going, the subtle bias towards those lovable dependent types who just want to fit in with everybody else.

In fact the article closes by noting that, “Wheat doesn’t grow everywhere. Start-ups won’t solve all our problems. A lone cowboy isn’t much good in the aftermath of a Hurricane Katrina. As we enter a season in which the values of do-it-yourself individualism are likely to dominate our Congress, it is worth remembering that this way of thinking might just be a product of the way our forefathers grew their food and not a fundamental truth about the way all humans flourish.” Wow.

If we don’t have a sense of ourselves as individuals we  possess no self-awareness and if we possess no self-awareness we can’t ponder our place in the universe, one of the defining- and endearing- traits of homo- sapiens. We get told by breathless schoolteachers that each and every snowflake is unique. Not us, though…in a perfect world. Wouldn’t want to ‘stand out’! This “peculiar idea” (why are all “peculiar ideas” nowadays the long-held, traditional Western ones?) has led to the freest, most successful society the world has ever known.

As for working hard and being able to coordinate with others in complex ways, we are the first and only country to land on the moon…and bring our astronauts safely back to Earth. Oh yeah, we did invent the assembly line and lots of other inconsequential stuff like that.

“Wheat doesn’t grow everywhere” is a moot point and almost as meaningless as “start-ups won’t solve all our problems” or “a lone cowboy isn’t much good in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.” Start-ups provide many people with jobs and are a font of creativity, a lifeblood for the economy as a whole, in addition to providing a passionate outlet for those that bring them to life. Progressivism will not solve all of our problems either, and in fact will, as always, make most of them worse.

Then there is the closing shot at the soon to be ensconced Republican Congress. I don’t see much, if any, belief in rugged individualism among any of those who will comprise the new majority. (The country has, unfortunately, moved way too far past that quaint notion, and members of Congress like to be re-elected).

Finally, those who believe in the primacy of the individual- by definition- do not typically try to tell others what to believe or how to think.

Those of us unfortunate enough to have inherited the “wheat culture” values are not supposed to want to stand out, apparently. “Stand-out performer” or ”stand-out athlete” are terms that should go the way of the word “Redskins.”

Oh, well. I often like to go against the grain.

America: Past, Present &...Future?

          I’m angry. Saddened. Frustrated. Most of all, I’m scared…for America.

          Time was when the country’s collective mindset was based on individuals pride, drive and desire to make the country a better place for (their) children. It was a positive, “can do” spirit in very tough times. If you worked hard, minded your own business, kept your own nose clean, then sooner or later you’d likely make it.

         They plowed, they planted, they mined. They stumbled, they fell, they hurt and they were tired. And still they believed. Many died. Young.

         Most never “made it big”. By today’s standards. But they brought us here. What’s more, most of those who didn’t “make it big” were content. With themselves.

         Putting in an honest day’s work, trying to see your family was clothed and fed (that’s what those 12 or 14 hour days were for), seeing the fruits of your labor, teaching your kids to respect the family, the country that gave you this chance, the land, and the labor itself. That was much of the reward.

        (It’s never been easy-certainly not before electric light, the plow, the wheel- let alone phones and computers. Who among us would like to have been a caveman…excuse me, caveperson. Now there was some easy livin’! No choice but to join in the hunt, fish and gather to survive. Don’t let the wooly mammoth gore you. This fire thing is a bit tricky, too.)

        And this group of individuals fought when they had to. For liberty. They believed that and history will record it so. They fought. And they won. Every single time they had to. None enjoyed it. It would be the worst possible experience of their lives-save one: the thought of losing their liberty, their right to see that their work paid off for themselves, their neighbors, their country.

       This collection of individuals worked and fought-and succeeded- as one whole better than any group or ‘society’ or ‘class’ or ‘system’ ever could. Because they were a collection of individuals. With individual beliefs and freedoms. 

        And one monumental set of shared beliefs. Belief in natural law and limited, republican government- of, by and for the people. And this they treasured above all else. Alone they could make a difference, together with these few shared beliefs they were insurmountable.

        These were our forefathers and mothers.

        And here we are today. The most free and affluent society in history. A large portion of us believing we’re victims. Of racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Of our neighbor (he smokes cigarettes outside and if my windows are open…!). Of the capitalist system that got us here. Of the neighbor’s dog. Of the weather (my God, the wind has just ruined my hair and I just spent $100 at the salon!). Of the police. Or big business. Exxon. BP. GM.

       We’ve won the Cold War (thank you Ronald Reagan). Much of the world is trying to throw off their shackles and trend towards a more free market economic system.

        Except us.

        What the hell happened…to us?

        “It’s not my job." “I can’t do that." “Whaddaya expect, miracles?"  “I don’t have a chance, they don’t like blacks/women/W.A.S.P.S./ fill in the blank." “I’m insulted…5 million dollars a year? You think that’s all I’m worth? I’ll go to the Dodgers, they’ll pay me what I deserve!”

        Take your basic caveman, miner, shipbuilder, soldier, etc. Picture these words coming out of their mouths. Of course it’s ludicrous. Times have changed and with them values and expectations. Especially values.

        It was they who brought us here. The Founders. The fighters. Our soldiers and inventors, our farmers and miners, among others. It is their genius and dedication, hard work and perserverance that we should celebrate on the 4^th of July. And every day.

        Could we have journeyed from neanderthal times to the moon with the current mindset? (“The world owes me, just for being alive”; there’s an 180 degree turnaround from reality, don’t you think?).

        “Who’s liable if I stub my toe or spill hot coffee on myself at a fast food restaurant? And who is going to pay for my contraception or abortion?"

        “It’s not my job”.

        There are entire groups and subgroups of people who now see themselves chiefly as victims. Some probably were.

        But it is for certain that they now are. Victims of believing those who enslave them by making them believe they are victims; and that there is nothing they can do about it except with others-read their- help. Perfect! A built-in, handy-dandy, self-perpetuating voting bloc. Self-perpetuating in that there is no way they can ever escape their present situation if they believe what these modern-day ‘liberal’ politicians tell them. 

        Life was never ‘fair’. Never will be, anywhere, anytime. It requires individuals with a work ethic, with individual beliefs and pride and thought.

        I care about people. Individuals. I don’t give a damn about races, groups, ‘classes’, etc. Each individual should be judged (gasp!) on their own merits. Any other approach, by definition, is racist, sexist or what-have-you.   I frankly dislike some African-Americans. Loathe a few women. Don’t much care for some Californians. Some white folks make me sick. Can’t stand a few men.

       But I love and cherish certain people. Black men and women. Whites. Asians, Mexicans, Italians…knowing them as individuals. I respect many more-of all walks of life-as individual human beings.

       What to be made of these ramblings?

       I care about this country (I realize I’m not the only one even among those who  disagree with me) and its amazing collection of individuals, past and present, too much to see it stagnated and poisoned by group speak, by incredibly selfish ‘victimology’, by ‘moral terrorism’ (“I’m pure because I’m a victim, but what is that man doing?"), by the rigid, intolerant, politically-correct thinking dogma, by special-interest groups, by the hypocritical, frenzied orgy of litigation and by the “I don’t have to do it, it’s not my job” mode of thinking.

       “Four score and seven years ago,” spoke Lincoln at Gettysburg, “Our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure”.

       My friends, those ‘words’ still apply. They are more pertinent now than at any time since the Civil War. I’d like to think I could make some small contribution towards seeing that, yes indeed, this proposition and this country do endure.

       And I would.

       But…it’s not my job.