The Truth and the USA
Jul 22, 23:27
What is "American"? Evidently I am. I have to be, since I'm not really anything else, and I do live in a country that goes by that name. The United States of America: Everyone's favorite good and bad guy.
I don't think I could define "American" very accurately. I can't even define myself. As I move forward in time and try to grasp exactly who I am, I find it important to discover where I am from, what it means to be from that place and live inside it. Except I can't answer any of these inquiries. Some I have a hazy concept of, perhaps knowledge of which direction I could stumble in to find out a little more, but that is all. It's hard to define anything without a place to start from, and even if I had one, I don't think it would be of much help.
There are a few fundimental mentalities that I experience that may or may not be fairly common.
- I feel for the most part outside of the 'general public', isolated by my impartiality to many of its perceived concepts of existence.
- I have no interest in formality, at least the type that is forced and smothering.
- I do not feel comfortable when attention is called to my appearance.
Ideologies are not all of what makes a culture what it is. It is also based on history. Being an American, I feel that I have very few important customs remaining. Compared to some of my friends with more nationality-based lifestyles, I have few guidelines to live by based on heritage. This can be see as a freedom from years of hand-me-down abuses, and I think that it is definately an opportunity; however, sometimes I feel a little left out. Sometimes I'm asked where I'm from, meaning what nationalities I have I descended from. I reply with the usual: Generic English/European, all while thinking that I don't really relate to any other nationality because of a lack of exposure. Perhaps it is a gift, since the I'd rather not be judged by my lineage.
Of the few festivities that I do take part in, there are many ideas, rules, and traditions I feel I could happily live without. In any formal religious situation I feel out of place. I don't believe in religion or greater being(s) in the same ways that many others do. This is not the same as not believing; far from it, in fact. Nothing exists anywhere in such extremes. My number one gripe about religion is its inabilty to embrace other methods of thought. "You're either with us or against us." Well, in that case, I'll be waiting outside when you're all done making fools of yourselves in here.
Is the fact that something has been done a certain way really a good reason to continue doing it in the same fashion? Sometimes it is, sometimes not. The danger of dismissing social protocols is that I stand to lose even more of what slim historical reference and social grounding I have now. I'm not certain of whether that would be a loss or a gain in the end.