The Truth beyond the Stereotypes
Some love me, no matter what I do. Some hate me,
despite what I do.
Most think I am hopelessly optimistic. I am ignorant
of world affairs, an angry and violent person who
just itches to fire an AK-47. I am overly religious. And
when I am not brimming with optimism, polishing my
gun collection, or bending my knee during Sunday worship,
I buy more stuff than I need, placing it all in my
oversized home.
Who am I?
I am an American.
Thank you, God.
In the past few months I have been studying what
others in the world think of Americans, and why. Are
their perceptions fair and accurate, or no more reliable
than a Donald Trump tweet? What are the origins of
these perceptions? Let us first consider one of the most
unique American characteristics, optimism.
Assume that you are in a raft in the middle of the
ocean. You are running out of food and the sharks are
close. Who would you want as your companion? Yes, of
course, you would want an American! Among all of the
world’s people, we are the most likely to say, “Things
may look tough at the moment, but I know I can get
us out of this mess!” Consider the following vignette
from BBC America:
One thing Brits notice about Americans is
their eternal optimism; there’s nothing that
can’t be done…True story—years ago I was
on a girls’ weekend in Boston and as usual,
we were running late (this time for the Duck
Tour). Half our group was English and the
other half American and the attitude towards
trying to make the Duck Tour was hilarious.
Brits: “There’s no point in running, it’ll have
gone by now.” Americans: “No, let’s just run
and see.” And sure enough…we had more
than enough time.
Since our founding, ours has been an
optimistic land. The notion that our success
is up to us and that rewards will follow is so
ingrained in our culture that even bad economies
and horrible presidents cannot kill this
American belief. And for the most part in our
history, it has been true. Even our next generation
of leaders, the oft-maligned Millennials,
are the most optimistic of all. According
to Pew Research, nearly half of them believe
our country’s greatest years are ahead. No other
generation has come close to expressing the same
confidence in the United States, including my own.
After a day of skiing in the Austrian Alps, I returned
to the inn and spotted two beautiful women sitting
next to a warming fire. May I join you? Yes. Where are
you from? We are from Israel. You? America. The conversation
is bright and cheerful. An invitation to ski
with them was surely a few laughs away. It wasn’t.
Here’s why.
When I had signed up for the ski trip, dozens of
Georgia Power & Light engineers and a few of their
wives had done the same. In less time than it takes to
down a Budweiser in the Atlanta airport, I had already
made up my mind to ditch the, um, very Georgia group
when we arrived in Austria.
Oh, no. Keep walking. They do not. Two engineers
plop down next to me. Did someone just flush a toilet
or is that the sound of my future prospects being
whisked away? The first tells the two women he could
not locate Israel on a map. Same with me, the second
says, but if you girls could, “Give me the longitude and
latitude of your country, I could find it then. I’m good
with longitude and latitude.”
The two women stare at the two, then me. Oh, no.
Don’t lump me in with the engineers.
“You Americans are so self-centered! You only care
about your country! This conversation is insulting!”
The women leave. I stare at the engineers.
“Was it something we said?”
they wondered.
Sigh. It is true. Americans are
quite ignorant of world affairs.
In March 2009, the European
Journal of Communication
asked citizens of
Britain, Denmark, Finland,
and the U.S. to answer
questions on international affairs. Sixtyeight
percent of Danes, 75 percent of Brits, and
76 percent of Finns could identify the Taliban,
but only 58 percent of Americans could.
But statistics can be treacherous. Even as the “average
Joe” might struggle with world news, our country’s
top kids are exceptionally gifted. Our universities are
the best in the world. The brightest students from many
countries come here to study, work, and often stay.
One reason for our lack of world knowledge is that
with our vast natural resources and geographic isolation,
we have had fewer historic reasons to understand
much beyond our shores. Even when Europe needed
our help in the early days of World War II, President
Roosevelt delayed intervention, knowing most Americans
considered it “Europe’s war.”
Many in the world also believe that we Americans
are a uniquely angry and violent people. Is this true?
The facts seem incontrovertible.
In 2016, our wealthy country had the thirty-first
highest ratio of death by gun violence in the world, a
number eight times that of Canada and twenty-seven
times that of Denmark. Why the startling gaps?
For starters, our nation’s history began with a war.
But unlike European countries where kings and queens
had power long before people had a voice, American
history is different. The lands west of the Mississippi
River have been part of the United States for two centuries,
or less. In this once lawless vacuum, people needed
guns to protect their families. When government arrived,
the people elected to keep their weapons.
Unfortunately, the mass shootings of the past few
years, along with the deranged views of the National
Rifle Association, have obscured the good news: we are
becoming a less violent society.
Pew Research analysis indicates that our nation’s
gun death rate has declined by thirty percent since 1993.
According to FBI statistics on violent crimes, America is
the safest it has been since 1960, the year the FBI began
recording data. Perceptions will be slow to change in regards
to our gun violence, as they will be with another
international perception, American greed.
My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy.
I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so
greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the
United States. I want to grab all that money.
I’m going to be greedy for the United States.
Those words belong
to Donald Trump. They
are not historically consistent
with who we are
as a people or country.
According to the
2014 World Giving Index,
Americans are the
most generous people
in the world. We ranked first in the world at helping
strangers, fifth in volunteering time, ninth in donating
money. Remember Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian
dissident who survived the Soviet gulag?
The United States has long shown itself to be
the most magnanimous, the most generous
country in the world. Wherever there is a flood,
an earthquake, a fire, a natural disaster, an
epidemic, who is the first to help? The United
States. Who helps the most and unselfishly?
The United States.
Sure, we Americans are materialistic and consume
disproportionate quantities of the earth’s resources;
such is the by-product of an economic system that
has provided the greatest levels of wealth for more
of its people in the history of the world. But our inventions
in science, agriculture, and medicine, and the
charity with which we have shared our blessings, have
benefited all of the world’s people.
Throughout American history, greed, or better, the
opportunity to make more money by working harder
and smarter, has coexisted with another misunderstood
aspect of foreign perceptions, our seeming addiction
to religion.
Well, Europe, I am sorry that your religious lives
and marketplace are so uninspiring! Ours are not!
Welcome to America, a land where we adjust to suit
customer’s needs, even in religion! And because we
have a vibrant religious marketplace, charity to others
is a significant part of American culture. Without
the speed bumps of religion and some government
regulation, greed would have long ago destroyed the
American dream.
So who are we Americans? During my research
I came across the following from Zhila Gudzueva, a
university lecturer in Moscow:
I think that they are formed by an ideology.
There are no Americans as such. Because
there is no such ethnicity. But there is an
ideology that unites them all.
Perfectly put.
Americana is a monthly column highlighting the cultural and historical nuances of this land through the rich storytelling of columnist Bill Fitzpatrick, author of the books, Bottoms Up, America and Destination: India, Destiny: Unknown.