I find it incredibly interesting how American citizens are molded from a young age. How and why they stand for or against a certain topic then calculating why they believe that based on history or their early environment. We all our products of our environment. A simple example is Christianity in America. Surveys suggest that roughly 92% of Americans identify themselves with the religion. Every once in a while I will ask one if their family growing up was religious (not always). Then I ask do they think they would be a Christian if they were born in another country where a different type of religion was more popular such as Buddhism in Cambodia (95%) … they of course say no and that they would still be Christians. The reality is that our environment plays a huge impact of what we are. We all start out as products of our genes, food and growth is provided by our environment, experience is learned through events, parents help guide us, then opportunities for decisions. Some we have control over and others we don’t. We all are hardwired with certain things like fight or flight.
I was talking with a guy and some of his friends I met at the Ram Restaurant recently. He has given up on American and has made the decision to leave it all behind and move to Ecuador. I found the topic interesting because I personally have considered doing a “World Tour” myself. However, he was done with it here and made the decision already. He wasn’t going for a few months – he was going forever. Upon hearing the plans his friends asked him, “what about the stability of the country?” He replied, “you mean the stability of a country whose banks don’t do horrible loans or invest is derivatives? “You mean the stability of a country where the general population has the courage to march in the streets to make a change or throw out all the corrupt officials out of office?”
I couldn’t help but laugh a little on the inside because he was exactly right. In America, our citizens have been molded to believe in staying inside political boundaries “protest zones/areas”. Most Americans through complacency are cowards to political activism. To make a real change we are to believe that your vote really matters and emailing their Senator several times a year can help. In America, marching down the street in a large crowd is viewed by many uncivilized and even unpatriotic.
The example above about protesting is just one of many topics Americans think differently about. It’s concerning how much power the media has on all of us. It reaches into all our homes and pursueds the young or old through the years. There isn’t a king, pope, or general who can even compare to the few dozen who control the information and ultimately we make decisions on. So many American do not even see it. They completely fail to realize that they are being manipulated.
For many years now I have been educating myself of what other countries think of Americans. Some countries are good, however, most are bad. We are viewed as egotistical, flag worshipers, greedy, thinking the US is the center of the World, vain, & loud. Many view us as being to over the top with our own nationalism (we are the best talk). I can’t blame them this is what we hear all the time. There is a constant voice in the media that we are the best. “America The Beautiful” type.
Why are we so committed to believe this type of media or perfect citizenship. Is it our environment or we simply don’t know better because that is all we hear and know. The truth is many do believe and will continue that hardcore commitment in believing we are the very best. Even though when compared to others countries we simply are not. Our education system is ranked at the bottom, our leaders are corrupt, we have lost our status of a Wold Leader by many. What about our freedom? Gay marriage is not allowed, drinking age is higher than many countries, drugs are viewed as a crime where other countries have monetized it and using it to help people medically. We owe more money then money we have in circulation available, our culture is a blend of everyone else’s so we don’t have the best as its a mash up, we have no real plan to spend less, and finally all politicians are bribed and bent to their opinions based on who has paid them.
So are you molded to be the perfect American citizen?
