My friend Johnny forwarded an article of his friend's to me.
His friend genuinely appreciates American Individualism and applauded Capitalism wholeheartedly, compared to those of his native country's practices. This event somewhat reminds me when I watched a PBS's documentary regarding a group of dissenters in North Korea. During an anonymous interview, these oppressed dissenters living along the Tumen river area, desiring to escape to China, with an envious tone, said "how wonderful China is - the human rights, the freedom of speech, and the high quality of life the Chinese people enjoy!" :)!
Surely, this event also makes you think of Albert Speer's reflection - “One seldom recognizes the devil (yes, in particular, the one either with tremendous power and/or money) when he is putting his hand on your shoulder", and how even, several Nobel Prize Laureates supported Hitler's grand plan.
It is understandable, for some newer immigrants tend to be more grateful, and adorable than the old timers - I guess :), if their native countries, for what so ever reasons, are unable to meet either basic or desirable needs of their citizens.Surely, one can list the benefits baptized by the aforementioned two Isms, and they are supposed to suscitate people in pursuing life, liberty and happiness without the annoying 1% vs. 99% issues. As to the preference, support, or the belief of certain types of ideologies, they tend to reflect an individual's upbringing, inherited cultural capitals (positive or negative), life experiences, philosophy, and perhaps, the intellectual endeavors in reflecting and self-examining.
The article expressed genuine appreciation to America, but it also gave a typical impression that individualism and capitalism are absolutely benevolent to the mass in the contemporary society, and seemingly, they came forth either effortlessly, or naturally, if not innocently. In some sense, it is nice to perceive phenomena from the bright side with a positive spirit, and some of the points might reflect part of the social facts, while others, are tapping the tip of the iceberg.
Note - What a coincidence,!! "Beautiful" was a keynote in this gentleman's writing, as mentioned, the first translator used "美" 國 (a "Beautiful" Country) to name America. It also happened to ONE of the early discoverers (such as, the Portuguese) of Taiwan.
They called her "美" 島 (Ilha "Formosa") :)! So I added two beautiful songs here to express my appreciation. Enjoy!
I responded with the following messages in a neutral and chatty tone - nothing academic :)!
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Just read your article. Thanks for sharing.
Knowing where people came from - is very important to unveil "certain" types of ideological constraints. The following messages could be my own constraints:
America is a great, "exceptionally" young country - surely greater than China or Taiwan in some sense, otherwise, for example, I might not have had the opportunity to jump out the role of just being, such as a 女丘八 去"寶衛國家" - in Taiwan, while here, I am luckily enough to be able to teach at the college and universities :)!). (Could it be that Taiwanese students were too smart, or something else :P! - just kidding!)
Who would deny some of her greatness? That's could be one of the reasons why so many people still want to come to the United States of America? Thanks for a scholarship, I was able to come to the United States to experience a portion of her greatness :)! But before sharing my admiration and appreciation to America , let's review some historical events that still have impact on today's reality.
Isn't it nicer to see the current success from the less complex facade, or taunted by the mischievous "Least Effort Principle" that manipulates our perception to see what is easy to watch? Who would feel good if imposed with the unpleasant messages of the past of 150 year's slavery (7/24 hours free labors), the "aroused negative emotion" of 200 years' occupying the Native American's lands? (Note - this part of history was similar to Japan's erasing the 南京大屠殺- the Nanjing Massacre, and KMT's 臺灣228-the Formosan/Taiwan Massacre). Surely, so what, why grudging and whining about the past, don't you know "history is mystery??" Yep, wake up! It is time to move on!! Indeed, a proper History can cause forgiving, but, may not be the Forgetting.
Others, such as the sophisticated individual/institutional racism, the open-secret of the world's biggest weaponry exporting country, the suppressing of Labor movements (yes, grab the poor Peter to the rich and powerful Paul - to baby and to nurture the very SUCCESSFUL CAPITALISM which is one of the major founding fathers of the perpetuated affluenza and social inequality), the great usage of the Waves and Waves of inexpensive, submissive High-end and Low-end immigrants/fluid labor forces, as well as the rest of quite a long history of events (compared to China's, just a tiny potato) you don't want, or have no time to read about... Fairly speaking, part of the above intentional or unintentional, necessary or unnecessary practices do make America great with a common sense of recognizing that there is no perfect society. So laugh if off!
Fortunately, the self-corrective mechanism generated by the collective actions via the long term conscious and conscientious formation and awareness of the American People, many reparations and socio-economic policies have been underway.
The other observation that I would like to point it out is that it is a good strategy to put the hero/successful people on the pedestal as role models for people to look up to. Nevertheless, we people may be likely to commit a logic fallacy - legitimizing or supporting the unexamined social reality by using the outliers or small extraordinary people to be the tokens or exemplars to reinforce the Horatio Alger's myth - as mentioned (quoted from the article) " 個人英雄遍地都是。你看政壇上，從奧地利來的移民阿諾．史瓦辛格，他說帶著濃重口音的英語，不僅可以成為好萊塢的明星，還可以當上美國最大州的州長。再看當上美國總統的奧巴馬，他父親是肯尼亞的黑人，他在毫無背景的白人母親家庭長大，居然可以成為最有權力的白宮的主人"。It is nice to look at things from the positive light and recognize and admire individual’s efforts and success. Nevertheless, without a nurturing, COLLECTIVELY well-established socio-economic environment built by some renowned and the ENORMOUSLY UNKNOWN-general-population of heroes and heroines, a genius could be buried alive. How many Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, Michael Jordan are in America? Only one of each!!! -compared to 300 million of population. Can you imagine they were born into a poverty stricken, disease and corruption infested regime, or other less democratic societies? The COLLECTIVE efforts and contribution to this country pave the way for some people to reach their potential, while majority did/do not due to myriad factors.
Thus, individual/individualism could be a Necessary Requirement, but might not be the Sufficient Condition to make success happen. By the way, President Obama's father attended Harvard, a social elite in his own country, and his mother held a Ph.D. in Anthropology. Furthermore, he might not be so much as a African-American as his wife (see the note below). As to the mentioned 史瓦辛格, yes, obviously, he worked hard and was famous before marrying into the America’s Blue-Blood Kennedy family to bid his political fortune. Yep, I enjoyed watching a couple of his movies. These could be just tiny illustrations to explain why it takes a whole village to raise a child to become somebody, in addition to his/her personality traits, ambition, luck, and endeavors, unless s/he is a outlier type of resilient, such as Jesus Christ, Alha, Siddhartha Gautama and the like.
Note: there was a joke going on (made up by some funny folk??): " One day President Obama and his wife visited an extravagant restaurant. The owner of the restaurant came to greet the couple and conversed with Michelle joyfully", since the owner and Michelle were high school classmates. Later, President Obama jokingly chatted with Michelle, "if you had married to him, you would be the Madame of the Restaurant..." Without a second thought, Michelle answered " Then you would not have been the President". :D!
Indeed, America’s vivacity, joie de vivre, and capacity inspire and provide more opportunities for several types of social mobility to "different categories" of various Waves of immigrant than those of any other countries. But, ignoring the essential ideas of capitals (i.e., natural, man-made, positive, negative, accumulative, and diminishing etc.), for example, the different human capitals, in particular, the cultural capitals, e.g., inter-generational pass-on, which separates vast social classes, (see attached photo) is a major confounding buy-in myth to many people, even "scholars".
As one of your articles pointed out, if one were not STRONG or TOUGH enough, America would not be one's wild jungle to shine! How many people are so luckily to be strong and tough (such as, like you, or a very very lucky me who has been trying very hard to be strong like you:)!) having more opportunities than that of other less fortunate, less privileged, less advantaged people? Nevertheless, America, in the late 18th to 19th century, indeed, demanded the huge amount of strong and tough people to fight against England's suppression and domination. Luckily, she succeeded to attract the free and brave people to construct a new country. Individualism is the necessary formation and incentives supported by Religion and to sustain the Capitalism like 如虎添翼. It suffices to say, America's being a world super power less than a century, the American type of Capitalism played a dominant role to accumulate all Sorts of capitals converted into power, wealth and status. However, without exception, the complexity behind the success has different stories.
As aforementioned, individualism and American style of Capitalism did bring forth glories, in particular, the material and military success. Especially the practice of the RULE of LAW makes what America is about. You might be familiar that before the 16th Amendment, 1913, all the early business tycoons such as, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt ... etc big families and the mega business-industrial-complex paid no taxes and profited from the poor working mass with little or no social programs to meet the worker's needs. The old time triumphs harvested from the mass now bring up many socio-psychological-Economic problems, Such as the deep-rooted racial, Gender, Class Inequality, and the rest.
But you might also know how much the cost she has been paying over time to deal with all kinds of hidden problems? I don't have data at hand, but for example, approximately, now the world 75% of anti-depressant drugs are consumed by Americans. Surely, this is just only an anecdote of many other issues. There are many other complex issues, just like those of any other countries, but in different levels of severity, which I addressed in my Social Problems class a while ago.
Fortunately, the vitality of this country built on waves of new blood from different types of immigrants since the beginning of 17th century, if you count from the very year of 1607 A.D., and the strict law abiding of the “general population” (yes, 刑不上大夫, like old China, still exists) give her new energy and vision to move on. Yes, she has to be strong!
Having said so, I respect and appreciate some of the US' greatness that inspires me to do good. Otherwise, I have no way to jot down these passages without worrying about the consequences :D!
There is no perfect society nor ideal socio-economic system - just in different gradation. Some countries due to the abundance of natural and human resources in sync, have been doing better, while others, burdened by the geo-econo-historical road-blocks and tragedies, might have been crawling behind.
But, enforcing Darwinism into Social Darwinism and perceiving with clear-cut ideologies across the wide spectrum between Capitalism and Socialism is quite intriguing to me.
In a nut shell, a genuine "patriotism" is not to glorify or to be complacent to the ready-made success, but is willingly to self-police and be critical (not cynical) to envision - either to one's native or adoptive country for a better future, not just for a small privileged/elite group's contents. Would it be one the reasons why 忠言逆耳, 諫臣難為?
Just jotted down some personal biases. Penny for your thoughts.
