American way of life. The American dream

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Starting somewhere in the 70s of the last century, elements of American culture slowly began to seep into the USSR, and this despite the "Iron Curtain". Gradually, a kind of bright image of the United States of America was cultivated among the youth in the country. Several generations of young Soviet people in the 1970s and 1990s adopted the American way of life, fashion, style, music, and ideology. They thought the US was very cool. Many dreamed of moving there, because there is freedom, democracy, the opportunity for self-expression and other delights of life.

Standard of the American way of life

What is so special about the US? Why do many people around the world still believe that this country is perfect? The concept of "American way of life" has become an ideological cliché. And for good reason. After all, the media painted a picture of a state of abundance, universal prosperity, freedom and opportunity. It is believed that the way of life of American people is very active and dynamic, they are businesslike and determined.

Mandatory attributes of any self-respecting American are:a car, loans, a two-story house in the outskirts of the city. And, of course, how can one do without liberal democracy and religious pluralism?! Regardless of social status and origin, everyone is equal before the law, at least that's what the propaganda of the American way of life sounds like. In general, everything that every self-respecting person should strive for, and in America it is very easy and simple to get it.

How the American Dream began

During the Great Depression in the United States, James Adams wrote the treatise "The Epic of America", where for the first time such a phrase as "the American dream" was mentioned. He imagined the States as a state in which everyone can get what they deserve, and the life of any person will become better, fuller and richer. Since then, the phrase has taken root and has been used not only in a serious, but also in an ironic sense. At the same time, the very meaning of the American dream is vague and has no clear boundaries. And it is unlikely to ever be clearly defined. After all, everyone puts their own meaning in this concept, and this makes the American dream even more attractive. Also, this concept is very closely related to immigrants from other countries, where often there is not such an extensive individual freedom as it is promoted in the States. It is believed that it is in America that one can achieve success in life through hard independent work.

What is its essence?

The American Dream is a dream of a beautiful life, and above all of we alth. In Europe, for example, there was a fairly clearclass distinction, for many people to achieve prosperity was simply beyond reality. The states were the country where for the first time individual entrepreneurship was so developed that everyone could achieve material well-being. And the dream has become the goal of millions of people in pursuit of getting rich quick.

The colonists of North America in the 18th century realized very quickly the limitless possibilities offered by this new continent. In their communities, the hard work of a person for his own enrichment became a virtue, while, naturally, it was necessary to donate to the needs of the community itself. On the contrary, poverty was known as a vice, since only an insolvent, weak-willed and spineless person could not achieve anything with those unlimited opportunities that the new continent gave. Such people were not respected.

Thus, there was a formation of a way of life based on material goods. It was a new morality, a new religion, where success became a sign of God's love. The 19th century was a milestone in the mass emigration of desperate hunters for fortune from the countries of the Old World to the new world, where there was still no culture and civilization, but unlimited opportunities were provided for obtaining we alth. For these people, the main values of life were material goods, and not moral, cultural and spiritual development. Accordingly, what other vector of development, besides capitalism, could these settlers give to future generations of Americans?

This is how a new way of human life was created

If in Europe we alth and property were inherited or the struggle for themwas conducted only within the privileged class, then in America they became available to absolutely everyone. There was fierce competition, as there were millions of applicants. In turn, this unbridled passion for the accumulation of we alth has led to an incredible greed that has gripped American society. Due to the fact that it consisted of emigrants from all possible countries, representatives of various nationalities, religions and cultures, it turned out just an incredible symbiosis.

America provided free access to enrichment to absolutely everyone indiscriminately, which gave rise to fierce competition and prudent pragmatism of the population, which was simply necessary for survival. The United States created its traditions from diverse and unusual realities, fusing them into something new.

Incredible combinations

America is a land of incredible contrasts. So, at least, back in 1890, Bedekker, a well-known travel guide from England, commented on it. It did not just coexist, but coexisted with phenomena that were opposite in nature: ardent religiosity and a materialistic worldview, participation and indifference to others, good breeding and aggressiveness, honest work and a passion for manipulation, respect for the law and rampant crime, individualism and conformism. All this was bizarrely combined and organically woven into the new American way of life.

Actually, conformism has become one of the foundations of this lifestyle. Since America did not yet have a strong state that would, with the help of public structures,social institutions and established traditions were able to organize and streamline the entire motley crowd of migrants, conformism became the only possible form of survival. In the United States, the creation of all public institutions began from scratch, from scratch, and, having no support from the past, citizens took the only course convenient for them - economic. Humanism, culture, religion - everything was subordinated to the new system of values, where monetary units and shares played the leading role. Human happiness has become measured only by the number of banknotes.

Country of idealists and dreamers

At least that's what President Coolidge called America. After all, this is a country where every worker can become a millionaire, because he has a dream. And it doesn’t matter at all that everyone cannot be millionaires, the main thing is to believe, dream and strive for it. And no one is going to debunk this myth, because the value of a person in the States was directly proportional to the bank account of its owner. As time went on, the top-level limit moved further and further: hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions, billions. Because the achievement of a dream is a collapse of the system, a stop that is not permissible. You just need to move forward. In this, perhaps, the American way of life is similar to the communist one.

USA and USSR: similarities and differences

Despite the fact that the Soviet way of life was radically different from the American one, there was still something in common in two such dissimilar countries. Oddly enough, but the desire for the growth of material values wasthe common goal of both the American and Soviet dreams. The only difference was that for America the end in itself is individual enrichment, while for the Union it is collective, universal material well-being. But in both cases, the idea was based on progress - non-stop industrial development, movement for the sake of movement.

To promote progress, the conditions of life are constantly changing, and a person must constantly adapt to new and new realities. To do this, he must work, and thus work has become tantamount to freedom. Work became even a kind of religion, because one who was nobody could become everything. Such propaganda was carried out both in the Soviet Union and in the United States of America.

If earlier a peasant, cultivating his land, could provide himself with everything necessary, then as a result of industrialization he became completely dependent on the state, and he had to sell himself on the labor market. Thanks to labor, discipline and self-organization were developed, which brought society closer to absolute order, which was a utopian ideal. Any work was for the benefit of the economy, which became an instrument of control. The one dollar banknote bears the symbolic inscription "New Order Forever", which perfectly characterizes the position of the United States in world politics.

Freedom, equality and …?

At one time the slogan of the French Revolution was "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". Something that in all ages has been the ultimate dream of any society. In its Declaration of Independence Americaputs forward almost the same theses, but instead of brotherhood, the “Right to seek happiness” is indicated. A unique and interesting interpretation. But is everything so idealistic and transparent?

If for European states a person with his personal qualities was in the first place, then here the equality of all people comes to the fore, regardless of cultural and spiritual development. Freedom turns out to be the right to participate in competition, and equality means equal opportunities for the development of entrepreneurship. Well, the “right to seek happiness” speaks for itself. Personality, fortitude, cultural development and other benefactors in this society are not needed and not important, there is only one concept of strength - this is the economy, which subjugates all spheres of human life and the state.

Mass character as the basic principle of a new way of life

Thanks to individual entrepreneurship, America has turned from an agrarian country into an industrial one. Handicraft labor has sunk into the past, and mass production of consumer goods has begun. The population became part of a huge economic machine. People became consumers, material goods began to come to the fore, of which there were more and more. But all the actual reins of government ended up in the hands of the owners of large concerns and corporations, who dictated the conditions of life for the whole country, and not only. They were eventually able to spread their influence over much of the world.

The economic elite began to subjugate and control society. For the most part, people from the lower classes of society, far from high culture, from spiritual development and enlightenment, were at the helm. Yes, and the American people consisted of ordinary people, so the culture of the United States began its development from market spectacles. As a result, she conquered the whole world. Its principle was that culture became a part of leisure, recreation for a working person who, after hard working days, needed to relax. This is the way of life of a modern person even now, and not only in America.

High and thin matter clearly could not contribute to this type of recreation. Therefore, the mass culture of the United States corresponded to the goals of the American economy. As a result, a person's way of life was established, in which he lost his spiritual values, completely dissolving in the material world, becoming only a cog in an incredible economic machine.

Typical American family

What, in the usual sense, is the model of the American family, so zealously imposed by American cinema? This is a business father who works in a reputable company, a housewife mother who arranges barbecues for neighbors on Saturdays and makes sandwiches for her two teenage children for school. They always have a big and beautiful two-story house, a dog and a swimming pool in the backyard. And also a large garage, because each family member has his own car. But this is just a beautiful picture, which is diligently treated to gullible viewers from different countries, and even the States themselves. This is how only a small section of the population lives. Hugepart of Americans cannot afford to buy he althy food, so they eat low-quality fast food, due to this, America ranks first in the world in the number of obese people. This problem is also facilitated by the fact that the lifestyle of modern man in America is mostly sedentary.

Some have a sedentary job, after which they spend time either in a bar or in front of the TV at home on the couch. Others fall into another extreme - the pursuit of ideal beauty. Therefore, the beauty industry is so developed in America, which promotes the image of an ideal woman from glossy magazine covers. All conditions are being created for ladies, young and old, to pour huge amounts of money into achieving these standards.

It was also the United States that launched the technology race in the entertainment industry. More and more new gadgets are constantly coming out, which are especially interesting for young people. In pursuit of fashionable innovations in all areas, whether it be cars, computers, players, smartphones, clothes, shoes, accessories and other attributes of modernity, the lifestyle of American teenagers is being formed. The system is designed in such a way that everything becomes obsolete very quickly. To be successful, fashionable and popular, you need to constantly acquire everything new. As mentioned earlier, progress never stands still. And now humanity is beginning to see the fruits of its mindless unlimited consumption, only, unfortunately, the system does not care.