America Has An America Problem
Growing up in Eastern Europe meant for me growing up in a culture with an ever-present sense that the United States were… different. That the nation had cultural, economic and political importance that no other had; that it was somehow unique, no, better, even.
Each nation of the world has its own version of nationalism and its own superiority complex, but where I’m from there was a sort of unity of thought that the U.S. was unlike the rest of us. That culture, media, and even societal values, permeate from the States outwards, and that, inevitably, we all just lag behind.
And some of that thought, was, in fact, genuinely justified. Each nation is self-important, for certain, and a case can be made that each one has had its own unique contribution to mankind, but the U.S. possesses an unusual, and perhaps irreplaceable, standing in the world we inhabit, even for those of us not calling ourselves American. After all, the notion of the American dream, America’s economic power, and even its political position as a global policeman reaffirms those thoughts. And growing up, as I’m sure a lot of people can relate, I wanted to live America. To be a part of that place which somehow seemed the center of the universe, even if physically my place and my roots were thousands of kilometers (excuse me, miles) away.
It was those aspirations that first pushed me into engulfing myself in American culture, and later, to pursue a degree in American studies. But in the time between, while I was realizing those aspirations, the times have, indubitably, changed. With decades of globalization engraved on my mind, with my degree in hand, one might think that I’m more inclined than ever to pursue my own American dream. But if anything, the last years have made me more skeptical than ever of the validity of those foreign dreams.
One might only need a cursory look at the events of the last few years to see that things are not well in that place they call America. That a number of issues, big and small, have slowly crept up, built up and forever changed what the U.S. is to the rest of the world. Looking at the news, there is no shortage of theories for what is going on: America has a gun problem; no, America has a healthcare problem, no, it has a mental health problem; a polarization problem, an economic disparity problem, a racial problem, an immigration problem…
But perhaps the issue all along, at the root of all of the above, was not related to one particular problem — at least none listed? What if America’s true problem, along all its history, has been… America, all along?
Hold up, what might one mean by “the problem is America”? Well, I don’t mean this in any metaphorical, ideological or abstract way. I really mean it: America’s biggest issue, and the one that has fueled all the mentioned issues, has been itself. Or rather, it has been the American identity itself: what America is, to its own people, and to those outside of it. The gun issue, the mental health epidemic, the burgeoning drug abuse issues — those are all true and evident problems by itself. But at the very core of all of these sits the glaring issue: why is it always America? What makes this nation as uniquely burdened as it is uniquely powerful?
If you were a frontiersman in the eighteenth century, setting out on an uncertain westward voyage through wilderness, hostile nature, harsh terrain, and surrounded by both seemingly wild, “untamed” [a] peoples of a different complexion, culture and tongue to yours, and powers of other European nations, who, just like yours, came to the New World in the search for riches and promised wonders, you would be forgiven to think of yourself as being ‘unique’ on the scale of the world known to you. See, most colonists who came to inhabit the lands ‘discovered’ by accident in the search of a westward seaway to India, were not inherently evil, willingly making the treacherous journey to Americas in order to kill, rape and pillage.
Well, indirectly, they did. These travellers were, for the most part, opportunists, imaginaries, or, sometimes desperate peoples, either driven to poverty by the feudal or otherwise unequal economic nature of contemporary Europe, oppressed by their religion or ruling dynasties etc. What united them, more often than not, was not murderous lust or desire for domination, but the promises of the riches that this new land was believed to hold, both in the literal, physical sense, and in a more indirect way — through the opportunities it posed. These peoples were hoping to escape the life of hardship they lived in Europe or elsewhere — often unaware of the toll of hardship and torture that their willing relocation would entail for the land, the nature and the peoples who already called this place their home.
Do not get me wrong — I’m not going to justify or rationalize the actions of these peoples and the unspeakable atrocities which unfolded. But one needs to understand the context in which these things had happened in order to understand the contemporary context of the U.S. as a country. The average colonist came to the New World bearing on their shoulders risk and the threats that this journey posed. Again, this applies not to everyone — there most certainly were the greedy, the inhumane, the sadistic and the selfish among the ones who made some of the first journeys, in whose minds the New World represented not an opportunity for life more just than at home, but to make unspeakable riches, no matter the cost. That, after all, was the goal of the original Indian voyages which meant to find an alternative route to India — not for the wellbeing of any peoples, but in order to enrich those who could cut down on the journey time to an incredibly profitable land.
But your average colonist, the median of them, came not alone on a brief voyage with gold and spice on their mind — but often with their families, kin, neighbors — sacrificing what little they owned at home, throwing their lives on the line, knowing well, or at least partially, that many do not survive the voyage across the ocean, knowing the toil of work in the New World, the hardship and the self-sufficiency needed to survive, let alone thrive, in lands with no established societal comforts such as healthcare, commerce, a comprehensive justice system, or even the well-established community support of a local church. This New World would have none of the above comforts, and many came despite this fact, not because of it.
And yet, thousands would willingly choose to undertake this treacherous journey. Thousands, who felt that the seemingly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was worth all dangers. Thousands, who, fed with centuries of unscientific imaginations, half-truths, fairy tales and evangelical prophecies, lived a dream of the New World being the promise land, full to the brim with riches and opportunities; and even if not swayed with hard to rationalize mysticism of this foretold place, could easily be swayed by conmen and salespersons, eager to profit what little coin they could get from selling people the idea of bettering their lives through this simple, safe and life-changing voyage, as they promised.
So then, if you were a frontiersman, a simple farmer, guild member, servant, herder, cleric… led on this journey of promise and hope to turn your life around, now thrown onto a land that seemed not only to have none of the gold and rare gems that were promised to you, but also surrounded by lands seemingly alive with hostility — be it through unknown to you nature, harsh climates or natives — and living in constant threat of raids by those ‘Indians’ who rarely viewed colonists with gratitude and appreciation, but more often as direct competition for the resources and land that they felt they had an innate, natural and ever-lasting mandate for; but also from other European settlers, whose overlords wished them to extend the power and national identity to the New World to compete with other cultures for the unbelievable promise that ownership of these new lands could grant — in this context, you, the average frontiersman whose life choices likely drove you from a life of hardship and oppression in Europe to an even harsher America — might begin to understand why you might feel yourself a part of the ‘chosen’ people, and why developing a strong sense of unity and identity in these new lands might be beneficial for you. Whether you were a poor German farmer, an oppressed Scandinavian cleric banished from their church for their progressive beliefs, an Irish merchant who lost their wares to a roaming group of bandits, or anyone in between — however your life had unfolded up until now, you were in terra nova to remake your life. And you were often surrounded by people who spoke different languages, held different religious beliefs, possessed various different skills but all felt the same hardship and the uniqueness of their American situation.
Then, as you saw fortune change with time, the colonies steadily growing, and your nation’s armies winning at land or at sea against other powers for your lands; when you compared yourself to the ‘savages’ who knew nothing of European technology and who stood no chance against your sword and firearms, and you saw them fleeing from you; and when these yet uncharted lands continued to stretch farther and farther than imagination could grasp, you would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps, you really were the chosen people given the God-promised lands; that the gold and riches were indeed just beyond the horizon. Driven by the rumors of natives clad in gold jewelry and gems [b] and discovering edible plants and spices the likes of which no one in Europe ever dreamt of, you could truly feel yourself to be one of the chosen ones; whom God’s providence saved from the brutality and decline of the Old World and delivered to the land of mythical promise.
It is this prevailing mentality which led and guided the colonists in the first decades of their inhabitation; that became the cornerstone of the resilience and drive without which survival may not have been possible. Imagine then, even more so, being a descendant of the voyagers of the British crown, who weathered the dangers, sowed the lands, razed forests and fought off understandably hostile natives, who felt themselves threatened by the arrival of these before unseen peoples wielding alien technology and riding on the back of unknown beasts. Imagine the feeling of betrayal you would have felt as the same nation that sponsored your resettlement, who birthed your long lineage of ancestors and established the ‘world empire’ which now steered the global trade, would treat you as a pawn for their own enrichment — who themselves felt no motivation to actually ‘civilize’ these new lands, to brave the dangers, but who taxed you unfairly and sought to obtain each and every penny they could from the fruits of your hard labor. Try to feel the pain of a community which lived this perpetual, daily danger and pushed ever further into an unknown continent, yet was seen as a proverbial money making machine by the crown of the very nation whose flag it proudly waved over what little civilization in had built up in America.
What would soon become United States, and at the time was referred to as the Thirteen Colonies, was birthed out of peculiar circumstances, in a peculiar land, fighting off peculiar adversities and challenges. It was, in other words, a living collective of uniqueness and resilience. It seems, in this context, almost disrespectful and derogatory, to call these peoples pretentious. But it really is the best adjective to describe them — a group of people joined together in their belief that they were special in this world of adversity. America was born in an aura of pretentiousness which kept the American Dream alive through seemingly countless difficulties.
How then did we get from this unlikely history — to the modern day, struggling, volatile, and uncertain America, where headlines like those below are nearly daily, and that so clearly distinguishes itself from the rest of the globe, so often negatively?
The uniqueness of the U.S. goes beyond just a feeling or a cultural phenomenon. It’s a very real condition, seen both in the U.S.’ influence over the world economy, politics and essentially any avenue of life, whether it be in Europe, Africa or the most remote areas of the globe. It’s seen too in maps such as these.
To unpack this convoluted web of historical connection, we need to unpack two terms first — the ‘American Dream’ and the notion of ‘American exceptionalism’.
We have already touched upon the American Dream. It’s what drove the original colonists onward the frightening journey to the new lands in pursuit of opportunity; what motivated the crowns of European titan empires to exploit every last penny from these lands, and what ultimately cost Britain control over the states; and what eventually drove millions to undertake the transatlantic voyage during the economic struggles in the pre-war and interwar periods.
And this contemporarily contested idea has become so deeply ingrained in global culture, that I am sure I did not even need to introduce it. Depending on your cultural background, you might already believe that the American Dream is dead. Scholars, both historically and in modern times, argued whether this dream was ever ‘true’, in the sense of whether it was ever truly realized for anyone. After all, the colonists failed to find the promised cities of gold and arrived to a land of as much opportunity, as savagery, brutality and strife to survive.
The immigrants who arrived to foundations of modern Americas established by the earlier colonies struggled to realize their American Dream too, arriving to a land of harsh economy and low social mobility, and were often subjected to prejudice, racism and discrimination. A considerable proportion of these immigrants came to form the economic and societal underbelly, the lower classes of the burgeoning U.S. for decades to come.
But the American Dream was very real in at least one sense — it was real in the minds of millions who came to inhabit these lands. The dream came to inspire swathes of populations from all around the globe, both in a tangible and a much more elusive way. It was real for hundreds of years for the people who risked their health, material goods, social standing, and often even lives, to come and contribute to the establishing of the U.S. as we know it. It inspired culture and arts too, where generations of artists realized their American Dreams not through their own lives, but through the fictitious exploits of their characters, famously portrayed for example by The Great Gatsby and the like.
And then there’s American exceptionalism — the set of beliefs in America’s exceptional position in the world, for some pre-destined, and for others entitling the U.S. to a position of power. Founded in various ideologies, religious doctrines, or even interpretations of history, it is what drives both my own feelings towards America at the very beginning of this text, and what drives Americans to justify what they see as a rightful leadership of their country over mankind’s matters. The belief that their land, their history, their identity and their values are exceptional on the scale of the entire world and history.
Whether granted by God, fought for with iron and blood, established in the course of the creation and development of the nation through both history and science, or even born from nothing else than pure chance or coincidence — to many, American exceptionalism gives some justification for the notion that the U.S. not only is different; but that there exists a higher reason for this difference. Some strongly believe that this exceptionalism is God-given, that this providence is the result of a divine intervention, and that America was given to the people directly by God, and its resulting uniqueness is an extension of the divine origin of the country and its people. ‘One Nation Under God’ is a real expression of this notion — it is evidence that this doctrine has deep roots in the very core of the U.S. identity and establishing values.
Others, are often inspired by the long history of the U.S. gaining its independence through violence — against nature, the original inhabitants of the land, the very nation that served as an overlord of the colonies, and later against other empires in (mostly) successful violent conflict. The ‘against all odds’ rise of a nation tracing its story from a singular ship arriving in the new world to a position of a worldwide superpower has for decades served as motivation for many a partiot. “The U.S. has to be special to have defied all these odds and come to dominate the world; the people, the land or the American identity give it power to rule the world” the believers of this origin might say.
Yet others have different justifications for their version of the origin of this exceptionalism. But its origin is not as important as how it came to influence the world for us now. I am sure that you have seen the above map, or one of countless similar before, most often used as a ‘lol America so weird’ punchline. And well, America is weird. It is unique, or might you say, exceptional. Whether you believe any of the origins of this exceptionalism is irrelevant. But there are countless factual examples of the U.S. not being like any other place, and this exceptionalism, as a fact, rather than an ideology, is something we need to acknowledge.
Sadly, in the 21st century this exceptionalism, the ‘uniqueness’ on the global scale of both the most powerful, and the most contradictory nation on the planet, has been underlined with countless examples of its negative.
Nowhere else in the highly developed world is gun violence, or even more broadly any form of random violence, so an issue of such proportion [c]. No other place presents as much wealth inequality — such incredible contrast between its poor, desolate masses, and its otherworldly wealthy few [d]. No other country incarcerates as many people per capita [e]. No other country struggles as much with opiate abuse and resulting mortality [f]. No other country has as much of a rich history of both fighting, and being overwhelmed by, rampant and violent racism [g]. No other nation has as vocal and widely publicized political infighting and controversy [h]. No other nation has the Republicans and Democrats, the Capitol riots, Trump [i]. No other country can claim anywhere as much of an impact on the global development of technology, yet at the same time lag so badly behind others [j].
All of these are genuine, tangible, and proven problems that the U.S. faces. And when it faces them, so does the rest of the world — because internal U.S. affairs are global affairs thanks to the American domination over economy, politics, and culture.
Tune into any news outlets lately and eventually you are bound to be presented some justification for why the U.S. is so alienated in these issues. Take gun violence as an example — there is no shortage of commentators ascribing these to the sheer number of guns that Americans own and their ‘gun culture’, enrooted so deeply in American ideology it has been solidified in the nation’s constitution. But America does not have the highest number of guns per capita in the world. Others say it’s the result of the racial makeup of society and its long history of racial struggle and violence. But same-race violence is just as common, and the U.S. is far from the only country in the world with a varied racial structure. Yet others might say it’s because of a mental health pandemic embroiling the nation. But studies suggest that mental health is on a decline worldwide, and some statistical indicators even suggest that other countries have it much worse.
Dissect any ‘hot topic’ that the U.S. struggles with, and you’ll find a familiar multiplicity of commonly thrown around reasonings behind them. And yet, for each one, an argument can be made against those common explanations; an argument that ultimately proves that, in a vacuum, it cannot by itself be the root cause of all these problems. Except for maybe one: that the American identity is the link between them all.
Perhaps these issues are just what happens when so much power is concentrated in the hands of so few; when a country gets so massive, so powerful and so alienated in its position in the world, that the natural result is uncontrollable internal struggles. And then, one might say, the U.S. is not even that unique anymore — in population it has been surpassed decades ago; economically it still clings on as the leading power, if only by a thread, and technologically, it has been under constant and real threat from the combined powers of the European Union, China, and lately even India.
There is, however, one commonality between these issues. One factor connecting all of them at once — the nation where they take place. The people who make up the nation and the beliefs they share. The American identity that drives their very real belief that they are unique even in the problems that build them — and in return, that their problems also drive their nation apart from all others.
In setting itself as a unique entity in the world, the U.S. has, in a way, automatically rejected what solutions work elsewhere. It has produced a society of as many homegrown solutions as homegrown problems. A society that is often willing to forego logic and facts in favor of upholding the vision of the States as invincible and irreplaceable, unable to be bested or taught by others.
The subtle ways that this manifests in are too many and too complex to list off; after all, I don’t mean to create an image of a country so self-obsessed and self-important it barely seems capable of seeing the world outside its borders and acknowledging that its problems are real [k]. That’s the true problem of the American exceptionalism — it is often so deeply and invisibly rooted in the consciousness of people — both in and outside of America — that it can be hard to isolate from the discourse taking place. But when one sees the stats of gun-related violence, mass incarceration, the availability and the price of healthcare, and the Grim Reaper hold of the opiates industry over the nation, as just a few examples, one might notice the aura of superiority and the logical fallacies which many use to justify that these are indeed problems, but that the American way is, after all, better.
From early-stage education, through the American media and culture, to the daily life of an average Joe, American identity goes deep. It permeates the thought process and the approach towards the many crises that the nation is going through. And just as a British frontiersman in the New World might have adapted an us against the world attitude as a survival strategy, so to this day it contributes to the way of life of Americans — and the justification of its defiance to face its challenges.
Whether it is unwillingness to let go of its gun culture in fear of staining its history of freedom through violence, the inability to address its wealth inequality due to the nation being built on capitalist and entrepreneuring foundations, or the fear of reigning in its rampant polarization and bipartisanship as to not disturb its clearly flourishing freedom of speech (which somehow favors the same two political sides over the past century) [l] — the American identity sooner or later becomes a central point of discussion around these topics, whether the interlocutors are aware of, or not.
After all, just ask an American if they favor switching to metric — and watch the American in them flail and stumble in their words as their fatherland was just directly assaulted. [m]
Appendix
[a] — I sincerely hope that all readers understand that all these passages are written ‘in character’ and are not reflective of my own thoughts — but rather illustrate the thought process of the characters presented. But just to be safe, I tried to be very clear in formatting to note that these are indeed not my racist remarks.
[b] — The topic of search for gold in Americas is often associated with El Dorado and the Spanish conquistadors, but presence of gold jewelry was noted in journals even of the earliest Colombian voyages, and the crown of Spain felt inclined to finance these journeys even more so once learning about the potential for gold, even before there was widespread understanding that Columbus did not, indeed, reach India. I recommend one of the many writings chronicling this early history of search for gold in Americas such as this one.
[c] — “U.S. cities rank among the top 50 globally for highest murder rates, unique among developed countries.” — https://www.statista.com/topics/1750/violent-crime-in-the-us/#topicOverview. “In 2017, firearms killed 39,773 people and traffic deaths killed 38,659; in 2016, firearms killed 38,658 and traffic deaths totaled 38,748. Other figures also paint a stark reality of the uniquely American threat. People in the U.S. are 25 times more likely to die from gun homicide than people in other wealthy countries, a 2016 study in the American Journal of Medicine found.” — https://time.com/5476998/risk-of-guns-america/, Complete statistics on global violent crime — https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/Booklet1.pdf/.
[d] — https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/
[e] — In the developed world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
[f] — “In the United States of America (USA) the number of people dying from opioid overdose increased by 120% between 2010 and 2018, and two-thirds of opioid-related overdose deaths in 2018 in the USA involved synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and its analogues.” — https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/opioid-overdose
[g] — There aren’t too many studies comparing racial violence across developed nations of the world currently, but a comprehensive outlook of the issue can be found in papers such as these: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8850294/
[h] — https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/trust/archive/winter-2021/america-is-exceptional-in-its-political-divide, https://www.brown.edu/news/2020-01-21/polarization
[i] — No source needed‽
[j] — This again is a very broad topic for which a single source does not fully satiate the topic; while few could agree the U.S. isn’t on the cutting edge of technology in many ways, this area is greatly intermixed with the economic disparity of the country. But one might only look at the history of space exploration, and how poorly NASA has been treated over the decades since the moonshot to visualize my point.
[k] — Though, writing these sentences, I had vivid visuals of American flags flown everywhere and July 4th fireworks blasting in the air so… honestly, it might be entirely accurate. /s
[l] — For how democracy-loving the U.S. is, isn’t it ironic that it is also one of the most strongly bi-partisan and polarized nations in the democratic West, wherein the Democrats and Republicans themselves have essentially become an integral and irreplaceable part of its political landscape so ingrained in history they might as well become constitutionally mandated? Maybe I’m just bitter about how they did my beloved third parties dirty.
[m] — I mean this in an entirely humoristic way, though opposition to the metric system will never ever cease to amaze me as the most futile and illogical stance dictated by nothing at all than laziness and national pride in the entire world.
