American Neurosis

JemyM said:

I saw a 3 part video analysing the American culture and I wanted someones opinion on it but I didn't want to create a new thread. Since this thread is off-topic anyway I can as well post it here;

American Neurosis - A Cultural Analysis
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Jemy was too lazy to create a new thread for this, but my reply ended being bit too long to post as quick offtopic post.

That's a very interesting opinion of the American way of Life or rather the American Dream. I think it's worth recognizing the opinion is of an Australian, so the narrator is more or less viewing the topic how he perceives Americans rather than being one. It would be interesting to hear how Americans view the topic.

*cough* *cough* *pokes* dte and magarette *cough*

That said my opinions are pretty clueless to what kind of creatures Americans really are, but I might as well comment some the contents in the vid.

The comparison in attitudes towards celebrities in US and EU was slightly amusing. I certainly don't consider the celebrities here in EU any kind of aristocracy and I don't aspire to be like most of them. Maybe that still proves the point of the narrator in my case, when he said people in EU don't aspire to achieve the same as celebrities in similar magnitude. However I'm sure there exists people on this side of the pond just as well who would love to be like the celebs. Whether they are adults who seriously think so or just kids/childminded is not known to me.

The explanation that failure just like success is earned by an individual really reminded me of karma. Especially when they started talking of religion and preachers. In countries where the differences between rich and poor are very stark, a social norm or wide spread sentiment like that is probably needed to keep the poor from rebelling against the rest of the society.

I'm doubtful if the majority of Americans really are attention seeking babies and constantly envious to their neighbours. The explanation seemed reasonable, but it felt something that is only cooked inside one person's head. One would think in all that freedom a person would rather neglect social norms and just be themselves than constantly peer over the fence what their neighbor is doing. Ofcourse, that was the point the narrator was trying to make, total equality causes slavery. Interesting way to put it really.

I am a Swede, but I have seen the American culture invading Swedish culture for awhile now, so much that many Swedes takes that way of thinking without ever questioning it.

A while ago I listened through The Teaching Company's lecture "Freedom - The Philosophy of Liberation" with Dennis Dalton. That was the first time I was awakened by the fact that political freedom doesn't neccessary make an individual free. We are always pulled by forces beyond our control. Dalton introduced the idea of personal freedom by talking about Gandhi and breaking the chains of fear. Fear is a very strong emotion that can easily be used to enslave a person. Guilt is another.
Psychology deals with forces we have by nature that can drag us down unless someone is stopping us.

How many drug addicts secretly wish for someone to stop them?
How many obese people secretly wish for someone to stop them?
How many addicts of anything secretly wish for someone to stop them? To set them free?

Then there is this idea about not feeling free due to rampart cultural expectations.

I ran into buddhism, which central idea is that you feel more free the less you crave. This is the direct opposite of rampart commercialism. I decided to make that idea my own. To conquer rather than embracing your natural cravings is the central idea in many religions. It's displayed in the last commandment in judaism. It's displayed in Ramadan in Islam. It's displayed by Jesus antimaterialist thoughts in Christianity. Greed is one of the deadly sins. Learning to conquer your cravings is an important idea in hinduism.

After I learned this simple fact that it is ok to say "No, I do not need this", I have felt more free. Less anxious. I have survived with very little money, but I have also begun to see more value in other things such as knowledge. Knowledge allows me to get more out of my life. To see more. I enjoy every minute of it.


Beyond the topic about freedom, there is the lack of attention to build something greater than yourself. It seems to me that few Americans are interested to make any cultural progress or to actually build a better society. Or maybe that's what Obama is all about? Indeed, if you wasted your entire lifetime, doing nothing that contributed to humanity, your life had no value. The form of sucess that part #3 is about leaves nothing for humanity. If everyone within the culture is fooled into chasing a such "sucess", it's a culture that breeds useless people.

I don't know that I can dispute his observations, but I don't think they're uniquely American, nor even predominantly American. It seems that his solution is a rigid caste society where everyone knows their lot in life from day 1, so there is no need to aspire or covet. Finally, I'm not sure I'd want to be a part of a society that glorifies "good enough" like the author seems to endorse.