from the outside looking in

While sorting out papers in preparation for my big move, I found some documents that I was supposed to have read before my Fulbright year. Scanning the titles, I almost threw away “The Values Americans Live By” by L. Robert Kohls, but this sentence caught my eye, “Although Americans may think of themselves as being more varied and unpredictable than they actually are, it is significant that they think they are.” As I had recently been mulling over the predicament I find myself in when I am forced to explain what is “American” to Japanese people, I thought this essay might prove to be interesting. And it was. Some points that struck a chord with me -

“Americans seem to be challenged, even compelled, to do, by one means or another (and often at great cost), what seven-eighths of the world is certain cannot be done.”

“Americans think they are more individualistic in their thoughts and actions than, in fact, they are. They resist being thought of as representatives of a homogeneous group, whatever the group. They may, and do, join groups…but somehow believe they’re just a little different, just a little unique, just a little special, from other members of the same group.”

“Valuing the future and the improvements Americans are sure the future will bring means that they devalue the past and are, to a large extent, unconscious of the present.”

“Americans would like to think that their material objects are just the natural benefits that always result from hard work and serious intent - a reward, they think, that all people could enjoy were they as industrious and hard-working as Americans.”

Discuss.