A bit of information about the formation of the individual and national consciousness of people in the U.S.
Sorry for length, but this is mostly for people who are not “United Staters.” :))
We all know that the US was settled by people who had already rejected religious and political persecution. My own Polish great grandfather, when the Germans who had taken over the part of Poland they were in, toward the end of the 18th century, wanted to conscript the boys into the German army and only allow German to be used in the schools, said “hell no” and sent my grandfather and his older sister, 17 and 18 at the time, across the ocean in the middle of a harrowing storm, to find a home for their parents and the rest of their 10 siblings. Imagine that!
They worked in the mines in Illinois until they had enough money to rent farms. My husband’s German parents, fleeing the fury of Stalin in Ukraine, settled first in Canada and then lived in earth huts in North Dakota…carving out a life out of stone and mud. People were “bootstrappers.” They were “free thinkers” and were some of this countries first teachers. This is the stuff that this country was made of…and still is if only in the national consciousness.
Then came WWI and WWII. I don’t know if many people realize that “Americans” in the U.S. contributed a great deal of support to the war effort… especially by severe rationing. After the war, in the 50’s, there was a GI student loan program that enabled returning veterans to leave the farms and become educated and join the booming middle class…many donning suits to work hugely long hours in new businesses. (Man In The Grey Flannel Suit).
There was an economic rebound and people were able to enjoy all those material things they had never had before…buying washing machines, sewing machines, modern kitchens with sinks and refrigerators and all kinds of things produced by the industrial revolution. This was when the states became very materialistic. Families wanted to provide the things for their children they never had for themselves.
But the collateral damage was huge. The children of these families grew up feeling neglected by absentee fathers. Mothers and other women, largely uneducated, were kept out of the work force and except by a few brave vocal ones, became the “perfect” housewife. The culture became extremely conforming. A woman’s skirt, one inch above or below the norm was considered weird. By this time, in the late 50’s, with increased economic stability, children were entering college. They began to notice the materialism and lack of values. They began to feel stifled by the conformity and perceived hypocrisy. This spawned the Beat Generation:
From the “Free Wiki”:
The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired (later sometimes called “beatniks”). Central elements of “Beat” culture included experimentation with drugs and alternative forms of sexuality, an interest in Eastern religion, and a rejection of materialism.
The major works of Beat writing are Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch (1959) and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957). Both Howl and Naked Lunch were the focus of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to liberalize what could be published in the United States. On the Road transformed Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady into a youth-culture hero. The members of the Beat Generation quickly developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity.
The original “Beat Generation” writers met in New York. Later, the central figures (with the exception of Burroughs) ended up together in San Francisco in the mid-1950s where they met and became friends with figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance.
This is what attracted kids later to the streets of San Francisco.
Meanwhile, “Old Leftists,” (largely Socialist and Communist) seeing the handwriting on the wall became vocal but were drummed out by a culture diametrically opposed to their political agendas. Union organizers were beaten by police at the bidding of robber barons.
In the late 50’s, Jerry Rubin lead the “Free Speech Movement” largely centered at the University of California at Berkeley. I have friends who were swept off the steps of Spraul Hall by water cannons during those demonstrations.
These were the spiritual predecessors of the next generation of “drop-outs” in the 60’s and 70’s…rebelling against conformity and lack of free expression. Kids left home to live on the streets or join “back to the earth” communes. (The Beatles “She’s Leaving Home” and songs by first Pete Seegar and then Bob Dylan). Conscientious Objectors fled to Canada rather than be drafted into the Viet Nam War. And they were “loud.”
Backpackers by the thousands hit the “Hippie Trail” that led from London to Kathmandu and found alternative cultures and values.
Those who initially objected to the involvement in Vietnam fell into three broad categories: people with left-wing political opinions who wanted an NLF victory; pacifists who opposed all wars; and liberals who believed that the best way of stopping the spread of communism was by encouraging democratic, rather than authoritarian governments.
The first march to Washington against the war took place in December, 1964. Only 25,000 people took part but it was still the largest anti-war demonstration in American history.
In 1967, a group of distinguished academics under the leadership of Bertrand Russell, set up the International War Crimes Tribunal.
In November, 1965, Norman Morrison, a Quaker from Baltimore, followed the example of the Buddhist monk, Thich Quang Due, and publically burnt himself to death. In the weeks that were to follow, two other pacifists, Roger La Porte and Alice Herz, also immolated themselves in protest against the war.
The draft increased the level of protest. Students protested at what they considered was an attack on people’s right to decide for themselves whether they wanted to fight for their country. Young men burnt their draft cards.
The Civil Rights Movement raged in the late 1960s. Anti-Vietnam War leaders began to claim that if the government did not withdraw from the war they might need the troops to stop a revolution taking place.
In New York, over a million people took part in one demonstration.
Eldridge Cleaver argued that blacks were being denied the right to vote in elections. Therefore, blacks were fighting in Vietnam “for something they don’t have for themselves.” As another black leader put it: “If a black man is going to fight anywhere, he ought to be fighting in Mississippi” and other parts of America.
The most dramatic opposition to the war came from the soldiers themselves. Between 1960 and 1973, 503,926 members of the US armed forces deserted. Many soldiers began to question the morality of the war once they began fighting in Vietnam.
In 1967, Vietnam Veterans Against the War was formed. They demonstrated all over America in wheelchairs or on crutches. People watched on television as Vietnam heroes threw away the medals they had won fighting in the war. (Senator John Kerry was one of these.)
Jerry Rubin and the Yippie movement had already begun planning a youth festival in Chicago to coincide with the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Students For a Democratic Society and the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, also made their presence known. In the end, 10,000 demonstrators gathered in Chicago for the convention where they were met by 23,000 police and National Guardsmen. And they were all very loud.
The Black Power and Brown Power movements threatened the “Establishment” “The Man.” They were loud. In 1968, at the Olympics in Mexico, the two Black medal winners held their black-gloved fists up during the national anthem.
The older generation and the conservatives by nature became confused and frightened. Society became divided. And is divided still. Libertarians have joined the New Leftists as if in two ends meeting in a circle in their demand for freedom for the individual. For the Libertarians and Constitutionalists, it means too much governmental power. With the world economic crisis, militias and the gun culture is growing…expecting a Mad Max world. Tea Partiers, on the margins, sick of “political correctness” and being made to feel guilty by the demands of the minorities are holding up misspelled signs. Glenn Beck is earning millions on Fox TV. The left has turned to blogs on the web. And they are all loud.
What has all this to do with the American personality? We are demanding freedom of expression and openness…politically and personally. There is a class war developing. Genteel behavior is just a reminder of the stifling 50’s and the superficiality and materialism it spawned. Gentility is also associated in many minds with the stifling cultures that “the Americans” fled in the last couple of centuries. Gentility is not considered very important in the scale of things. Backpacking leftists and tea partiers alike are extolling the “common man” against the monied oligarchy and abuse of governmental power. And they are loud.
Those on the sidelines, either have been greatly influenced by the continuum of popular and political culture eg some people in the south still fly the Confederate flag left over from the Civil War. Or are just not aware…busy making a living and/or raising kids. All these strands are immensely diverse depending on personal histories and the histories and cultures of the regions and states they live in, whether urban or rural, and anyone wanting to get a “feel” for the people would have to at least live there awhile but also travel extensively to see it. I would even go so far as to compare the states in the U.S. to the countries in the EU. Nearly impossible to make very many generalizations except for historical facts.
Whew!
Laughingnomad 