The New American
by JP
Here’s how I scare myself…
Imagine how many people in the US today have ALL of the following things as things they spend most of their life involved with :
*watch pro sports
*watch a lot of TV
*attend stadium concerts
*casino gamble
*have/want new cars
*drive 1+ hours a day
*live in a debt-maxed new-fab dwelling
*do MLM
*haven’t read a book of enduring value in the last 5 years
*are involved in a legal dispute
*are on mental medication
*work overtime
*call in sick when not
*have a chronic illness
*have at least one maxed-out credit card
*have moved 100+ miles in past 5 years
*have an obsessive hobby involving much expense, travel and professional behavior
Is this kind of mix super-common, especially in terms of dreams or goals, and is it maybe the New American Lifestyle or Way of Life?
Now to get even scarier…
How many of these people teach kids?
Offhand, it does seem like the above could be a description of the New American.
Feel free to extend or edit as you please. I don’t know how much further I dare to go.
Obviously, I would never want to disturb anyone by suggesting that any of the above normal things are bad. Oh no. After all, we all do some of them or know lovely people who do, right?
It’s adding them all up together as often as we do that scares me. How many people do ALL of the above? A LOT? Is this a good thing? Is this a culture thing? …Or is it genetic, an accident, just some bad luck, a liberty thing, an equivalent, whatever floats your boat thing. Maybe we can’t draw any conclusion or overall picture or sense from this kind of list. Maybe it doesn’t result in any particular kind of person, and probably not an American. If you do know what really makes an American and if there have been any changes in the last 30 years, or if there have been enough to create a New American, please let me know about your own list. I’m game for a better one, that’s for sure!
But still, I ask, is perhaps the above description the New American? If it’s not the New American, what is? What are a good dozen typical features of his everyday life which make him different from other nationalities? I don’t think you can just say “freedom” or “diversity.” What are the specifics?
I suppose the main reason that I see these list things all happening is because of the American tendency to live in a fantasy future. Only I think it’s worse now. It’s being exploited more fully than ever before.
