Sometimes I think America is slowing dying. Mostly, because...
I've heard a lot of different terms or words, as a linguist, I am always trying to pay attention to what words people use. Multiculturalism, cultural assimilation, assimilation, the great American 'melting pot' (though it's more PC to say 'salad bowl'). The topic actually comes up quite often in our household and my husband agree that this 'concept' is a big part of the stewing issues, unresolved in the unconscious of Americans everywhere. The definition describes 'an absorption of traits and characteristics' and it leaves the final product 'different'. Different how?
My husband and I tend to think this process leaves a society washed out, over-saturated, confused, lacking identity and struggling from the inside out. Less tradition, less belief, less ritual, less nuclear family, less support, less identity, less connection with those around you. Obviously there are pros and cons to every influential, societal process and the evolution might be inevitable and technology may be the biggest person to blame, but we still feel as though 'we're suspicious of everyone'... feeling lost, alone in a crowded room.
Assimilation, this process of absorbing the identity of something, was part of the excitement of coming to America, at first. You were escaping hardships in hopes of the pursuit of freedom! Irish, European, Jewish, African, English, Catholic, short and tall, fat and thin, all came to the coasts of this new country with the hopes of a new life. As a human, we naturally want to 'fit in' and yet congregate towards those that are most like ourselves. Movies like FAR AND AWAY, GANGS OF NEW YORK or reading Upton Sinclair's JUNGLE can illustrate just how scared and segregated everyone really was; perhaps the only remaining trait we share... scared. You 'blend in' when you're out in public because the masses are assimilated groups of fakers but behind closed doors you are trying to figure out 'who you are' and decide what traditions to keep. All the while, society is determining what is 'bad', 'right', 'trendy', and it is no longer the guidance of our elders (someone who loves us) but instead, 'public'. THEY are the ones telling us that Muslims are bad, Catholics are pedophiles, Blacks are violent and uneducated, Whites are privileged and hate blacks...
We have assimilated so much, dissolved and absorbed so much of an identity to 'fit it', that collectively (and individually) we are experiencing anxiety, stress, confusion, out of balance. This Blog could go on for days - just some of the issues being MAJOR conversation points. For example, the mass definition of 'marriage' mainly being held only to its legal definition as tradition and religion assimilate and what really IS the legal definition? THEY focus more on the negative and marriage isn't widely supported, unless you count THE BACHELOR.
You gravitate towards those most like yourself for comfort. As my husband always includes, "racism can be misdiagnosed as fear" and usually is. It's survival, natural, completely normal to feel safe around those that we can 'predict'. As a fur trader at a new post, an explorer in a new land, a middle-schooler walking to a new lunch table, you simply go towards those people that you can predict. You know that a handshake is acceptable, that your clothes are not offensive, that you're not walking on egg shells because you're similar. When you're a new person in a completely new land, you're always one edge wondering if you're offending someone, doing it right, blending in enough, and yet having an identity that is secure. Globalization (whether mostly blaming technology, Mr. Ford or whomever), doesn't help the issue of assimilation and here we are, fearful and lost as a society.
Assimilation has failed us. Blending in, trading in the nuclear family for a studio apartment, bartering our morals for fame and fortune, sacrificing our ethics for LIKES. As a parent, I'm finding there is stress in the process of finding myself in all this madness but also balancing the responsibility of inserting the needs I know are absent into my sons' life. I find that routine, ritual, tradition, family, friends, vacations, positive milestones and as much family as possible helps, but I'm still wondering how this process of constant assimilation will conclude.
Will it ever?
Is the momentum going in the right direction? What are your thoughts:
My husband and I tend to think this process leaves a society washed out, over-saturated, confused, lacking identity and struggling from the inside out. Less tradition, less belief, less ritual, less nuclear family, less support, less identity, less connection with those around you. Obviously there are pros and cons to every influential, societal process and the evolution might be inevitable and technology may be the biggest person to blame, but we still feel as though 'we're suspicious of everyone'... feeling lost, alone in a crowded room.
Assimilation, this process of absorbing the identity of something, was part of the excitement of coming to America, at first. You were escaping hardships in hopes of the pursuit of freedom! Irish, European, Jewish, African, English, Catholic, short and tall, fat and thin, all came to the coasts of this new country with the hopes of a new life. As a human, we naturally want to 'fit in' and yet congregate towards those that are most like ourselves. Movies like FAR AND AWAY, GANGS OF NEW YORK or reading Upton Sinclair's JUNGLE can illustrate just how scared and segregated everyone really was; perhaps the only remaining trait we share... scared. You 'blend in' when you're out in public because the masses are assimilated groups of fakers but behind closed doors you are trying to figure out 'who you are' and decide what traditions to keep. All the while, society is determining what is 'bad', 'right', 'trendy', and it is no longer the guidance of our elders (someone who loves us) but instead, 'public'. THEY are the ones telling us that Muslims are bad, Catholics are pedophiles, Blacks are violent and uneducated, Whites are privileged and hate blacks...
We have assimilated so much, dissolved and absorbed so much of an identity to 'fit it', that collectively (and individually) we are experiencing anxiety, stress, confusion, out of balance. This Blog could go on for days - just some of the issues being MAJOR conversation points. For example, the mass definition of 'marriage' mainly being held only to its legal definition as tradition and religion assimilate and what really IS the legal definition? THEY focus more on the negative and marriage isn't widely supported, unless you count THE BACHELOR.
You gravitate towards those most like yourself for comfort. As my husband always includes, "racism can be misdiagnosed as fear" and usually is. It's survival, natural, completely normal to feel safe around those that we can 'predict'. As a fur trader at a new post, an explorer in a new land, a middle-schooler walking to a new lunch table, you simply go towards those people that you can predict. You know that a handshake is acceptable, that your clothes are not offensive, that you're not walking on egg shells because you're similar. When you're a new person in a completely new land, you're always one edge wondering if you're offending someone, doing it right, blending in enough, and yet having an identity that is secure. Globalization (whether mostly blaming technology, Mr. Ford or whomever), doesn't help the issue of assimilation and here we are, fearful and lost as a society.
Assimilation has failed us. Blending in, trading in the nuclear family for a studio apartment, bartering our morals for fame and fortune, sacrificing our ethics for LIKES. As a parent, I'm finding there is stress in the process of finding myself in all this madness but also balancing the responsibility of inserting the needs I know are absent into my sons' life. I find that routine, ritual, tradition, family, friends, vacations, positive milestones and as much family as possible helps, but I'm still wondering how this process of constant assimilation will conclude.
Will it ever?
Is the momentum going in the right direction? What are your thoughts:
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