What is American Culture?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

"America is the first country to have gone from barbarism to decadence without the usual intervening period of civilization." -  Oscar Wilde

Other views are welcome.

12 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Commonly held principles and ideals
	1 (8%)
	An homogenization of various cultures
	6 (50%)
	Love of country
	0 (0%)
	An unachieved ideal
	0 (0%)
	A slogan
	0 (0%)
	Capitalism
	0 (0%)
	Society's acccepted norms of behavior and thought
	0 (0%)
	False advertising
	0 (0%)
	There is no distinctly American Culture
	2 (17%)
	Other
	3 (25%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[First Speaker]

1. All, and none...

...America certainly *has* a culture, but it's like pornography--I can't exactly describe it, but I know it when I see it. Our "popular" culture has obvious main currents--jazz/rock, Hollywood, science fiction, the usual suspects. Our "high" culture appears to have vanished, but I suspect it's merely sleeping. I would bet anything that in 2050, "serious" literature will be as popular as it was in the 1850s or 1920s. I also suspect that the "mainstream" of American culture will return to being one of opposition to its ostensible "values"--what Kenneth Rexroth called The Social Lie--which has been the case for most of its history.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. I hope you're right.

Perhaps there is hope.

[First Speaker]

4. I think so--just a feeling, but there's going to be reaction against stupidity...

...shallowness and superficiality will be Out. Everything goes in cycles, and we've been pretty damned stupid for a long time...time for a change...

[Bagsgroove]

8. How Fox News Would Headline This Post--

"Prominent Democratic Underground Spokesman Says--American culture is like pornography."

[First Speaker]

28. LOL--and welcome to DU!...

[LittleBlue]

3. Great thread

It's a mishmash of all the cultural practices we liked from all the peoples who ended up here.

Which is why I love it. I've heard Brits say we have no culture below the surface. I disagree. Living in a country with just one dominant cultural influence, like Britain, would be boring to me.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Have to disagree that Britain has one cultural influence.

France and Rome and Germany/Austria had major influences on Britain, not too mention Scots and Irish, and even the Vikings.

[LittleBlue]

14. They are so homogeneous though

87% white and most of British descent, ie the three ancient peoples of Briton, Anglo-Saxon or Nordic descent. The most diverse aspect of their culture is the French Norman influence and the sprinkling of peoples from their former colonies. We're only 63% non-Latino white and many of them are actually German, Scandinavian, Italian, Irish, French, Jewish, etc.

The diversity in America is unlike anything in Western Europe.

[Bagsgroove]

5. Leaving aside political and economic culture...

As a nation of immigrants our culture is obviously a mix of cultures. Among the things that I think could be called "distinctly American" would be:

Jazz and Blues music
Baseball and Football
Fried Chicken
The Simpsons
and um...I'm sure there must be more.

[LWolf]

6. I don't think it's that easy to define

but, out of your choices, I chose capitalism, because I think that it's capitalism that is at the root of:

*American exceptionalism

*nationalism

*The "uniquely American" trait of individualism over collectivism, the "bootstrap" myth, the Ayn Rand willingness to look down on others who look, speak, think, or act differently, who hold different values; the willingness to buy into a "have and have-not" society, to accept poverty, etc., etc..

*What I view as an almost sociopathic focus on self rather than others

Capitalism and Social Darwinism...they seem to go hand in hand. Like the chicken and egg, which comes first?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. I tend to agree but I think that would be more easily defined as "Americanism".

This is in response to the various "culture" posts I've seen recently.

IMO, "culture" is, at best, a nebulous idea full of holes.

Pigeon holes are for pigeons.

[LWolf]

34. Yes. nt

[hifiguy]

23. I think capitalism came first

and social Darwinism emerged and exists as a rationalization for the barbarities of capitalism.

[sabrina 1]

7. We have supported so many far right dictators in various parts of the world, after which we take in

their far right supporters who end up fleeing when their Pinnochets et al are finally ousted, that we do have a far right extremist authoritarian population here. We rarely ever support left leaning leaders who are elected by the people, Aristedes eg. We do not allow those who support people like Aristedes. Even after a national disaster.

[hfojvt]

10. right now it seems to be

tatoos and enlarged ear lobes.

Looks like a culture in decay to me.

[onehandle]

11. Gun fetishism. nt

[JEB]

13. Depends on how loosely

one uses the word "culture".

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. We have a very schizoid cultural value system.

America has always had 2 opposing values: be strong and independent, and support rugged individualism, no man answers to a king or government
vs
be generous and take care of others, especially the helpless and down trodden and weak, subsume self and sacrifice for the good of others.

In modern terms, Ayn Rand libertarianism versus Biblical preachings.

Our history shows how we have lurched from one to the other of these principals since Plymouth Rock.

My 2 cents, anyhow.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. "Am I my brothers keeper?" The answer to that question seems to define the difference between

the Left and the Right. Culturally and politically.

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. Verily. n/t

[Agnosticsherbet]

17. American culture is the shared attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishe

the US of A from other nations and peoples.

It absolutely does exist.

It is a subset of Western Culture, that developed in Europe beginning with the Rennisance. It is closely trelated to other Western cultures.

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Miles Davis. Kurt Vonnegut. Orson Wells. Patsy Cline. Marlon Brando. Duke Ellington.

Jazz, the Method, William S Burroughs, Twyla Tharp, Larry Kramer, Beat, Rock, Rap,Tejano Emma Goldman, Andy Warhol, Paul Robson, MLB, NBA, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Jay-Z, Hollywood, Motown, Broadway, Mohammad Ali....

[hifiguy]

22. There have been some great achievements.

A society that can manage to produce the likes of Tony Bennett, Alan Hovhaness, Jimi Hendrix, Howard Zinn, Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Capra, the Coen Brothers and David Lynch had to be doing something right at least part of the time. But for the last 40 years genuine cultural/artistic figures have been exclusively on the fringe and not a significant part of popular culture. Intelligence has been relegated to the most distant margins in the Kardashian-land we now inhabit.

When I was a kid I could and did watch Leonard Bernstein lead the NY Phil on television every Sunday. Those days are long gone.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Yeah, it's not your childhood anymore that's true. But I'm not at all sure what a 'genuine cultural/

artistic figure' is or what standard you are using. I'd guess they would be very different from my own.
While Lenny was great and more of that would be welcome, at that time there were few African Americans on TV, no gay characters and strictly sexist portrayals of women. There were also very few channels to select from. There is more classical music and theater on TV now than in the past. More cinema, more documentary reporting. The Kardashians are always among us, the year Abby Road and Let It Bleed came out, 'Sugar, Sugar' by the Archies spent 4 weeks at #1 in the US and 8 in the UK. Same sort of thing.

[hifiguy]

29. But there WERE"Abbey Roads" and "Let It Bleeds" then.

No more. There were things - recordings, films, books, that were both popular and significant rather than the disposable dreck that monopolizes the mass media today. There is stuff out there of value, but now you have to make a real, concerted effort to seek it out. Back in the day you couldn't miss meaningful work, as it was pretty much everywhere. Commoditization is a horrid thing, but it's the woof and warp of cutthroat capitalism. The regression to the mean of rilly stoopid has been pretty thorough in the mass media.

[helpmetohelpyou]

19. We are trendsetters for the rest of the world

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

31. Californians are trendsetters for the rest of the world

[hifiguy]

20. Birth, programming, mindless consumption, death.

A sewer of the absolute worst of capitalism, imbecile consumerism and rampant willful ignorance/stupidity with a gigantic poison cherry of gullibility atop the garbage heap.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

24. Consumerism.

[Enrique]

26. the pinnacle was Man vs. Beast 2

it's been downhill since then

[Warpy]

27. Various regions of this country have wildly different cultural standards,

so much so that visiting them is like visiting a foreign country--or another planet.

I moved from Dixie to Boston and from Boston to NM.

I think about the only way to feel like a generic American with people from different regions is to meet in a country offshore, even the UK or Ireland where there isn't a language barrier.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

30. We don't really have one, but neither do a lot of large countries.

A rodeo in Texas or the dense urban hellscapes of the east coast are every bit as foreign to me as Oktoberfest or an Italian soap opera.

[Louisiana1976]

32. I'd say American culture is a combination of a homogenization of various cultures and

capitalism. So Ii voted for Other.

[Brigid]

33. A joke.

So I voted Other.