Inspired by…
A word so common of my youth is the foundation of this United States and the foundation of its free people. A word that has been used so casually and freely, but how often is its meaning and purpose truly broken down and understood? What I speak of is the word different, often described as differences. This word is simple enough, meaning an object that is dissimilar to other objects. In the context of the American life that definition fails to express the depth of its meaning. What makes us different are the way’s we look and the music we listen to, right? These obvious differences of wearing an outfit from GAP, or from Express, of being a historian of vintage fashions, or the designer of a unique set of fashion designed by and for one person are all mere expressions of personality. The fashionista would say fashion is a critical aspect in every person’s life, to “look good” is a key to happy life, or at least to making your poorly dressed friends respect your looks. The critical lens shown when mismatched socks are worn or conflicting colors show up in an outfit is again a mere expression of one’s unique personality. Does that mean appearances are a deciding factor in what a person’s passions and curiosities are? Differences, from the perspective of my culturally white upbringing, do start in appearance and end at the ability to call oneself “normal”.
A friend might kindly state that your clothes don’t match and your hair is dirty but a mere acquaintance may not have as kind of an approach. The missing part of this equation, fashion equaling personality, is the deniability of understanding the reason behind both sides of this idea. How do you begin to generally describe personality in the American context? This thought begins and ends with differences.
To begin to describe the American personality you have to first take a step back from your own personal experiences to realize that not one single human lives the exact same life. As humans we are genetically different and inherent in that most basic of difference is that naturally we all treat similar experiences differently. Outcomes may be similar but the method and thought process used are stamped with a unique personal style. One of the most prevalent themes in every human’s life is the idea of love and its antithesis hate. It is a stretch to say that every single human has experienced these emotions and thoughts, but the ideas emanate from every culture and every corner of the world. In our own lives the ideas of what love means personally and how one should go about finding that love varies from the poetic articulations of music to the physicality of sex. Hate finds its base from a lack of love or from a misconception of differences. This argument would imply that hate stems from love and that one cannot exist without the other. In an ideal world every child is born and placed into the awaiting arms of an all too loving mother or father. The first breath of air from this earth might be followed by screams and cries but the first interaction and momentous experience involves the simple caresses of a caring parent. That is love, way before its antithesis has a chance to germinate. But of course like everything about being human, experiences are unique as well as the responses to them. Maybe there is no caring parent waiting to revel in the beauty of their creation. A mother pre-occupied with the burden of another mouth to feed, or the burden of unbalancing a cultural belief of to whom and when a child should be born from. The exceptions grow rapidly and seem to have no end. If a child is given the opportunity to grow from a baby, to a toddler, to reach the stages of adolescence, to a teen, and eventually to adulthood it is almost guaranteed they will have to reason and deal with these basic experiences of love and hate. Each child granted that opportunity will also come to different conclusions using different methods of processing and understanding. Of course the idea articulated above is just the utterances of one human with one set of personal experiences to guide this critique. Nevertheless the correlation between the beauty of human existence and the differences inherent is no less true.
So take the American ideal of difference, so utterly idealized, articulated as a mental-physical state and you have a fundamental belief that has guided the creation of the automobile and the artificial pacemaker, great conservationists and great capitalists as well as the genius behind the millions massacred under the credo of FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY. It is the fact that humans are different and American’s are even more different. But the issue with the American personality, as bloated and rambunctious as George Bush’s budget deficit, is the inability to understand what really makes people different. The superficial has ruled as the social hierarchy has demanded it. The culture of White America has always been the status of differences. Be it poor or rich, origins of Europe and Africa, Asia and the Latin world. The point of it all was to take note of and ostracize differences. In my life the point is to be different, but the reality is we already are. Striving to be something that is fundamental is nonsensical and damaging. Striving to be different is a simple rejection of the human existence and its replacement is merely a figment of reality. The American personality is therefore living a double life, one life consisting of the real experiences that make up each American’s personality, the other the projection of strived for differences on the façade of each person. Neither of which seem to enjoy acknowledging the other, showing up in the internal conflicts of self-image and being self-conscious.
The long and short of differences, the long being stated above, is that human existence is dynamic. No one idea can be all encompassing and no one realization is eternally true. The beauty of being alive is not figuring out every possible way to articulate how different people are, but to understand and believe we are all different and to take the time to revel in it. The human condition is rarely ideal and oft controlled by external sources, but compassion and genuine interactions are easily internal decisions. The idea that humanity is diverse, and always has been, and is different without conscious effort is the foundation for the freedom American's experience on a daily basis. As well as the fundamentals of what makes the United States the land of the free.
