The whole charm of the American personality lies in being right-wing. It finds its culmination in a salt-of-the-earth, Bible-bashing, flag-saluting Southerner.
Left-wing Americans can, of course, be charming and loveable. But they always seem to be playing against type, so to speak.
This doubtless applies to all nationalities, since leftism is (I believe) inherently opposed to healthy human impulses. But it seems especially true of Americans. I wince whenever I hear leftist slogans in a broad, zesty American accent. It seems all wrong.
I'm hoping "zesty" means something else in Ireland!
ReplyDeleteI'm using it idiolectically to mean "full of gusto"! It's not a word I really hear used to be honest...
DeleteIn modern Internet slang, "zesty" usually implies that a person has "gay" mannerisms.
DeleteIt's an interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteOn a different, but not entirely unrelated note,
To some extent I feel like the United States was just starting to develop its own distinct culture before it became overwhelmed by modernity. Some put the milestone at the Civil War, some at the Spanish-American War, some WWI, some WWII, some later, but I think it is clear that in the 19th century there was a distinct American culture and by the end of the 20th century it had become overshadowed by all the other stuff. But these things are not a sharp transition.
You have written before about American conservatism. I think its greatest drawback is that there is too little sense of deep roots in a culture, at least from what I read about online. People talk a lot about money, sociology, technology, psychology, politics, DNA, but there is not nearly enough sense of what would mean to participate in an American culture aside from schemes about influencing society. By contrast, European countries seem to have that, at least in the background, so that people could at least know about it if they wish.
And you need that, you need a sense of what something is at a deep level if you want to conserve it.
Just a factoid, about a distinct American culture in the 19th century, even Nikola Tesla in Serbia read works by Mark Twain and said it healed him when he was sick. Later, he became friends with Mark Twain when he moved to the United States.
DeleteNLR, thanks for this. I think this is a huge debate, actually. American conservatism is predicated on the idea of freedom in a way that European conservatism really isn't; Russell Kirk's The Conservative MInd is a good argument for a more traditional sort of "rooted" conservatism.
DeleteBut...personally, I tend to the view that America has more LIVING traditions, while Europe's traditions tend to be moribund, and indeed so captured by political correctness that it's best to cut them out and cast them away. So I'll admit I'm much more inclined towards American conservatism recently!