American way of life. American dream

Starting somewhere in the 70s of the last century, elements of American culture began to trickle into the USSR, and this despite the Iron Curtain. Gradually, a kind of bright image of the United States of America was cultivated among the youth among the youth. Several generations of young Soviet people of the 70s-90s adopted the American way of life, fashion, style, music, ideology. They believed that the US is very cool. Many dreamed of leaving there, because there is freedom, democracy, the possibility of self-expression and other delights of life.

The standard of the American way of life

What is so special about the USA? Why do so many people around the world still believe that this country is ideal? The concept of "American way of life" has become an ideological cliche. And for good reason. After all, the mass media drew a picture of a state of abundance, universal prosperity, freedoms and opportunities. It is believed that the way of life of American people is very active and dynamic, they are efficient and resolute.

Required attributes of any self-respecting American are: car, loans, two-story house in the vicinity of the city. And, of course, how can one do without liberal democracy and religious pluralism ?! Regardless of their social status and background, everyone is equal before the law, at least this is how propaganda of the American way of life sounds. In general, everything that every self-respecting person should strive for, and in America it is very easy and simple.

How did the American dream come about

During the Great Depression in the United States, James Adams wrote a treatise "The Epos of America", where the phrase "the American Dream" was first mentioned. He represented the United States as a state in which everyone can receive what he deserves, and the life of any person will become better, fuller and richer. Since then, the phrase has taken root and was used not only in a serious, but also in an ironic sense. At the same time, the very meaning of the American dream is vague and has no clear boundaries. And it is unlikely that it will ever be clearly defined. After all, everyone puts their meaning in this concept, and from this the American dream becomes even more attractive. This concept is also very closely related to immigrants from other countries, where there is often no such extensive personal freedom as it is advocated in the States. It is believed that it is in America that you can succeed in life with persistent independent work.

What is its essence?

The American dream is a dream about a beautiful life, and first of all about wealth. In Europe, for example, there was a clear class distinction, for many people to achieve prosperity was simply beyond reality. The states were the country where for the first time individual entrepreneurship was so developed that everyone could achieve material prosperity. And the dream became the goal of millions of people in pursuit of rapid enrichment.

The colonists of North America in the XVIII century very quickly understood the boundless possibilities that this new continent gives. In their communities, the hard work of man for their own enrichment became a virtue, and, naturally, it was necessary to donate to the needs of the community itself. On the contrary, poverty was a vice, for only an insolvent, weak-willed and spineless person could not achieve anything with the unlimited opportunities that the new continent gave. Such people were not respected.

Thus, the formation of a way of life based on material goods took place. It was a new morality, a new religion, where success became a sign of God's love. The nineteenth century became a landmark of mass emigration of desperate hunters for good luck from the Old World to a new world where there was no real culture and civilization, but unlimited opportunities for gaining wealth. For these people, the main values of life were material goods, not moral, cultural and spiritual development. Accordingly, what other vector of development, besides capitalism, could these migrants give to future generations of Americans?

Thus, a new way of life was created

If in Europe wealth and property were inherited or the struggle for them was conducted only within the privileged class, in America they became available to everyone. There was a tough competition, as there were millions of applicants. In turn, such an unlimited passion for the accumulation of wealth led to the incredible greed that engulfed American society. Due to the fact that it consisted of emigrants from all possible countries, representatives of various nationalities, religions and cultures, it turned out to be an incredible symbiosis.

America provided free access to enrichment to all indiscriminately, which gave rise to the fierce competition and prudent pragmatism of the population, which was simply necessary for survival. The US created its traditions from diverse and unusual realities, fusing them into something new.

Incredible combinations

America is a country of incredible contrasts. So, at least, in 1890, commented on her Bedekker, a well-known guide from England. Not just coexisting, but opposite in nature, coexisting, not just coexisting, but co-existed: incisive religiosity and materialistic outlook, participation and indifference to others, upbringing and aggressiveness, honest work and passion for manipulation, respect for law and crime, individualism and conformism. All this was whimsically combined and organically intertwined in the new American way of life.

Actually, conformism has become one of the foundations of this way of life. Since there was not yet a strong state in America which, with the help of social structures, social institutions and established traditions, could organize and organize the whole mixed-race crowd of migrants, conformism became the only possible form of survival. In the United States, the creation of all public institutions began from scratch, from scratch, and, without the support of the past, citizens took the only convenient course for them - economic. Humanism, culture, religion - all obeyed a new system of values, where monetary units and shares played the leading role. Human happiness began to be measured only by the number of banknotes.

The Land of Idealists and Dreamers

At least that's what President Coolidge called America. After all, this is a country where every worker can become a millionaire, because he has a dream. And it does not matter that everyone can not be millionaires, the main thing is to believe, dream and strive for it. And no one is going to debunk this myth, because the value of the person in the States was directly proportional to the bank account of its owner. Over time, the ceiling of the higher level was moved further and further: hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions, billions. Because achieving a dream is a system crash, a stop that is not permissible. We need only to move forward. In this, perhaps, the American way of life is similar to the communist one.

USA and the USSR: Similarities and Differences

Despite the fact that the Soviet way of life was radically different from the American one, there was still one thing in two such unlike countries. Strangely enough, but the desire for the growth of wealth was the common goal of both the American and Soviet dreams. The only difference was that for America, an end in itself is individual enrichment, and for the Union there is a collective, universal material prosperity. But in both cases, the idea was based on progress - non-stop industrial development, movement for the sake of movement.

To advance progress, living conditions are constantly changing, and a person must adapt all the time to new and new realities. To do this, he must work, and, thus, work has become equivalent to freedom. Work has even become a kind of religion, because the one who was nobody could become everything. Such propaganda was conducted both in the Soviet Union and in the United States of America.

If earlier a peasant could, by processing his land, provide himself with everything he needed, then as a result of industrialization he became completely dependent on the state, and he needed to sell himself in the labor market. Thanks to work, discipline and self-organization were developed, which brought society closer to the absolute order, which was a utopian ideal. Any work was for the benefit of the economy, which became an instrument of control. On a banknote with a face value of one dollar there is a symbolic inscription "The New Order Forever", which perfectly characterizes the US position in world politics.

Freedom, equality and ...?

At one time, the slogan of the French Revolution was "Freedom, equality, brotherhood". What in all ages was the limit of the dreams of any society. In its Declaration of Independence, America puts forward practically the same theses, but instead of the brotherhood, the "Right to seek happiness" is indicated. A peculiar and interesting interpretation. But is it all so idealistic and transparent?

If for European states the first place was occupied by a person with his personal qualities, then here comes the foreground equality of all people, regardless of cultural and spiritual development. Freedom is the right to participate in competition, and equality means equal opportunities for the development of entrepreneurship. Well, the "right to seek happiness" and so speaks for itself. Personality, strength of spirit, cultural development and other benefactors in this society are not needed and are not important, there is only one concept of power - this is an economy that subordinates all spheres of human and state life to itself.

Massivity as the basic principle of a new way of life

Thanks to individual entrepreneurship, America from an agrarian country turned into an industrial one. Handicraft has sunk into the past, and mass production of consumer goods has begun. The population became part of a huge economic machine. People have become consumers, material goods have started to come to the fore, which have become more and more. But all the actual reins of government were in the hands of the owners of large concerns and corporations that dictated the conditions of life to the whole country, and not only. They eventually managed to spread their influence over most of the world.

The economic elite began to subordinate and control society. For the most part, people from the bottom of society, far from high culture, from spiritual development and enlightenment, were at the helm. Yes, and the American people consisted of ordinary people, so the US culture began its development from market spectacles. As a result, she conquered the whole world. Its principle consisted in the fact that culture became part of leisure, recreation of the working man, who after hard working days needed to relax. So and now is the way of life of modern man, and not only in America.

High and subtle matter clearly could not contribute to this kind of recreation. Therefore, the US mass culture corresponded to the goals of the American economy. As a result, a person's lifestyle was established, in which he lost his spiritual values, completely dissolved into the material world, becoming only a cog in the incredible economic machine.

A typical American family

What in the usual sense is a model of the American family, so zealously imposed by American cinema? This is a business father who works in a solid company, a mother-housewife arranging a barbecue for her neighbors on Saturdays and making her teenage children sandwiches for school. They necessarily have a large and beautiful two-story house, a dog and a pool in the backyard. And also a large garage, because each family member has his own car. But this is only a beautiful picture, which is assiduously treated by gullible spectators from different countries, and even by the States themselves. So only a small part of the population lives. A huge part of Americans can not afford to buy healthy food, so they feed on low-quality fast food, which is why America ranks first in the world in terms of the number of people who are obese. This problem is also promoted by the fact that the lifestyle of modern man in America is mostly inactive.

Some have a sedentary work, after which they spend time either at the bar or in front of the TV at home on the couch. Others fall into a different extreme - the pursuit of perfect beauty. Therefore, in America, the beauty industry is so developed that promotes the image of an ideal woman from glossy magazine covers. All conditions are created for the ladies to pour huge amounts of money into achieving these standards from small to large.

It was also the US that launched the technology race in the entertainment industry. Constantly go out more and more new gadgets, which are especially interesting for young people. In the pursuit of fashionable novelties in all areas, be it cars, computers, players, smartphones, clothes, shoes, accessories and other modern attributes, the way of life of American teenagers is formed. The system is designed in such a way that everything becomes obsolete very quickly. To be successful, fashionable and popular, you need to constantly acquire everything new. As mentioned earlier, progress never stands still. And now humanity begins to see the fruits of its thoughtless unlimited consumption, but, unfortunately, the system does not care.