American Culture
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в . American Mainstream
The main content of American culture is the emphasize on individuals value, the pursue of democracy and freedom, the promotion of deploitation and competition and the need of realistic and practicality. Its core is individualism: self first, personal need first, pursue of individual benefit and enjoyment, emphasize on achieving individual value by self-strive and self-design. This type of intentionally build up of personality and pursue customized individualism has its pros and cons, it gives incentives to people and make them exert on their potential and wisdom and as a result accelerate the development of the entire race and nation; on the other hand it is difficult to keep good relationship among people if everyone is egocentric thus make the entire society lack of unity.
Egocentric: American citizens emphasize on achievements and respect heroes. They have great sense in their hearts to praise success and heroes. Personal achievements are one of those with the highest value in Americans mind. Americans have very strong senses of success. Success is the pursuit of most Americans, it is their attractive future and the incentives for moving forward. They believe that ones personal value is equivalent to his achievements in his career. Some high achievers in their career such as entrepreneurs, scientists, artists and all kinds of super starts became modern heroes. The process and result of how they strived have become the frame of reference of social culture value and the real life text book for parents to educate their children.
Incentive: Serving to induce or motivate:American society has great movements within itself. These movements are shown in two aspects: movements amongst locations and movements inside the society. The United States are relatively more open and have more freedom. Developed transport and the tradition of adventure and sporty makes a lot of American migrate from countryside to cities, from downtown to uptown; and from north to the southern sunny land, from one city to another. Unlike European countries, the social classes in America is not so stable. Further more, with the advocation of public education, movements upwards along the social ladder have become possible. Many people living in the states, no matter whether they are Native American or immigrants from overseas, have the same dream of changing their social class and make their lifetime dream come true through their own efforts. This is what they often called “American dream”.
вЎ.Contributions to world civilization
Youve probably seen Star Wars, ET, Home Alone, Casablanca, and Snow White. If youre under forty, add Blazing Saddles, Terminator, Jaws, and 2001; otherwise, add Gone with the Wind, A Night at the Opera, Psycho, and Citizen Kane. You know the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Michael Jackson, Simon & Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt. If not, you know Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, and Kate Smith. You count on excellent medical treatment. You know youre not going to die of cholera or other Third World diseases. You expect very strong measures to be taken to save very ill babies or people in their eighties. You think dying at 65 would be a tragedy. You went over US history, and some European, in school, Not much Russian, Chinese, or Latin American. You couldnt name ten US interventions in Latin America. You expect the military to fight wars, not get involved in politics. You may not be able to name the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Your country has never been conquered by a foreign nation. Youre used to a wide variety of choices for almost anything you buy. You still measure things in feet, pounds, and gallons. You are not a farmer. Comics basically come in two varieties: newspaper comics and magazines; the latter pretty much all feature superheroes. The people who appear on the most popular talk shows are mostly entertainers, politicians, or rather strange individuals. Certainly not, say, authors. You drive on the right side of the road. You stop at red lights even if nobodys around. If youre a pedestrian and cars are stopped at a red light, you will fearlessly cross the street in front of them. You think of Canada as a pleasant, peaceful, but rather dull country, which has suddenly developed an inexplicable problem in QuД©bec. You probably couldnt explain why the Canadians didnt join the other British colonies in rebelling against King George. You consider the Volkswagen Beetle to be a small car. The police are armed, but not with submachine guns. If a woman is plumper than the average, it doesnt improve her looks. The biggest meal of the day is in the evening. The nationality people most often make jokes about is the French. Theres parts of the city you definitely want to avoid at night.
в…Ñž. Pop Culture
When you think of American culture, what first comes to your mindпјџ McDonaldsпјџCoca ColaпјџLevisпјџDisneylandпјџMichael JordanпјџJulia Robertsпјџ Many people imagine American culture is a collection of popular symbols like these. Actually, these symbols are only one small part of American culture-“pop culture.”
What is pop cultureпјџ Well, pop is short for popular. The origins of pop culture can often be traced to popular movies, television shows, music stars and sports figures. Pop culture is also promoted by business and advertising. The most common examples of American pop culture appear among high school and college students. Trends set by famous personalities quickly become part of young peoples lifestyles.American pop culture has spread around the world. One major reason for its popularity is that English is a universal language. English is the language of diplomacy, international business and transportation. Since language and culture go together, learning English means becoming aware of English-speaking cultures. Also, America is a world leader in movies, music and magazines. The kind of American culture communicated in those media is pop culture. Finally, pop culture is easy to package and to export. For that reason, it is easy to “sell” to the world.
Many people assume that American pop culture is what America is all about. Does pop culture reflect the true culture of Americaпјџ Yes and no. Pop culture does represent a portion of American society-especially urban young people that are tuned in to the media. But American pop culture is faddish and ever-changing. It is an artificial and superficial picture of America. If you want to learn about real American culture, youll