What is America? Part 2

From left: Fayyaz, 17, Sarah, 18 and John, 18 ,all from Los Angeles, Ca.

Fayyaz – “What is America? Greedy. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. We have so much here and everybody could have enough but people are too greedy. Obviously the ones everyone talks about are the 1% but you can see the same attitude in all aspects of society. Everyone wants more, to get richer, to have the latest phone, biggest car – people think that these things give them worth. What else? Proud. America is so proud of itself. I know that outside of America people think its arrogance but I think that its just pride and they have a lot to be proud of.”

Sarah – “Oh my god! Fayyaz was so deep, I was going to say hotdogs and hamburgers! Ok, I think the most important thing is that we’re the most democratic nation on earth. Because we’re a young country we don’t have all the baggage that those old European countries do and we have the constitution and stuff. Like, where else would you get a black president? The next thing I’d choose to describe it would be quality. Like, everything you get here is good. Like, the food and the clothes and stuff, here, we get the best. What else? Ok, football! Go Bears!”

John – “America is a great nation outright. I know we get criticized but when you are at the top people do scrutinize you more. We have had the biggest impact of the world since Rome and I think we will continue to do. America suffers though because there is too much corruption at the top. Too few people involved in the direction of the federal and national stuff like military and business and politics and stuff. I think this can be exacerbated by the fact that we’re sort of overzealous as a society. It’s so hard here for anyone to have a reasoned debate about any issue without people taking it to an extreme. Like gay marriage or teaching evolution. I think within that is a sign that maybe we are past our prime now. You know, too many of the old generation are still running stuff and they have a different agenda than today’s young people because we’ve grown up in different worlds. The three of us probably couldn’t even have sat together 50 years ago. One of the problems for me though is that the media and politicians keep talking about things which should be people’s rights as if they’re privileges. Like the laws they’re passing to control the Occupy movement which are against 4th amendment or SOPA.”

What is America? Part 1

It's a curious question and one which is made all the more pertinent by the hegemony of American films, music, tv, personalities which often dominate the world's mainstream media.

But what about beyond that? How do Americans see themselves and their country? As I've spent more and more time here I wondered myself so I decided to start asking people.

From left: Savannah, 18 from Los Alimos, Ca. Nicola, 17, from New York. Victoria, 17, from Fort Lauderdale, Fl.

Savannah - "America is fat. We have a real problem with people's diets and attitudes to food and health, in fact I think that people's diets are more of an issue than alcohol and stuff. We are distracted as well. Our media don't really tell us what's going on in the world so people tend to think insularly. But there are contradictions too because I think we are also much more athletic than other nations, American guys all do lots of sports and join teams and stuff. That's why so many of them are big strong guys, not like in Europe or somewhere. We are also kind of socially obsessed. All the way through school and college we have to join these teams and go to rallies and cheer and join in. You always have to join in. We are kind of pushed and pulled and molded to be more like everybody else, you know, more socially acceptable."

Nicola - "What is America? Jail, police, cameras. I mean, after the whole 9/11 thing they passed all these laws like the Patriot Act and now you've got these Occupy guys and they want to make laws for them. They are against the Bill of Rights or the Constitution or whatever but Congress let them. Then you have these big corporations getting money off of the Iraq War and they're all headed by ex-politicians but everyone is ignorant of what's going on. I guess that's my next point then, ignorant. But I think that most Americans would want to know, I think its a stereotype by the Brits or someone that most Americans are rednecks living in trailers. I don't think that's the case, people ae smart people but they don't get properly informed. Last of all I would have to say rich. What passes as the middle class in America would probably pass as the upper class in most other countries in the world. Our cars, our houses, all the meat and gadgets. We live well and I hate it when you see people complaining that their life is so bad here. I mean, like, seriously?"

Victoria - "I don't agree with Nicola, I think that we are super free here. In America we have more liberties than anywhere else in the world and I think we're much more expressive than other cultures which is why American movies and stuff are so popular all over the world. On a negative point, I think that we can be too divisive. I mean, like politics, in an election we don't really hear about economy or stuff but just get the same debates about abortion or gun control or about teaching evolution or something. I think that people use these debates to distract people from the real issues or from looking to deeply about what they have said before. Like with WMD's, when we said Saddam had them and everyone else said he didn't so we went to Iraq and he didn't but everyone started saying 'we had to topple a dictator' and the original reason gets forgotten. Oh, and we have too many fat people."