Okay, I Won't Burn the Book

Okay, I promise I won't burn the book. Yes, I was considering a book burning after I finished the book, but I have reconsidered after our discussion in class today. I find the book hard to read because it brings up so many things about American culture that I hate. It talks about how selfish Americans are and I makes me wonder about myself. The book just brings up a lot of things that make me angry.

Okay, now on to the question....so "Modern individualism seems to be producing a way of life that is neither individually nor socially viable, yet a return to traditional forms would be to return to intolerable discrimination and oppression." This is basically the dilemma of American culture today. We all want to be individual, independent, and self-reliant, but this is now way to create a society let alone sustain a society. Then at the same time we want connection with others, to form bonds, but this is contradictory to being individual. So basically American are stuck in between these things. And time has brought out the worst aspects of the individualistic side of American culture. The individualistic side of Americans has show up so many times as selfishness, and it is wrong. In the healthcare debate, people ask why they should pay for some one else's medical care, this is even beyond selfish-- it's cold-hearted. Individualism does not give people an excuse to be selfish. Individualism is not a free pass to being selfish, and America is an extremely selfish nation. It's true that we may give the most to charity in the world, but we live in a selfish nation that values self-gratification. But then on the filp-side of individualism there is society, and no society can survive if the main focus is individualism. Americans imagine that we live in a united society, but in reality were are so fragmented because we are looking out for the number 1. Maybe this would be a good time to take a page from the doctrine Catholic Church, even if I don't believe in the faith or agree with a great of its teachings. When I went to my Catholic high school, one thing that I still remember is how people need to care for others. I don't agree that you have to always be sacrificing yourself , but you do need to care about those around you and take an active role in making the world a better place. Americans are torn between a need for individualism and society, but the two don't really fit together that well, as we can observe by our very messed up culture.