Zero gave us a real poser, one which is not easily answered. After much head scratching, I will submit this one idea: Something that has set Americans apart from the rest of the world is our heightened sense of survival. Oh sure, every society, every civilization throughout time has survived in some form and surely has a sense of how to do it, but this country was populated by peoples who were escaping something, looking for greater opportunities than their home country offered, were sent here as prisoners (or worse), or otherwise were seeking adventure.

That quest for adventure, whether it was those original settlers or the many waves of immigration that followed, led also to the expansion across this land. But what allowed it to successfully happen were the universal skills, both innate and learned, at survival in a strange land or adapting to survive as strangers pushed across what had been your land that make us unique. We took the many cultures and skills which met here, melded them into new and better ways of addressing a myriad of problems, and became the most productive and innovative culture in the history of the world.

The U.S. Constitution allows us the freedom to become so spoiled by our success that we can actually destroy ourselves by loosing that sense of survival.

Contributed by Bobbie (OWB) on October 13, 2006 at 06:27 PM in Bobbie Craig | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: ponsdorf

You're certainly on to something.

We took the many cultures and skills which met here, melded them into new and better ways of addressing a myriad of problems, and became the most productive and innovative culture in the history of the world.

The Romans and other empires did much the same, I think. Perhaps, though, as you point out we have the freedom to become so spoiled by our success that we can actually destroy ourselves by loosing that sense of survival. Will our fate will be the same?

I'm kinda searching for a more positive thing. A label that most Americans can grasp and use as a simple focus.

Posted by: ponsdorf | Oct 14, 2006 4:34:27 PM

Posted by: Decurion

"Something that has set Americans apart from the rest of the world is our heightened sense of survival. Oh sure, every society, every civilization throughout time has survived in some form and surely has a sense of how to do it, but this country was populated by peoples who were escaping something, looking for greater opportunities than their home country offered, were sent here as prisoners (or worse), or otherwise were seeking adventure."

The catch, of course, is differentiating ourselves from the Canadians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and Australians who did the same thing, but have evolved in quite different directions.

Posted by: Decurion | Oct 15, 2006 10:18:52 AM