American Vulgarian

This is my culture

Captain America: Brave New World came out this week to tepid fanfare. A far cry from the heyday of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this most recent release was marred by Marvel fatigue and by its main star, Anthony Mackie.

In front of an audience of European journalists, Mackie commented on what Captain America represents, saying, “For me, Captain America represents a lot of different things, and I don’t think the term, you know, ‘America’ should be one of those representations.” He added, “Like, it’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor and dignity and integrity, someone who is trustworthy and dependable.”

It’s no surprise Mackie said this, particularly given that his audience was foreigners. It’s not in line with his politics to affirm that there’s anything unique or special about Americans, their character, their qualities, or their way of life.

The only problem with that stance is that it’s nonsense.

We are different. And in my humble Yankee opinion, better.

And yes, before you ask, I have traveled to and lived in other countries. Turkey, England, Germany, Belgium, and Okinawa to be specific. (Guam too, but that’s a US territory).

I still think we’re better. You don’t have to agree, but you MUST agree that we’re different from other countries, including our fellow English-speaking ones.

A recent client of mine, an Irishman by birth, is decamping from the US after the election. “I thought I found a home here, that these were my true people. I see now they’re not.” He lives in San Francisco, so you can guess his politics. But even being surrounded by like-minded folks in his immediate area, it seems he can no longer ignore that he’s a foreigner here.

And welcome though he is, he doesn’t belong.

Language Is Not Culture

The US, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. We all speak English, but we’re not the same. Likewise, Americans don’t magically develop a joint culture with with foreigners who speak English fluently as a second language.

The words are intelligible, but the culture remains worlds apart.

Americans, at least on the surface, value honesty and forthrightness. We don’t speak in subtext, as it is often lumped in with guile and subterfuge. Most other cultures have the opposite idea, both east and west.

There’s a scene in the 1993 movie, Rising Sun, where Sean Connery has to explain to Wesley Snipes why a Japanese man is lying to their face. He even laughs about it. “Ah, here comes the ol’ ‘Sumi Masan’ routine.”

The corporate underling bows and apologizes profusely for a mistake he supposedly made. Except everyone in the room knows he didn’t do it. Every word out of the man’s mouth is a lie. He is lying so his superior will save face. This is honorable in Japanese culture.

It is not for Americans.

It’s not honorable for the subordinate, who is being compelled to grovel for forgiveness for something he didn’t do. He may be unjustly punished for it too.

Nor is it honorable to the person being lied to, who is tacitly being asked to feign stupidity.

And it is obscenely dishonorable for the superior, who is using his position to throw an employee under the bus. Repulsive behavior. For Americans.

But not for the Japanese, Arabs, Indian,s et cetera ad infinitum.

The Order of Things

The slavish adherence to hierarchy, to people in positions of authority, is the primary demarkation between Americans and all others.

In watching the people of the rest of the anglosphere, I am left with the terrible conclusion that the majority of people want to be slaves. “Tell me what to do and make me feel safe. I’ll be a good boy.”

I can, I suppose, forgive other cultures for this.

Very often their hierarchy was dictated by royalty or some other God-ordained supremacy. Even if they are now democracies, that conditioning doesn’t shake off easy.

Questioning authority, in their mind, is a dangerous destabilizing act. A threat.

It’s the only explanation I can come up with for the anger the average citizen of Canada displays if one of their countrymen suggests that the native-born population perhaps ought not be entirely replaced by street-shitting, rapist third-worlders.

Or the anger of Britons that some of their ilk had the cheek to vote to leave the European Union.

Or the rage of Australians that some of their brethren dared step outside their front door when the government decreed they mustn’t leave their homes. For years.

We have some of this in America too, of course. It drives much of the culture war. But even left-leaning Americans are still Americans.

A Russian will openly laugh at you for getting shaken down by a government official or scammed in any way. You’re a chump and you deserved it, they say.

We don’t say that.

We say if the government or its agents aren’t doing what they are supposed to, then by golly, we will make them. We’re not doing this passive aggressive, malicious compliance nonsense.

We’re not Europeans.

Anthony Mackie is right that people of any nationality can be someone who “keeps his word, who has honor and dignity and integrity, someone who is trustworthy and dependable.”

But really, how dependable can you be if you fold like a cheap suit anytime someone in a uniform tells you to stop exercising your rights? Or worse, informs you that you don’t actually have those rights anymore. Because he, the uniformed person, decides what rights you do and don’t have.

Truth, Justice, and the American Way means backing up honor and dignity and integrity with a hard word when it’s needed, even to police, military, and elected officials.

They are not “our betters,” no matter how fervently they think they are.

And we are happy to remind them of that.

Americans understand that every unjust order, every governmental overstep, is a game of “would you rather…”

• Would you rather do as you're told or lose your job?

• Would you rather tolerate an act of disrespect or lose the only person willing to sit with you at lunch?

• Would you rather stop your personal crusade… or be killed?

When you tell someone (or a group) no, you are making a choice. You are making a stand.

How much are you willing to sacrifice for freedom, for your personal principles? And what are you willing to tolerate for comfort and security?

The answer is not simple. Ever. But it’s something Americans as a whole seem much more willing to grapple with than other cultures.

We don’t do the “tall poppy” syndrome here. We don’t do “mind your betters.”

We are a loud, disagreeable, and vulgar people.

And that’s just fine with me.

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