I.Introduction
Individualism is the very core of American culture. It plays a significant role in the development of American history. We can say that individualism has been influencing all the fields of American society, even the character of the nation. The United States is regarded as the cradle of the trend of individualism. Americans who believe in individualism hold that they need to think for themselves, judge for themselves, and make their own decisions. Such folks think that they owe no man anything and hardly expect anything from others. What’s more, they imagine that their destinations are in their own hands while nobody else can make much difference. The spirits such as self-reliance, individual freedom, hard work and equal competition are developed and intensified in the United States. Individualism is so deeply rooted in people’s heart that it permeates every aspect of American society and is embodied directly in American daily life, education, family and so on.
II. Definition and characteristics of individualism in American culture
A. Definition of individualism
Individualism is a kind of concept of value and ideological system, as an outcome of western capitalism, together with self-interest and satisfaction. It emphasizes the initiative to satisfy and carry out personal desires and requests.
In fact, the word “Individualism” was created by Tocqueville, a French socialist and first used in the book Democracy in America, in which he gave a description rather than a definition: “Individualism is a mature and calm feeling, which disposes each member of the community to sever himself from the mass of his fellows and to draw apart with his family and his friends, so that after he has thus formed a little circle of his own, he willingly leaves society at large to itself.” Tocqueville also made a contemplative comparison between ‘Individualism’ and ‘Egoism’ (selfishness—a tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain or do what is in their self-interest) and pointed out that this individualism was one of the products among the American democracy. In Habits of the Heart, the authors Robert Bellah and Richard Madsen pointed out that individualism was the core of American value. Americans believed in personal dignity and the sacred rights which were inviolable. They thought for themselves, judged for themselves and made decisions for themselves. They lived by their own lifestyles. Anything violating these rights could be considered morally wrong and a blasphemy against the God. In this book, a clear division between individualism and egoism was made. Egoism was considered as a kind of concept that one only thought about himself with crazy love for himself in front of everything. Egoism was the extreme individualism whose core was to see personal values high above everything, putting personal desires above the interests of the nation, collective or others. For the sake of personal benefits, they did not hesitate to injure society, collective and others’ benefits. However, they advocated that individualism in America was a kind of calm feeling that made every independent citizen live above others and live together with their families and friends who agreed with them.
B. Characteristics of individualism
1. Individual rights and freedom
Much unlike the Europeans’ thoughts on “freedom”-- an entire freedom from any string, the counterpart in America seems to be more reasonable, not meaning that one can do anything at will, but entitling people the right “to being educated”, “to work”, “to have the freedom of thought, conscience and religion”, “to gain the freedom of peaceful assembly and association”, etc. The basis of all of these rights are “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, declared by The Declaration of Independence. Of course, all of these freedoms and rights should be under the control of the States’ legal system.
2. Self-reliance
One of the most attractive characters of most American people is their self-reliance. Children in the United States, as long as they are 18 years old, have to earn their daily bread by themselves, while senior citizens are quite used to living alone instead of sharing the same ceiling with their children. In the family of the United States, children have great autonomy. Parents seldom say, “Do not do it in this way.” If the child is too naughty, the parents will say, “Let them return to their rooms.” Failure to develop self-reliance is seen as a threat to achieve material success. Thus, it is very common for students to work in America. For most American students, they work just for developing their self-reliance spirits. Today, under impact of this cultural value, many Chinese students who study in America will find part-time jobs, which have become a required course.
3. Equality
In general, most Americans are fairly indifferent to the identity of social rank and belong themselves to the middle class. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” And we can’t get a more valuable heritage from Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King. Quite different from Europe, the idea of equality in the United States assumes that everyone has equal opportunities rather than social positions. That is to say, every person has equal chance to achieve his success. Based on personal equality, individual competition then has evolved into a life attitude throughout the daily life of American people. In the United States, a fair social competition is protected by both political principles and organizational structures, ensuring an advantageous environment for personal equal competition.
4. Respect for others
For Chinese, when they meet, they are used to talking about personal things, such as age, marital status, job and income. In the United States, the situation is entirely different. In the view of Americans, these are personal privacy, and should be respected by others. For example, if you want to visit others, you should tell the family first. If not, the host shall not allow you to enter the house. In the Fast Food Shop, the American people are just at their side of the plate, and do not interfere with others. In the library, the American students don’t sit together when they have a reading; even good friends are not an exception. They just want to have their own individual space. That phrase, “none of your business”, springs easily to the lips of an American, and is uttered in the same tone as “Get off my property”. In the United States, personal privacy is respected and protected by law. If a person violates the privacy of others for profits, curiosity, or malicious motives, he must be punished.
III.Origin of individualism in American culture
Individualism is a western concept which has its origin in the west. As the time goes by, it has been intensified greatly.
Today significance of the Chinese individualism is that a oceangoing ship comes after Opium War by west commodity and culture. Chinese and Western heterogeneous medium culture to the individual self understand that difference is very big, and whose usage is short of adeter minacy since the individualism coming into being, and existence many different meanings。 The individualism enters China from the west , the written characters being easily confused evolution happened. Tradition adds specially appointed culture of Chinese the ideological form effect , the destiny having been destined that theindividualism is misinterpreted , is misunderstood in modern China. The individual can not magnanimously in China be expressed , be
looked upon as "private interests",advances own interests , the individualism is to be that the egoism, and the collectivism are diametrically opposed to , being denounced sum repression as a result be misinterpreted. In the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English , the definition of individualism is “the belief that the rights and freedom of individual people are the most important rights in a society ; the behavior or attitude of someone who does things in their own way without being influenced by other people”. In the English Language Dictionary , it means “belief in the importance of the individua and the virtue self-reliance and personal independence”. We can see from the definition that individualism has rich cultural connotations . Therefore , individualism represents the western culture for individual rights and the pursuit of fairness and justice. It is the essence of American culture .
America is a Christian country. When “Mayflower” carried the British to the continent of North America, it was doomed that individualism would be fully developed in this piece of land. On the one hand, there were only millions of Indian indigenous people living on this piece of land. They lived the most primitive life, and their social conditions were extremely bad. In order to change this situation, the British had to rely on their own to conquer the nature to survive. On the other hand, the immigrants were Puritans who left the United Kingdom due to the religious persecution. They believed that there is a direct spiritual link between every devout Christian and God (Zhu Shida, 2000: 2). Therefore, whether in high or low status, being rich or poor, every one is equal before God. Such kind of relationship—“one to many” between God and people is the base for the survival of individualism. As puritans believed that all people were equal before God, as a complete individual, the individual should be in charge of their lives, pursue their own happiness, and acquire their material wealth and social status. People’s spirits of hard-working and progress are inseparable from the deep-rooted religious influence.
B. American Revolution
The awareness of individualism can also be traced back to the period of American Revolution when The Declaration of Independence came into being. This famous document states that every man is an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. It actually indicates the awareness of the value of equality, individual freedom and determination of independence, which is also the basic essence of the philosophy of individualism. This document defends all those rights that have been equally bestowed to all men by God or prescribed by laws. As Marx put it, the Declaration approached the problem of independence from the angle of human rights for the first time. It unequivocally raised the slogan of equality and freedom for all men. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
C. Westward Movement
Individualism was greatly intensified in the Westward Movement. “American Westward Movement and life in the border area promoted greatly to the development of individualism. Some people believed that individualism was actually a certain kind of cultural heritage of frontier life.” The American famous historian Frederick J. Turner held that the vast land in the west area had endowed American people a deep understanding of freedom. It can be seen that in the American Frontier, to survive the tough condition of living in the wild, the pioneers must fight against the bad weather and unexpected diseases, which can make their characters strong, clear, sometimes in a heroic way. In reality, they tried their best to search for a better life for themselves and their families, such as constructing their hometown and setting up many school buildings.
American pioneers lost their comfortable life when they were trying to extricate themselves from the fetters of the old social orders. From then on, they tried to live on their own with their independent spirit of pioneering. Individualism emphasizes the concept of bountiful freedom and independence of living by their own life styles, so they mostly count on themselves.
D. Industrial revolution and urbanization
Generally speaking, the industrial revolution started in the late 1800s, which appeared to be a gradually accelerating procedure for mass production instead of a dramatic and rapid transformation. In the first half of the 17th century or even earlier, the idea of a market-orientated production had already permeated deeply into people’s minds. In the new industrial system, the manufacturing process had been decomposed into several tiny sections without much manual labor as before. According to Max, this great transformation made the industrial workers severely alienated. In Germany, Max used the word “entaeusser” instead--which he thought was both based on wage labor and industrialism, caused by the products and themselves in the acts of production.
Urbanization is the next trend providing fertile soils to individualism. Roughly speaking, the definition of urbanization is a process in which the proportion of population who work or live in the cities has been relentlessly increasing. As an immigrant country, the United States’ procedure of urbanization appears to be more complex, but it is quite manifest. People from the North, the South, Asia as well as Eastern Europe have been voluntarily poured into the Big Melting Pot. The final product is “a multitude of separate corporations”. In this process, social differences were aroused and people were not so liable to be connected together by loyalty, trust or that of this kind as before. A new era has come, in which it is so general for contracts replacing handshakes to keep relationships between people.
IV. Reflection of individualism in American culture
Individualism can be reflected in every field of American people’s life. Individuals think that they have the very right to have privacy, to count on themselves and to have equal role in their life. All the spirits of individualism are clearly reflected in American culture.
A. Daily life
Americans emphasize on personality and individuality. They think that they have the very rights to be equal and have freedom. Simultaneously, this kind of right is protected by the Privacy Law. Anyone who infringes upon any other’s personal privacy with the motivation of profit, curiosity or malice will be punished. They are not like Chinese people who always ask about people’s age, marital status, job or salary when they meet with each other. Americans always avoid asking or answering private questions. The greetings or salutations are very generic and superficial. For example, they begin their conversation with “How are you?”, “It is a fine day, isn’t it?” rather than the Chinese way, “Where are you going?”, “Have you eaten your meal?” That is because they believe that this is their own privacy, none of any other’s business. They regard those greetings that are considered very common in China as cultural taboo because Americans believe all these are personal privacy.
Furthermore, they will be uncomfortable when mentioned some sensitive things about their bodies such as being overweight, going bald, going gray by others in public. Here, we suppose a pair of good friends: one is a Chinese girl Li and another is an American girl Lily. One day, Li noticed that Lily had some visible gray hair on her. She told her so. But Lily was very angry. The reason is that Li shouldn’t have told her because there were men around. Going gray is a powerful symbol of increasing age for many western women. Getting older has so many negative connotations: the loss of child-bearing capacity, the loss of physical attractiveness to men, increasing infirmity, decreasing opportunities in one’s life and so on. In addition, people’s right of privacy can be found in people’s personal life. “A man’s house is his castle.” “Good fences make good neighbors.” All these reflect Americans’ attitudes towards privacy which shows that personal space is very important in their minds. Americans hate the inquisitive person who pokes their nose into their business or meddles in their affairs.
B. Education
Education is often regarded as the key to opportunity, including financial security. In terms of American personality education, it can be divided into two parts: the personality cultivation and self-study ability.
Both schools and homes can cultivate students’ personality. In modern society of the United States, it seems that home education is becoming more and more popular and important. Parents believe that it is a good idea to arrange some certain courses for their children according to their unique interests and give some specific attention to their potentials. As for American schools, the goal of the education system is to teach children how to learn and to help them reach their maximum potentials. The American schools tend to put more emphasis on developing critical-thinking skills than what they do on acquiring quantities of facts. American students are encouraged to ask questions no matter how easy or difficult, dull or creative the questions are. They should think for themselves, and express their opinions freely in class, which reflect the American values of individual freedom and self-reliance. What’s more, the development of social and interpersonal skills is considered as important as the development of intellectual skills. Schools have added a large number of extracurricular activities to daily life at school to help students develop more skills. Both in school and at home, support and encouragement are forever being put in the first place. The fierce competition from the classmates and others in the society makes Americans care very much about the necessity of forming the concept of being independent which includes self-respect and self-esteem. Moreover, to treat children equally and respectfully, parents and teachers usually communicate with their children: discussing about troubles concerning growing up, listening patiently to children’s ideas and giving constructive suggestions when necessary, but seldom do they help kids make the final decisions. These attitudes contribute a lot to accelerating children to have their independent thinking and to realize their personal values.
For the latter part, the final purpose is self-realization. Americans have many choices when they do things. In school, they decide their major field of study, perhaps with or without their parents’ influence, and students even get to select some of their courses according to their own interests. They do not expect a rigid curriculum at all. As for the way to study, the children often adjust their learning strategies to their personal needs. It reflects more of the spirits of freedom and democracy. In class, they are left more space and time for self-study and free discussion. They are supposed to find out the answers themselves. So when they encounter difficulties, it is themselves who will help. They hardly rely on others but to find out the solutions on their own. In this way, when they enter the society in the future, they’ll depend less on people around. There is no wonder that there are so many Nobel winners and celebrities of various kinds who are creative and independent, free and open-minded in America. Generally speaking, the rooted concept of individualism leads Americans to attach great importance to personality development.
C. Family
Western families are of the nuclear family structure. The young are prepared to move out as long as they are 18 years old, and have to earn their daily bread by themselves. We may always hear people say, “Thanks, but I can manage it myself.” They want to make independent decisions instead of being told what to do or how to do them. They are expected to choose their own careers as individuals, for American parents concern more about children’s responsibility and self-reliance. As for the old people, most of them do not live with their kids or relatives. If they have enough money, they will buy houses or apartments in places where other old people live. If they think they are not healthy or strong enough to live alone, they would rather living in nursing houses for old people than being taken care of by their children.
Within the family, they firstly treat each other as an individual human being, and then as a family member. The family pattern has changed from to the “personal family” which emphasizes the individuality of each family member’s feelings and motives. So each member has his or her own needs that need to be met within the family, which certainly requires each member’s catering to others’ needs. In America, each individual family member tries his or her best to bring about happiness to other members. The traditional family values love and respect for parents, as well as for all members of the family. They also advocate equality. The husband is no longer the main provider of the family income, and the wife no longer has the main responsibilities for household duties and raising children. The husband and wife usually have an equal voice in decision-making. Children also have a vote on certain matters. They have the right to disagree, even argue with their parents while in most other cultures such action would be a sign of disrespect. It is simply a part of developing one’s independence. Family members are regarded as friends and they should be treated equally in daily life.
V. Impacts of individualism on American society
A. The positive effects of individualism
Historically speaking, individualism has indeed played a very vital role in the development of American history. Here, we can see some examples about this. First, such concepts as “freedom”, “equality” have been a great spiritual strength to inspire, educate and mobilize people. For example, in the American War of Independence, the slogan of “freedom, equality” became a bugle for people to fight for independence and overthrow the oppression of the British colonial. After The Declaration of Independence was published, it greatly inspired the revolutionary fighting will of the North American people. Even today, values of individualism also encourage the people and become the impetus for moving forward. Second, the early individualism made the Americans win the “opportunity” of full enjoyment of life to ensure the nation’s success. At the same time, during the development of the history of the United States, the Americans subdue the nature, and rely on the spirits of individualism to exploit frontier, seek survival, and it has created enormous material wealth. America’s agricultural and urban development is also branded by individualism. Third, under the influence of individualism, people’s pursuits are more diversified. The reason why the United States is a vibrant and dynamic country is that Americans pay attention to a new character, and glean the changes. Those are the philosophy of Americans’ lives. The concepts of innovation and change prompt the Americans to engage in new inventions, and propel the social progress. From these examples, we can see that individualism is very important to the Americans, and it plays a very positive role in the development of the American society.
B. The negative effects of individualism
However, admittedly, the negative effects of individualism are also enormous and can not be neglected. The further individualism develops, the clearer contradiction it brings. It over-emphasizes the importance of individual, which brings about a series of serious social and moral problems. Individualism, which gradually becomes a negative factor for social development, not only leads to the lack of social responsibility and group consciousness, but also brings about the conflict between self and others and the conflict between individual and society. What’s worse, the further development of individualism may cause extreme egoism. Many western scholars have warned us of these disadvantages.
Firstly, in terms of interpersonal relationships, the over-promotion of individual freedom does harm to the public life. It makes one only believe in him or her because of his or her self-centeredness and strangeness from family and social organizations. On the one hand, the interest of self is emphasized, but on the other hand, others’ interests need to be respected and admitted too. Then they totally fall into the loneliness of the heart. For example, when they try to do business, they strive to be independent and avoid any reliance on others; the sense of community has gone because of the indifference between people. In reality, this drive is so strong in America that research is starting to show that they fear being dependent on others as much as or more than they fear death!
Secondly, in the field of political life, the limitation to the government may bring some negative effects such as the extreme egoism or liberalism. In addition, if the American individualism developed into extreme freedom, it would cause harm to the American society, such as drug abuse, crime, violence, and so on.
Thirdly, individualism creates a disparity between the rich and the poor in American society. America is a competitive society. Competition is good, because it will promote social progress. However, the United States only talk about the equality of the starting line, so there are serious uneven distribution of wealth. Allegedly, in the United States, the gap between the rich and the poor is very large.
C. Means to remove the negative effects of individualism
1. The concept of commitment
Although individualism has some negative effects, it is still the basic value in America. There must be some means to decrease the bad influences. The author of the book Habits of the Heart, Robert. N. Bellah holds that the concept of commitment can remedy the bad influence of individualism. He explains the concept of commitment in such words: The commitment gives profit to the entire nation; it includes building up the friendship and credence through the set-up of the public establishment. As a matter of fact, the concept of commitment in America has existed for a long time. In the early period of immigration, they wanted to build up a common living place in which there was real moral and spiritual life. The concept of commitment did not lack in American value at the very beginning. In the generation of formation, more people showed care for the country and society. President Jefferson advocated building up small communities, and people in every community were managers of public events. They performed power and fulfilled duties. He also propagated that loving neighbors was just like loving themselves. His thought influenced a lot of people. Nowadays, many Americans do the volunteer work without being paid. They appeal for the improvement of environment and the protection of human rights. All these reflect that people have the sense of commitment.
2. Restriction of the law and moral
Individuals respect the values and rights and enjoy the happiness of individualism. To the left, it can lead to freedom, equality and human right. But if it develops to the extreme right, it may lead to egoism that happens between people and the nation. The individualist values in the micro view are based on the system of democracy and laws. Everyone has the right to maintain and pursue their own happiness. The system is inward and realized through balancing each member inside. Besides balancing each other, the double restricts of laws and morals are very important. Laws can guarantee people’s interests. There is no mistake to pursue happiness of one’s own, but at the same time, one can not prevent others doing the same thing. People should be sincere to open their hearts, thus the communication will become simple and pleasant.
It is time for Americans to wake up from their self-absorbed, egocentric trances and start taking on more adult responsibilities of being global citizens, sharing this planet with many others in a sustainable, thoughtful and compassionate way.
VI. Conclusion
Overall, individualism has played an indispensable role in the history of the United States. Both for the American society and Americans, the noblest aspirations are closely linked with individualism. Americans believe in the dignity of the individual, respect individuals’ independent thinking and independent judgments, and rely on their own strength to achieve personal achievements. These are the positive performance of individualism. However, the extreme individualism has caused serious harm to the people and society. We do not argue whether Americans should give up their individualism, because for the Americans, to abandon their individualism is tantamount to abandon the most profound essence. Anyway, to set proper measures to the development of individualism, then to reconstruct an opening, cooperating and innovating American individualism by means of political, economical, social and cultural developments, will be a Herculean task for all Americans throughout a long time period in future.
From this paper, we learn more about the American life and society. Through the understanding of individualism, people can know more about American culture. Language and culture can not be separated. Only when they know the relationship between individualism and American culture, can they promote a more efficient cross-cultural communication. Only when the communication between the east and the west are promoted, can the problem of disagreement be solved. As a result, people will get better understanding of each other. 下载本文
