Day after day I get amazed at the passivity of Americans. It seems particularly noticeable at the moment, with mass protests in Sudan and Hong Kong, with even Brexit bringing hundreds of thousands onto the street. Even as Americans are troubled and concerned about everything – from the concentration camps on the border to the climate crisis – they do nothing. There are no mass protests, even though my understanding is that many, many Americans are indeed troubled and concerned. There is an appearance, at least from the outside, of paralysis: every mention of actions one can take to limit climate change, for instance, is met by but… but…. Don’t use plastic straws – but what about people who have difficulties sucking liquids? Plant trees – but what about the fact that it’s global capitalism that is causing climate change? What difference will it make? For a nation that perceives itself as powerful, individualistic, born of a pioneering spirit, they appear fundamentally powerless.
I imagine there are several factors. One is that, simply, things aren’t too bad for most Americans. The country as a whole remains at the top of the pile for now. This hasn’t changed. Life continues, as it does in Britain where one averts eyes from the homeless and mutters angrily about Tory austerity. In Sudan, in Hong Kong, perhaps it was years of feeling trapped and powerless before a match was lit, a spark cast, a straw finally broke the back.
American federalism may also be a factor. If something is taking place in another state, what can one really do? It might as well be a different country. See also: East Pakistan, West Pakistan, 1971.
Not acknowledging reality. Americans are good, Americans don’t really do such things. One may talk about it, worry about it, without really acknowledging deep in one’s heart that it is true because it is so alien to one’s worldview, or to what one desperately wants to be true. Analogous: Pakistani blindness to happenings in Xinjiang.
Homeopathic empowerment. I see, time and again, people writing to senators, wearing pussy hats and making calls answered by a bored staffer who presumably adds a tally mark to a sheet of paper, and that is it. Work to save the planet or close the concentration camps or whatever – done.
A cult of consumerism. I use the word cult thinking of modern brainwashing cults. An all emcompassing view of the world that is very different to break out of. Consumerism is so integral to American society that (a) not-buying from a specific company (rather than in general) is considered sufficient to register protest and (b) it is difficult to even conceive of a life that is less imbued with consumerism.
A belief in heroes and solutions. I wonder if this leads to what I see very often amongst Americans: a distrust of small changes in how one lives and approaches one’s life as contributing to larger societal change. For example, what is the point of reducing single-use plastics in one’s own life, or growing plants instead of using astroturf, when what is needed is (take your pick) breaking the power of oil lobbyists, geo-engineering, political will to change, etc. There is a blindness to the value of societal change, I think.
Obedience/submission to authority in parallel with a belief in being an individualistic society. Nothing to add here, but to say that this seems very surprising to one who comes from a more collectivist society.
I think there will come a point when Americans break and refuse to take it anymore. But given their outsize influence on the rest of the world, I fear that it will be catastrophic or, simply, too late.