English
The majority of contemporary Americans do not believe in cooperation and unification of ideas for the betterment of society as a unit. Americans further adopts the concept of self-empowerment and self-enrichment to the expense of the larger society. In fact, the factor of humanity and community inclusion is rarely practiced in the modern American world. What is more, Americans will go to length in getting the best from others for personal interests and gains. The issue of brotherhood and sisterhood is relatively losing its meaning in American culture. Additionally, there is division of American society on the basis of culture, economy and religion. The issue of human diversity lacks its integral meaning, in the modern American society. The study aims at extrapolating on the individualism among American society in matters of warfare, politics, economic empowerment, race and sports.
In terms of warfare, US hold one of the most complicated and advanced military units in the world. The military operation bases are distributed across the world. Guantanamo bay exemplifies one of US anti-terrorist military operation. Such military bases are meant for improving security across the world. In many cases, the involvement of US military operations is associated with personal interest rather than the wider community. The establishment of such military bases across the world aims at elevating and maintaining the super-power status. As a nation, US will go to an extra mile to protect its citizens. As a result, the government adopts American-oriented international policies, which ought to be respected by the rest of the world. After the 2001 terrorism attack, the government adopted stiff policies on immigration. Consequently, foreigners visiting the nation have to undergo extreme scrutiny in an effort of curbing terrorism. Usually, such policies are formulated and implemented in a manner that they tend to benefit the wider community. US have been known to engage in war with non-compliance nations, in the line of policy implementation. What is more, US have been the centre of wars across the world. The war in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan to mention a few, depicts the aspect of individualism among Americans. In the year 2001, US accused Iraq of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. This resulted to the Iraq war, the mystery of which has not been solved to date. It is evidently that initiation of such wars reflects an aspect of individualism. Such war aims at benefiting US, in term of economic empowerment. This depicts the extent American will go to fulfil their personal interests, as opposed to interest of the wider society.
Apart from warfare, political environment in US is self-centred. During campaigns, candidates present community-oriented manifestos to lure the public into voting them. Political candidates fail to fulfil their promises to the people after elections. The factor of self-empowerment comes into play among the politicians. This is indicated by the planning and implementation of the budget. In 2013, the congress and senate engaged the government in a political battle, which involved budgetary allocation for the healthcare program. Subsequently, the showdown between the congress and the government lead to shutdown. The congress argued that the healthcare program will increase the overall budgetary expenditure in US. Contrastingly; the government introduced the program for the benefit of the wider society. It is the aspect of personal interests depicted by the congress, which propagates individualism among the Americans. The politicians were ready to shut down major government activities, which are society-oriented for their personal interests. Over centuries, the aspect of feminism has been developed by the Americans. The society has never voted for a female president. The belief that a male politician is more powerful and charismatic than a female politician depicts an aspect of feminism. As a result, the male politicians have continued to dominate the political platform with promises of quality governance. If the Americans appreciate diversity, equal opportunities should be provided to all candidates irrespective of gender. Political analysts argue that election policies and requirements are not favourable for the female candidates.
In addition, economic empowerment among Americans is individual-based. There is significant marginal difference among various social classes in US. The rich continue to empower themselves economically through accumulation of wealth and vital resources. Evidently, the majority of the American population lie in the middle- and lower-class groups. There is an unequal distribution of resources across the states. Consequently, poverty levels are escalating at an alarming rate. The government has implemented welfare program aimed at alleviating the poverty level in US. One of the programs aims at settling healthcare requirements for the lower class population. The government aims at applying taxation process based on personal income. As a result, the rich will be taxed highly for the access of health care services. Contrastingly, the program has received massive criticism from the rich and middle-class population, which depicts individualism.
There is also individualism, in relation to race. Americans are one of the world largest culturally-diversified communities. The cultural diversity is defined along race and ethnic grouping. Race plays a significant part, when it comes to policy implementation. The segregation and misrepresentation of minorities in some of the government activities depict individualism. In the line of policing, the majority of prisoners are from the Black and minority communities. In addition, discrimination and abuse by the superior races in US has been the order of the day. This is reflected in massive gap in economic empowerment, job positions and overall living standard between the minorities and the wider communities. In fact, there exists an inter-relationship between race and sports. The segregated minority groups such as blacks and Latinos dominate sports such as basketball. Contrastingly, the coaches and owners of such clubs are the white-majority. This depicts dominance of the aristocrats in sports and overall American society for personal gains.
Individualism is also depicted in sports. American participates in domestic sports, as opposed to internationals sports. Sports such as super bowl, American Football and Baseball are American-oriented. Americans tend to adopt domestic sports rather than engage in intercontinental sports competitions. The aim is to retain super-power and self-reliance states, as opposed to international cooperation. There are very few competitive sports that Americans engage at world level such as Olympics. Consequently, US boast of one of competitive, best-paying and profitable sports in the world.
Conclusively, engagement in warfare, individual-based politics and self-economic empowerment depicts increase in individualism among Americans. In addition, selective implementation of policies along race line and self-reliance in sports portrays self-assimilation of American society. This explains that Americans only care about their own welfare, without any regard for their fellow brother or sister. The objective of individualism is to retain super-power state, personal enrichment and exploitation of available opportunities.
