By Maureen Dowd
The Wall Street Journal had an article last week reporting that, now that gas prices have gone back down, almost half a million fuel-frugal small cars are piling up unsold at dealers around the country.
“I don’t think Americans really like small cars,” Beau Boeckmann, a Ford dealer in California, told The Journal. “They drive them when they think they have to, when gas prices are high. But we’re big people, and we like big cars.”
That’s the big nettle we’re grasping. How big do we need to be to still feel American? How big can our national debt grow? How big can our cars be? And how big is our clout abroad these days? Will Michelle’s style in Europe make as big a splash as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s?
The cowboy push by W. and Dick Cheney to be a hyperpower and an empire left America a weakened and tapped-out power, straining to defend its runaway capitalism even as it uneasily adapts to its desperation socialism.
How do we come to terms with the gluttony that exploded our economy and still retain our reptilian American desire for living large? How do we make the pursuit of the American dream a satisfying quest rather than a selfish one?
For more on the subject, see America's cultural mindset.
P.S. This "reptilian brain" business may unfairly stereotype reptiles, but that's beyond the scope of this blog.
Below: "Yee-haw! We're gonna rootin-tootin' rule the world for eight years!
"After that I don't care what happens. Let the pointy-head guy fix my mess."
"The answer is by adopting a more sustainable lifestyle based on traditional Native values."
ReplyDeleteWhy not take the best from each culture or a multicultural viewpoint? Also there isn't an American viewpoint; we're a tad too diverse for that.
"How big can our national debt grow?"
ReplyDeleteWith Obama pushing to increase the debt faster than Bush did, perhaps this post could have had an illustration of Obama instead of a has-been former President.
While I agree that Native values are intelligent and good rules to live by, I don’t see general society accepting that practice. "We" are too steeped in the idea that we must best our friends and neighbors and amass the biggest pile of toys to prove our placement in this silly social system where we spend beyond our ability into the projection of financial worth set beyond our means as decided by credit companies who hope to see us fail… so as to increase their own wealth. I would give up and hide my head if it were not for those who use their common sense and use only what they need, give generously to those in need, take care of what they have and clean up their own messes.
ReplyDeleteRe "Why not take the best from each culture or a multicultural viewpoint?" I didn't say we should abandon one culture for another. Adopting more of a sustainable lifestyle means shifting partially from one set of values to another. It means taking more of a multicultural perspective and less of a monocultural American perspective.
ReplyDeleteI think we're all aware that America has multiple sociocultural strains. E.g., liberal vs. conservative, religious vs. secular, rich vs. poor, urban vs. rural--not to mention thousands of ethnic groups. But I've argued that a dominant belief system, a mindset, holds sway in America. It influences and shapes our culture whether one subscribes to it personally or not.
For more on the subject, see America's Elephantine Bodies.
P.S. Obama is increasing our national debt only because of the financial crisis created by Bush's deregulation of Wall Street.