American culture is in its awkward teen years. It is incredibly self-centered and selfish. Struggling with the desire for independence and the knowledge it cannot yet support itself on its own. When looking inward we don't find inner peace but gnawing desire and lusts. When looking outward we don't see fellowship and respected peers but competition for resources, mates, status, wealth. We as a culture have not yet become enlightened, we are only riding on the coat-tails of the Enlightenment.
We have lessons we desperately need to learn to keep growing, to mature. To work well with others, to channel our energy into creativity rather than destruction and fierce competition, to respect and exist alongside those different from us. To grow beyond a vain Ego. To move beyond callous reductionism into holistic systemic study.
Our culture feels vulnerable, others seem to creep in and threaten our burgeoning identity. Yet our identity was built on absorption - assimilation - integration. We grow strong when novel ideas and culture are introduced to us, understood by us, adapted by us, mixed with us. That is the American culture. The ability to take in other cultures, ideas, schools of thought and make them American. Weave them as threads into our tapestry of national self.
Yet in our immaturity we feel as if our culture is set and fixed, done growing. We are the young teen who believes they have the whole world figured out. As an adolescent culture, however, we still have much growth ahead of us. We still have continuing education to pursue, vocations to train for, opportunities to adapt, change, and improve still available and waiting for us.
We flirt with authoritarianism to solve our problems with force and might, like a bully. We secretly, shyly, pine after collectivism, to belong and coexist. We stand on the precipice of deciding what type of adult we will grow into. We mistakenly identify authority with strength rather than responsibility. We mistake tolerance and acceptance as weakness rather than true maturity. We must learn to discuss and debate, not fight and belittle.
Our great admonition is to learn to balance competition with cooperation. Our great work is to forge and temper, strengthening us as a whole, not merely the ornamental gilded edge of wealthy elite. We must be graceful in victory not just in defeat. When on the field of sport and contest to play hard, yet fair. When we step off into the rest of life to respect and love one another as brothers and sisters, fellow Americans all.
We are living in a time of great change and great choice. The changes we make and the choices we take will forever alter our trajectory into adulthood as a People, as a Nation, and as a Culture. There are no sidelines in this moment. We either stagnate or grow as a whole. We are all in this together.