>>America may have some great things going for it, but cultural unity is not one of them.
As an immigrant who has lived in both coasts as well as "flyover country", I totally agree. The claim that unlimited immigration would ruin American culture is laughable, because there is no such thing as "American culture". America has always been a melting pot of different cultures, much more so than any other country in the history of the world. That is what makes it unique.
> The claim that unlimited immigration would ruin American culture is laughable, because there is no such thing as "American culture". America has always been a melting pot of different cultures, much more so than any other country in the history of the world. That is what makes it unique.
This same claim gets made about Canada, and I always found it particularly offensive to anyone who isn't an immigrant with a foreign culture. It's a riduclous statement anyway. The south doesn't have their own culture? East vs west coast? Europeans were pointing out yesterday that Americans have different expectations for housing (bigger housing, suburbs), is that not a part of the culture?
Isn't the idea that we are welcoming to foreign cultures, and actively embrace multiculturalism a part of the culture?
That's exactly what I am saying: there is no homogeneous "American culture." It's a combination of many different cultures and cultural elements, some originated in America (e.g. jazz), others brought by immigrants and recalibrated for America (e.g. Tex-Mex). This cultural diversity is what makes America, America.
Compare this to, say, Norway, which is significantly more culturally homogeneous, so a sudden influx of a great number of immigrants would actually noticeably erode or at least dilute the native Norwegian culture.
While our culture is certainly more diverse than Norway's, I absolutely think that there are American values that, while certainly not held by all, do define us as a nation. Among them I would include:
- Pluralism
- A belief in the value of hard work
- A strong commitment to individual rights / individualism
- A certain degree of puritanism
- A belief in American Exceptionalism
- A belief that fairness should always be aspired to
- A fairly strong commitment to market capitalism
- A healthy dose of skepticism that government intervention is the solution to many problems
- A commitment that the "American Dream" is something that we should always strive to make real for everyone
None of those are American values or uniquely American. The belief in the value of hard work is a Puritan value, for instance. And everything else you listed is, to a certain extent (sometimes exceedingly so), shared by many other cultures. You think only Americans are skeptical of government intervention? You should travel to Turkey sometime and talk to some of my countrymen about what they think of the Turkish government. :)
Individual items in this list are certainly not unique, but I think that the list as a whole (with probably an addition or three) combined in the particular way that America does it is unique.
Yeah, but if you're willing to admit that these values are not universally or uniquely held by Americans, what is the problem?
If the Average American only holds 6 out of 10 of your imaginary Core American Values, what does it matter if we invite in a hundred million New Americans who also only hold 6 out of the 10, because they were from a different culture? Where is the assimilation problem?
(Also, "free market capitalism" and "skeptical of government intervention"? Really? Are you living in a bubble or just willfully pretending that the last 100 years of American history don't exist?)
As an immigrant who has lived in both coasts as well as "flyover country", I totally agree. The claim that unlimited immigration would ruin American culture is laughable, because there is no such thing as "American culture". America has always been a melting pot of different cultures, much more so than any other country in the history of the world. That is what makes it unique.