Does the title confuse you? Well, July 4 is the day America ascertained formally its status as an independent country. After a long struggle to wriggle out of the harsh hold of the colonial mindset of the British Isles, July 4 was the day when was born that idea called America. It has a truly unique structure as a concept. Let us see if we can unravel it in a brief way, and thus wish America many more happier 're-turns' of its unique Americanness.
America was initially the settlement of /by Puritans who had to migrate from their motherland, England, to escape the intolerant ill-treatment during the reign of Charles II. In other words, America is essentially a land of immigrants, though not always of those persecuted back home.
The Puritan forefathers wanted to build a new h(e)aven, a beacon like a temple atop a boulder, a huge rock. In other words, in its very inception, there is a sense of a new beginning. These early settlers were extremely hard working, and literally created a new Eden on the foreign soil. Their rich produce sent back to homeland attracted other adventurers from all over Europe.
In other words, since its inception, America has celebrated hard work, the rags to riches dream, the log cabin to the White House story. When fortune seekers from all over Europe started flocking to America, the need to explore the Wild West and the sunny south was inevitable.
Thus began and flourished the idea of America as the land of dreams, of the adventurer spirit exploring the new, the unknown. Sure, in the process were massacred brutally the original tribes. None cared then! Now emerge murmurs of reparation so that their unique culture and language survive.
In a way, we can hence maintain that America as a concept is both inclusive (as a land, right from the beginning of emigrants/immigrants) and equally exclusionary as is proven by the fate of the original tribes, and much worse, of the African slaves bought for all the back-breaking hard work.
Even today, America appears to be both, a combo, a federal republic of many and quite disparate states, a collage wherein different identities create a new mix, and a chaos, wherein too many ingredients cancelling each other, are always on the boil. Even today hence the contrast between the industrialized North and the agrarian South, the conflict between the White and the 'others' continue, causing discordant notes.
After the World War II, and during the Cold War era, America ossified its superpower status. Not only the Vietnam body bags kind of questioning of the status quo, but also the changed world realities which are essentially multi-polar now would not any longer accept the American big boss attitude.
The arrogance hence of the Boston Brahmins who talked to each other, or to the Lord, has melted democratically to greet the Latinos the"hola" way and bid "ciao" to Italians by accepting that they alone are not the Mafia!
In brief, the United States, quite a peg down its grandiose self-image, despite the 'silicon valley' and 'coke-n-Mcdy ' empires, may not exactly totter like the possible presidential candidate of a certain party, and hence deserves our toast on July 4!
Pratima@ "To be free," opined Nelson Mandela, "is to respect and enhance others' freedom, others' independence"!
No comments:
Post a Comment