Topic 113: American Aggressiveness

Carol:

Thank you, Dr. Nisbet

 My first thought when I saw today’s topic was that there must be an answer in deTocqueville.  But, when I started reading snippits of his book Democracy in America online, I realized that it would take me a week to figure out what is relevant to the topic of “American aggressiveness.” What I did skim from my google search was so interesting—and so prescient from a Frenchman who toured American in the early 1830’s—that I wanted to stop writing this essay and rush down to where I know we have a copy getting dusty on a bookshelf in our basement.  In fact, I had a thought—a fleeting thought—that Alexis Tocqueville should be required reading in all  American schools.
 

I haven’t read Democracy in America since 1971, when I enrolled in an upper-division sociology class.  I had made it through the introductory sociology class during the previous Fall, one of those gigantic classes held in an auditorium so that the professor could lecture to 400 people at once. I liked it well enough, but mainly because I sat next to an interesting young man named Morgan who took me to the art building at night to throw clay.  Morgan and I became “friends for life,” and I got an A in the class only because I knew how to write a good essay . The TA lobbied for me when I almost flunked the multiple choice exam. I was never aggressive about studying or grades.
 

That next Spring I ended up taking the advanced sociology class for two reasons:  (1)Marc  talked me into it; and (2) the professor, Robert Nisbet, was supposed to be famous.  That was the Spring Ronald Reagan closed  the California university campuses, of  Kent State, lots of protests, and my own  escalating romantic silliness regarding my boyfriend/future husband.  Marc and I were on completely different academic tracks, so this would be my only chance to actually take a course  together since he assured me he just didn’t have time in his schedule of economics, political science and sociology classes to fit in literature.   Marc was already thinking about law school and was really aggressive about studying and grades.
 

So, I took the course, but I didn’t do justice to the class,  to DeToqueville, or to Robert Nisbet.  Our primary textbook was his own 1953 book The Quest for Community: A Study of Ethics of Order and Freedom, which is also getting dusty on a bookshelf in our basement. We also read Marc Bloch’s Feudal Society and Democracy in America.   I kind of read the books, I kind of took notes in class, and I only stayed up all night to cram once, i.e. to keep Marc company when he stayed up to write a paper.  I think he was disappointed that I didn’t share his enthusiasm, and he got kind of mad at me when I was satisfied with a B after not trying very hard and he must have been disappointed at my lukewarm attitude. Marc was a Nisbet  groupie.
 

Turns out Robert Nisbet was famous, a brilliant sociologist who was an engaging lecturer in class. He had a particular gift for making history come alive through his descriptions and connections. He was also a Conservative of such political stature that he eventually spent eight years at the American Enterprise Institute, which despite calling itself nonpartisan is often described as one of America’s most influential neoconservative “think tanks.” 
 
Back then, I never really thought about any of my professors outside the context of their classrooms.  Professor Nisbet never talked politics per se in class and I wasn’t sophisticated enough to recognize conservative theories in his approach to the subject matter. But, the name of the course was Community, and I doubt he felt like he was part of a community that Spring of campus protest, student radicalization and aggressive intolerance across  the political spectrum.  
 

Thanks, Marc, for talking me into that class.

Megan:

Well, hello there. How have you been? Me? Not so great, although I am better today. I figured out Tuesday night that I might be allergic to the Vicodin, but kept taking it through yesterday because it made my back feel better even while kicking me repeatedly in the stomach and head. Today I am finally accepting that I should not take the painkillers, but still taking the other little pills. Did anyone see Modern Family last week when Gloria washed down a Valium with a shot of tequila and then turned all lovey-dovey? That has not been my experience, but maybe it’s because I left out the tequila. Instead, I just feel pretty relaxed. And I can move my head.

Anywho, even though I haven’t felt up to writing any essays, I have been retagging all the old entries and now we have a word cloud. I was wrong when I said Milo would be the biggest word. "Prison" beats "Milo", but "Family" and "Cartoons" beat everything else. Mom says I misspelled "Genealogy".  "Day off" is quite large as well, and that’s totally my fault because I’ve had about 5 times as many days off as Mom.  As a qualified librarian, I would like to think that my classification of the entries is accurate, but please keep in mind that I was heavily medicated and simultaneously watching Lifetime: Television for Women. So, it’s a work in progress, just like the rest of the site.

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On any other day, I might have a lot to say about this topic. I could cite a number of examples in movies, literature and my own experience of the rude and aggressive ways Americans act while abroad. Or I could talk about guns, and how Americans keep killing each other with guns.  Or road rage. Or rudeness to people in the service industry.

But I can think of just as many examples of the English doing the same. There are movies and television shows about how the British act abroad (they have a reputation of tight-fisted-ness) – see the hilarious show Benidorm. And while gun crime is much lower in Britain, it’s still a problem (they blame us though) as is  road rage (we had the Road Rage Killer in our prison) and rudeness. I imagine these problems exist in every culture to some extent.

I also think the idea of American Aggressiveness is an external (foreign) one,  and that most of us don’t think of ourselves that way. Some of us do have a sense of individualized entitlement though, that other cultures seem to envy and resent at the same time. Concepts like "The American Dream", and "The American Way", and "This Is Still a Free Country, Isn’t It?!" … that in general, don’t really exist. Our government (no matter who is in power) seems so sure that the rest of the world is just one nuclear bomb away from invading us, that it pours our resources into defense and ignore domestic needs like education and health care. What’s to envy about that? Sometimes it seems to me that all this “aggression” is just a front we put out for the rest of the world, to hide our fears, just like a schoolyard bully is really just an insecure kid.

That being said, most people I know are just trying to get along in the world, dealing with their own family issues and economic stresses. Really, I don’t think we’re all that bad.