American Neurosis - A Cultural Analysis - Pt2/3

[gabrielg01]

Meritocracy in America only exists on paper, not in practice.

The biggest money makers are bankers, lawyers, corporate paper-pusher types, people who do not produce anything tangible, yet they control the levers of power and materially exploit those levers. This is some new version of aristocracy.

Real meritocracy is very rare in real life.

[saiphyn11]

You obviously either have not been a Christian or else you've been involved in a poorly-led Christian community. It doesn't work like, "If I do good, God will reward me." God doesn't have to give us ANYTHING! We can do good deeds to the end and we are deserving of nothing. It's a lie that prays on Christians in order to turn us into self-directed, self-centered human beings, but any decent Christian pastor or parish or whatever should know better and should share that knowledge with others.

[doireallyneed1]

Many times I have heard a finacially successful individual speak some variation of "I worked hard to get where I am".

Whether it seems to come out of conceit or guilt it always conveys that sense of entitlement. It always implies that everyone else who has less must have been slacking off.

For depressing examples of this attitude just read comments on any YouTube video about socialized medicine.

[shahrazade26]

I agree with the whole video. The success paradigm has made it difficult for people to be happy. As if they forgot why they were going for success in the first place.

I got out of that trap years ago.

[sfg911]

I think I get what you are saying. But then what do other countries do? What is different in England, Ireland, Australia, Germany, etc..??

[MenoftheInfinite]

All nations, though more especially western ones, express all of these traits to varying degrees (as I mention in the vids), but their different developmental history and overall national ethos means there are differences.  Australia, for example, is more naturally egalitarian and has a different attitude to social classes.

Like I say, America is simply the best example to illustrate these ideas. It also doesn't hurt to understand the psyche of the nation that more or less runs the world.

[Kloxboy]

I'm curious, why are we talking about America?

[MenoftheInfinite]

It's the best example of these particular psychological maladies that I can think of. They speak to particular traits of the way ego works that we can all likely see in our own behaviour and thinking.