Thoughts on Cultural Self-Identification

Some good TED Talks:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html

Why I don't feel like I identify with being an American. Most of the thinkers that have influenced me have been English, French, German, and ancient Greek.

Note: For some reason during the video, it did not occur to me that Ayn Rand was Russian and an immigrant, so is Rothbard really the only American philosopher to strongly influence me? And even he largely said things I already thought.

Other thinkers that have influenced my thought in various ways (none of which seem to be American):
Max Stirner
Friedrich Nietzsche
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Frederic Bastiat
Gustave de Molinari
Richard Dawkins (mostly via The Selfish Gene)

But there are a couple Americans!:
George H. Smith
Roderick Long (though via Randian and Aristotelian thinking mostly)
John Searle
Thomas Jefferson (THE American, philosophically, despite his own moral failings)

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• america
• american
• united
• states
• western
• culture
• philosophy
• ethics

[Pentazoid111]

Since you identify with western culture, do you generally identify more with people who were brought up in the west versus people who were brought up in a non-western culturebut who entirely embraced what you embraced?If neither of the people whowere brought up in the west versus the people whowere brought up in a nonwestern culture shared any of your ideas and values,given a choice, would you still identify with the westerners more than the non-westerners even if they did not share your values?

[XOmniverse]

@Pentazoid111 Actually I think I'd be more likely to identify with the non-westerners, and here is why.

Someone born in the West is exposed to Western Culture from birth. They've never made a conscious commitment to it, and it wasn't really a choice. They are less likely to have integrity towards western values.

Someone born outside the West who deliberately CHOSE the West is more likely to be someone explicitly committed to the values of the West.

[MaikUniversum]

I always found cultural self-identification and nationalism stupid, religion-like idea (even when I wasn't anarchist). It's another form of brainless-colectivism. I don't feel "lithuanian", I don't think we are somehow different from other nations. Though, there was a point in my life (yearly teen years), when I thought all americans were stupid and all russians were just violent scums, or something like that. But that's mostly has to do with state and tv propaganda, not actual experience.

[XOmniverse]

Well hopefully I've played a role in improving your view of Americans (or at least in the potential of Americans).

[Pentazoid111]

yeah, but are philosophers and political thinkers the only people who shaped the person that you are ? I cannot say that intellectual development for me anyway as a whole make s up the person that you are. You don't think the moviews and books that you read for entertainment that might have come from americans have shaped your personality as well?

[XOmniverse]

I'm sure they have, as did the British ones :)

You see what I am saying?

[PoweredByMagnets]

Aside from southerners, I think American culture doesn't have an identity because it prides itself on diversity. We're constantly taught to embrace minorities and reject our own identity. I disagree that cultures with a strong sense of identity will disappear. I think it's the diverse cultures that will disappear and be overtaken by those with strong identities, such as the Islamic movement that's growing across Europe. The diverse British culture, in particular, is on the verge of extinction.

[wadams19]

@ legendre007

Let me refocus. When I said "thinking", I probably should have said "discourse with others because you need them to underwrite your ideas".

I definitely didn't mean thinking things through in order to come to more a objective conclusion.

[legendre007]

Wait; Locke wrote more than 2 treatises. But you get the idea. ;-)

[legendre007]

Where would the doing be without the thinking, and where would the thinking be without the doing?

Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, etc., were doers who created electric motors. But that doing was contingent on their thinking. Moreover, the pioneers in electricity generation credited Michael Faraday's discoveries with giving them the knowledge they needed to engineer such inventions.

John Locke wrote 2 treatises. Would the USA be great at all, were it not for Locke's treatises? :-)

[modelmark]

I extrapolated from the shotguns and I knew a norwegian once that regularly crossed the street with a backpack of gunpowder for his shooting hobby, so I concluded from that it was legal. Thanks for the correction.

[TotalAnomy]

Well...fwiw I live in Brazil, and there are some putatively typical american cultural characteristics that I am often saddened to see lacking among my compatriots, namely that whole don't tread on me/ don't take our guns spirit. Of course this sometimes is associated with other characteristics which I don't like such as traditionalism and constitution-worship, but I'd make that trade any day.

[GodHatesFacts]

@modelmark I don't know about Switzerland, but here in Norway gun laws are quite strict except for when it comes to hunting. Still we're not far behind the US in weapon density, and there are of course a lot of unregistered guns which is why I would prefer much less strict laws concerning this issue.

[beanlud]

I get the main point of your video. I identify with Western culture as well and view American culture as part of western culture. But i dont think that it is superficial to call yourself an American rather than a westerner. I think that America is very important historically and it is the embodiment of the Western thinkers' philosophy.