The Fallacy of National Identity
STEREOTYPING BASED ON COUNTRY OF ORIGIN IS OFTEN WRONG–AND EVEN DANGEROUS
Polish people are dumb. Mexicans are lazy. The French are rude. Jews are greedy. Palestinians are terrorists. Oh, and Americans are fat and lazy.
I could list a dozen other stereotypes based on nationality and culture.
What’s interesting about these knee-jerk perceptions about people (based on limited and sometimes erroneous information) is those same standards of judgment apply to everyone. Moreover, the image we see looking in the mirror is not pretty.
Consider movies, media, comedy, and the popular public attitudes within most foreign cultures looking back at *US.* Ask them what they imagine when thinking about AN AMERICAN. Typically, the stereotype of the average American is an overweight, ignorant, bombastic, monolingual slob who is obsessed with assault rifles. Should you doubt this, then you need to get out more and get a broader perspective. As I said, the image isn’t flattering.
We may even be tempted to make fun of ourselves. Yeah, we are fatter than average. And most Americans speak just one language (very poorly, I might add). However, we’re certainly not lazy. Studies show American workers spend more time on the clock than employees just about everywhere. That’s probably because our economic system is so inequitable and demands constant servitude. Whatever, the reasons, U.S. workers typically put in 400 more hours on the job every year compared to our counterparts in Germany, France, and Italy. But no one says the Germans are lazy.
While cultural stereotyping can sometimes be funny in entertainment, making political judgements based on national identity is also just flat out wrong. Worse, it can be dangerous.
Do our political decisions vary much from the way we stereotype other nations? Actually, no. In fact, they’re closely aligned.
The very worst (and arguably least reliable) measure of a nation and its people at any point in time might be its leaders. At first thought, this seems contradictory. However, let’s take our example: Are Americans the optimistic people who progressed beyond all of its early prejudices and intolerances by electing President Barack Obama in 2008, and again in 2012? Or is America the nation of reactionaries, a population overflowing with hate and fear, electing President Donald Trump in 2016? Which of the two is the *real* American identity? Obviously, this is a loaded question with bias. Nonetheless, it reveals the problems with constructing a national identity.
In short, there is no such thing as a typical American.
Could this dichotomy also apply to England? Iran? Israel? China? Russia? The Palestinian territories?
The answer seems obvious.
