American Paradox
What does it mean to be an American? I propose that it is, above all, to be a living paradox: internally conflicted and often self-contradictory, yet deeply human.
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We go to war for our freedom, yet do everything in our power to limit others’. We resist governmental oversight, yet use those same tools to ensure our neighbors do what we want them to. We are publicly welcoming, yet privately bigoted. We are obsessed with physical appearance, yet continually sabotage our own bodies. We police the world, yet show no interest in anything else about it. We idolize success, yet as a nation, we can get nothing done. We brag about American exceptionalism, yet violently disagree on what that means. Our militaries protect foreigners, yet our police hunt our own citizens. We thump our Bibles, yet we break every commandment daily. We spend a fortune on clothing, yet we dress like slobs. We are doubtless in our opinions, yet we are wildly under-educated and under-informed. We are full of opinion, yet devoid of information. We market nutrition, yet we sell toxins. We are fiercely clannish, yet we are strangers to our own families. We are a nation of immigrants… that hates immigrants. And our nation was founded on a set of guiding principles that we spend countless hours and resources attempting to erase from our own history.
To be an American is to be a walking contradiction.
We are paradoxes, and yet all of this stems from a place of authenticity. How? Authenticity doesn’t imply “good”, or “right”. Our behaviors are true insofar as they duly reflect who we are. It is our words that go unfulfilled because if we ignored American words and looked only at American actions, we would have a very clear picture of what it is to be an American.
We are consistent folk. Not that we are alike. Americans are participants in a painfully forced and messy constellation of “marriages”. With that said, we are all part of the American paradox.
On whichever end of the pendulum you might swing, the question is, “What is it about being American that makes us say one thing and do another? That makes us talk about rights then attack our neighbor for trying to exercise theirs? That makes us trumpet our strength and yet rob…
