What We're All About

I come from a European household as my father is French and my mother is Dutch. I always have thought of myself as French, Dutch, and American. I’m a dual citizen of the U.S. and France as well as fluent in both languages. I’ve traveled to my parents native countries many many times. Because of all this I feel I have a different perspective than the average American. I learned different values as my parents aren’t American, they just moved here in their twenties. I grew up in a town where everyone around me was for the most part, affluent Americans. To me the biggest thing I noticed with my peers growing up was their obsession with stuff, they always wanted the newest, most expensive, and best stuff.

Gary Althen in American Values and Assumptions, points out key aspects about Americans that I can identify with. The first one that really caught my attention was the subsection titled “Informality.” Americans usually introduce themselves with first name and treat people casually as they believe “all men are equal.” This is not the case in for example say France. When I go to a store or a restaurant or am just out in the general public people will refer to me as “jeune homme” or “monsieur”, which translates to “young man” and “mister”. And that is the beginning of it there is so many different ways to refer to people based on their age, sex, and status. And it all revolves around politeness and formality. Even the word please has two different ways of saying it depending on if you now the person you are talking to or not.

The next biggest to me was the Materialism section. Althen says, “Americans tend to spend money rather freely on material goods. Items that were once considered luxurious are now considered necessities.” I completely agree with Althen on this statement as I have seen it first hand. Many countries that I have visited don’t place their values with materials but instead on the necessities and their their families. For example in France almost everyone drives the same 5 types of French cars that are not in any way luxurious and are much cheaper than what Americans drive. If I walk down to the street right now in San Diego I’ll see a big variety of cars and some luxurious cars. It’s the opposite in other countries.

I believe that it is not the amount of stuff and how expensive it is that makes us better people. Instead it is the values we hold and how we act towards our peers. I’ll admit I’ve fallen in the trap of thinking I need all these things to be happy but I can say first hand that it only hurts you as a person.