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The Industrial Culture of America: Assimilation of an Automaton Populace (vs. the rich cultural, freedom of expression of Europe) Introduction For those interested in hearing a broad educated well-traveled viewpoint, I've written this essay to explain why I am dissatisfied and unfulfilled with life in America, feeling like a fish out of water, and find areas like Europe much more fulfilling and satisfying. The following lists only some of my complaints and the factors at stake. The industrial culture's stagnation of mind and soul The problem with mainstream life in America is that there is basically nothing to expand your mind or soul, like there is in Europe in plenty.
On the average, not much good or bad happens; time just passes and life is wasted in mind-numbing mechanistic routine in conformity to the industrial culture of mass production and consumerism, which perpetuate the stability and expansion of the industrial forces that dominate the country, which also seek to make the rest of the world a part of it. Let's elaborate on some of the factors at work. Although America tries to pretend to be a multi-cultural melting pot of diversity, to appease its many ethnic groups, in reality there is no real culture in America (notwithstanding a few exceptions, e. g. San Francisco, New Orleans), at least not by the standards of the rest of the world. It's basically a giant "industrial culture", a "national machine" of mass production and consumption, seeking to globalize the world, and make all in its path fit into mechanistic structures designed to stabilize, preserve and perpetuate the forces that run it.
Its sole aim and function being of mass production for profit. Even foreign immigrants who come here lose their culture, as they become immersed and "assimilated" into the gigantic industrial culture of modern day America. Those who "assimilate" into the industrial culture are rewarded with a mechanistic automated life of non-expression and over consumption (in foods and material luxuries), while those who don't are labeled as misfits and losers, who will be left behind in the "rat race." Those with a strong need for self-expression often feel suffocated in corporate America, instead becoming starving artists, actors, musicians, small business owners, hippies, or living some other poor Bohemian lifestyle, as a fish out of water. Thus, while America boasts freedom politically and legally, there is no true freedom of the SOUL, something much more abundant in European cultures. On the contrary, life in America stagnates and stunts the growth and development of the soul, as conformity to an industrial culture and materialistic mentality is gradually forced upon you. Regulating self-expression in an automaton society What most Americans don't know and don't realize is that the industrial corporate forces that control everything in the country, NEED them to be automatons, without self-expression or critical "out of the box" thinking, and therefore set up the conditions to make and keep them that way too, so the industrial structure of this country can prosper and stabilize.
To maintain the status quo, free expression needs to be squelched to keep the lives of the populace as automaton-like as possible. Since America is a generally stable and conformist-oriented country, its economic system is dependent on people who rigidly conform to it. Most Americans don't realize this because they " ve never stepped outside of it like I and others have, so they think that it's "the universe" and nothing else is outside of it. But as in the "Cave Analogy" by Plato, some do escape the shadows on the cave wall and step out to see the light, but of course, the national media, owned and funded by corporate industrial interests, never give them an outlet to present their viewpoints. One way corporate America forces its citizens to become automatons is by discouraging and banning any kind of self-expression in the workplace (ok at least you " re allowed to hang pictures of your family in your cubicle), allowing only conformity to the corporate structure. With no freedom of expression in corporate / industrial America, there are no true outlets to expand your mind and soul.
There is only freedom to move up and down the corporate ladder (or sideways). Thus, Americans are conditioned to identify themselves with their career status, even judging their self-worth by it. To quell the human need for self-expression and provide an outlet for it, the American population gets to see actors, entertainers, and athletes express themselves in movies, television, and professional sports. These forms of entertainment allow the automaton populace to have a controlled, canned, form of expression. In effect, the automatons who spend the day as slaves to corporate America can "express" themselves by identifying with movie stars. It's no wonder that Americans idolize movie stars so much that they read tabloids about every scoop about their personal lives, more so in comparison than people in other countries do.
You would think that if they had more interesting and fulfilling lives, they wouldn't need to, but they don't, sadly and unfortunately. And as for youngsters, they are given a wide barrage of extremely elaborate interactive involving video games to allow them to vent their energies (aggression for males); in yet another form of senseless entertainment that provides more distraction from critical thinking or community development. What this does is turn the population into passive observers (as globally acclaimed author and critic of US media, Noam Chomsky, has noted in his publications). Instead of critically thinking about their lives and society, being aware of what's going on, their attention and energy is vented through outlets such as the above, which serve no threat to the hierarchical power structure of this country, diffusing any possibility of revolution. In addition, the American population is bombarded relentlessly by daily mass advertising in many forms, turning them into zombies whose only inclination is deciding what to buy next. All of this is done to keep the automatons in line to buy what is produced as much as possible, resulting in over consumption far beyond necessity.
Segregating and isolating the populace to prevent revolution Another way to maintain the power structure, keep people as automatons, and prevent any form of revolution is by segregating and isolating the population. Those in power in this country know that for real change to occur, it would require mass grass roots movements from large segments of the population. In order to diffuse that possibility, they divide and segregate the population in a variety of ways to prevent collective bonding that would pose as a threat. The following are just a few examples: Mainstream people in the suburbs are isolated in their homes, living in their own world.
Neighborhoods lack any real sense of community or togetherness; many live for years in their homes without ever getting to know...
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Research essay sample on Life In America Mind And Soul
