Lewis Lapham writes about how he just can't identify himself as just an American, but needs a pronoun infront to truly identify. That people have this need to label and group things that are different. It's realizing that the common ground that is important. Also, too many people aspire to become more alike, with fantasies of wealth and power. People are suppose to be diverse like the contestants on Let's Make a Deal, than look like The Stepford Wives. America is about the invention of self. That Americans are suppose to break the stereotypical molds, not conform to them. Americans are joined together "by complicity in a shared work of imagination." People love this country for the freedom it gives to its citizens, it's that simple. America is the only country where a cornucopia of people can, for the most part, come and live together in peace.
I find this article very interesting but also dated with some of the references he made. It was annoying having to ask my mother or look online to tell me some of the people Lapham referenced too. I agree with Lapham about how people aren't just American and must have a pronoun infront of American to have a "real" identity. I liked when he talked about the real Abraham Lincoln, finding out that he wasn't the perfect, stand-up guy our history teachers lead us to believe. My favorite part was when he compared the diversity of America to Let's Make a Deal, not the yachtsman at a dock in Kennebunkport. Americans are a diverse and colorful people that no other country has. I think the essay overall was well wriiten and executed, and I like a lot of the issues he brought up throughout.
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I believe this brings up the issue of "the Other", where people tend to outcast what is different. People fear what is unknown to them and both fortunately and unfortunately America is a country where there is so much to discover and learn. It's fortunate because we get to educate ourselves about the world and the many different people it consists of to teach us new experiences and new meanings. It is unfortunate because there is so much diversity that people sort of pick their team and it's them against the rest. There's a lot prejudice not only in America but in the entire world and it has always been that way as is evident in this dated article.
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