 |
America’s Conceptual Self
Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.
|
..definition of a conceptual self ...
That fat belly in front of you is not part of your conceptual self. We all tell a fictional story of our lives (See the link, it is a great read, much better than my explanation of the fictional you .. she calls it the “Story of I”.). Your real life is composed of millions of details that started at your birth. You pick and choose from those details to make up your story. Which details do you pick, perhaps the one’s that you are the most proud of, or the details that have caused you the most pain, or the part of the story your mom made up and handed down to you. But, there are those moments that the noise in your head down and suddenly you are alone with nothingness or perhaps that voice in your head. That’s you, not the story you make up.
You use your conceptual self to answer questions about what you would do in a certain situation. What would you do if someone called you a “ignoramus”. You tap into the story of you and figure out what your conceptual self would do. And then you tell the person in front of you what your fictional person, called you, would do. Often your conceptual self remembers your body that you used to have
Now imagine our country. We formed by rebelling against Britain. Us, Texans fought against Mexico for freedom. We became proud of our individualism and a open-market capitalism. We became proud that we never lose a war especially after we helped Russia kick Hitler’s butt. And Japan with our big bomb.
Well, our image of ourself, of our American Story, took a little beating with Vietnam, and more with Iraq and Afghanistan.
We also think of ourself as the land of opportunity. There was Henry Ford, Einstein, Edison, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, Standard Oil, and the stories of a thousand entrepreneurs that made it America. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the Koch Brothers being some of the more recent. Everyone has a shot.
We took pride in the fact that we were one of the first countries in the world to offer free public education. We were education and creativity personified. Anyone can make it big is what we like to believe. We still have the conceptual view of America that anyone can make it big here. The trouble is, it is just not true. Man-of-War was a great race horse. But in the one race he lost by a nose, to a horse named Upset, Man of War was facing the opposite direction when they fired the gun to start the race. He ran every horse down, except for one. If you look where the poor people in this country start their race, well, the finish line is just too far away from where they are starting. If you want the facts, look at the GINI index (it measures inequality, a big number is bad) or the social progress index, of the way it really is in America now. But, I would advise against it. Our conceptual America is better than the real thing .. just like my young swimmer’s body that I still walk around in inside my head.
No comments:
Post a Comment