Culture is an intriguing and flexible concept. If I were to define it, culture consists of the actions, diet, language, customs, and behaviors of specific people groups, most often separated by geographic or man-made borders. Culture exists because, in more ways than not, it is applicable to the people who are and once were a part of it.

All over the world, we find different examples of cultures, and each and every one of them is unique, and is often associated with certain qualities of the people and the land around where it is most concentrated. And, within all cultures, sub-cultures exist, further defining and changing the people who fit these specialized niches.

One of the ways that we, as human beings, begin to try and understand other cultures is to generalize them into categories and qualities known as stereotypes. However, these stereotypes, while allowing us a small scope of understanding, often are taken and turned comical, even negative. For example, the ‘stereotypical’ Canadian is polite, loves hockey, snow, and all things to do with maple syrup. While this might apply to certain Canadians, many others do not share those same qualities or hobbies, but they are still a part of the Canadian culture. While a stereotype can point to some parts of a cultural identity, it does so in an incomplete and often inaccurate way, whereas a cultural norm is founded on tradition, rather than a generalized opinion.

I think that America, a country that formed and grew due to the influx of many other cultures, has lost a cohesive cultural identity. While I will admit to not being a scholar who studies American Culture extensively, I feel that as Americans, we are not viewed as part of a culture, but as an extension of one of the many ‘American’ stereotypes. This perspective is not limited to those who do not identify as American, but even we ourselves buy (ha, capitalism) into it.

Part of this could be attributed to the many culturally-different migrants that all combined together and became “American,” but I believe the main factor is ‘the American Dream,’ it’s connection to individualism, and the work that goes into progress has not allowed any type of dense, widespread American Culture to spring up into existence.

As we Americans look for good, stable jobs to support our white-picketed house, spouse, car, two and a half kids and a dog, we are not striving to be part of the culture around us in the same way that people in other countries do. We don’t want to stop there, in front of just a homey two-floor and three-bedroom house, we want more, to work hard enough to stand out among our peers, to be able to have a lake house with a boat and a bigger house and a better car and better clothes and… and… and…

And there is no room for us to be, well, anything. We are so concerned about changing ourselves for the better that we never find a place to settle, and thus, we continue to engage in a capitalistic search for meaning and purpose, where the goal itself changes before our eyes, and whatever traditions our ancestors brought begin to become boring, superficial, and second to progress.

However, this is not to say that culture does not exist at all in America, it is just to say that the stereotypical American has taken the place of the cultural American, overshadowing all else. Sub-cultures are still very present in America, differing from city to city, state to state, neighborhood to neighborhood, but they have become disconnected, as we all have lost a common cultural identity and will only answer to the smaller identities that we have created for ourselves.

Because of the loss or a common cultural identity, it has become harder for us Americans to identify with one another, and this can be seen in many of the hardships we face today, such as massive divisions and disagreements in our political system, the systemic racism that will not bow to reason, even the shootings that have plagued our country of late. It is hard to address issues that affect all of us when we have fallen into the mindset that it only affects us and our sub-cultures personally, rather than being able to empathize with the ways that it affects other sub-cultures.

Whatever the reason, the consequences, and the situation we have put ourselves into, it will take not just common ground, but the humbleness and willingness to meet there before America finds itself, and not in material possessions, fame, or power, but in a cultural identity that can respect itself where it is, and as a product of where it came from.