American Social Identity

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Religion and voluntary organizations: shaping American social identity

People of different countries and nations have some features in their social identity by which they can be described. Americans are no exceptions to this fact. In discussing Americans we can refer to 4 elements as those that shape or influence the formation of their social identity. These 4 elements are:

1) Soft power,

2) Democracy and pragmatism,

3) Religion and voluntary organizations, and

4) Uniformity.

In this article I’m going to concentrate on the third element: religion and volunteer organizations. America is “one of the most religious nations in the developed world” ^*.According to a survey (Baylor survey), the number of those Americans who said they have no religion has doubled since 1990,” from 7 percent of the population to 14 percent”.” Some sociologists said the jump reflects increasing secularization at the same time that American society is becoming more religious”^*. But this survey “found that one in 10 people who picked "no religion" out of 40 choices did something interesting when asked later where they worship: They named a place. Considering that, Baylor researchers say, the percentage of people who are truly unaffiliated is more like 10.8 percent. The difference between 10.8 percent and 14 percent is about 10 million Americans”^*. Another interesting thing that most experts agree on is this fact that those who said they had no religion just “didn’t want to identify with a political party” ^*. The influence of religion in Americans’ lives is most likely because of the Puritanism of the founders of this nation. They believed that God had given them a mission to save mankind. Thus they involved God in their actions and decisions from the beginning. This belief led to the idea of American Exceptionalism that can be traced from the early years in the history of America till now.

Voluntary organizations in America are also well-known and popular. Actually such activities can be seen even in the beginning years of American history. In other words, voluntary organizations became widespread because if the conditions of living that the first settlers of America faced. When they declared their independence and even before that, they had to encounter many difficulties and hardships. For sure these problems could be overcome by a group better than by an individual. That’s why people gathered in voluntary organization. Now let’s bring some examples of voluntary organizations and activities in young America:Franklin begins the first volunteer firefighting companyin 1736 .Revolutionary War volunteers organize boycotts of British products and collect funds for the war between 1775 t0 1783.The Great Awakening leads students to community work through religious groups in 1830s. First university-based YMCA is founded at the University of Michigan in 1857.Ladies’ Aid Societies were created to make bandages, shirts, towels, bedclothes, uniforms and tents for the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in 1881.First United Way organization is founded in Denver to plan and coordinate local charitable services in 1887.”^**.

While Americans now confront fewer problems than their ancestors, they still continue this trend. It has even been increasing. For example by the end of 1960s “about 150 Volunteer Bureaus exist[ed]”^**this number actually doubled “to more than300” ^**by the end of 1970s. To give you a more recent statistics “more than 365 Volunteer Centers” ^** existed by the end of 2005 and in this year “Volunteer Centers reach[ed] nearly 188 million people in thousands of communities” ^**.

So if we want to speak about American social identity, we can’t ignore religion and voluntary organizations as one of its elements.

*) Quoted from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091100459.html

**) Quoted  from: http://www.pointsoflight.org/downloads/doc/centers/resources/HistoryRevised22206.doc

FILM REVIEW: Dead Man

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A Film Review: Dead Man

Dead man, a Miramax film, was released in 1995 in US. The director and the screenwriter of this 121-min movie is Jim Jarmusch who his famous for his appeal for western genre. Because of exhibiting raw violence and some sexual scenes, the movie’s MPAA rating is R. Johnny Depp(as William Blake), Gary Farmer(as Nobody), Robert Mitchum (as John Dickenson), Lance Henrikson ( as Cole Wilson), and Mili Avital (as Thel) form the main cast and Neil Young contributes to the film as the composer.

The movie begins showing William Blake on a train. He is an accountant that has left his homeland (that is Cleveland) to go after a job in the town of Machine in west. John Dickenson, who is the owner of the factory Blake hoped to work in, has filled the vacancy with another accountant because Blake arrives too late. The newly orphaned accountant, William Blake, has spent all he had for his trip to the city and now feels so lonely and helpless as he find out that all his hopes to have better opportunities here, were in vain. With the last money in his pocket he goes to a bar and buys some drink. There he meets Thel, maybe a former prostitute, and accompanies her to her house and decides to spend the night with her. Thel’s former fiancé who comes to Thel with a gift shots her in the chest and kills her; the same bullet penetrating Blake’s chest. That’s when Blake commits the first killing; something so unfit to his innocent and naive looking face. The rest of the film actually is the result of this single action. On his way to escape he meets an indian, who calls himself Nobody. He believes Blake is dead because of the bullet in his chest close to his heart. Later when he hears the name of the man, he mistakes him for the Poet William Blake. He got familiar with his poems when he was sent to Britain and joined a whites’ school. As he loves William Blake’s poetry, and as he thinks that this is the spirit of William Blake that he has met, he decides to guide him to the land of spirits where he is in eternal peace. As the two start their journey together, many bounty hunters and 3 professional killers hired by John Dickenson are tracing Blake. In this journey the Naïve Blake becomes a skilled killer due to circumstances in which he has to defend himself. Nobody who believes a boat is needed for Blake’s trip to spirit land goes to an indian tribe and obtains a rowboat from them. He puts Blake into it and leaves him to the sea. While the boat is distancing from the shore, Cole Wilson, one of the hired killers, the one who killed the other two killers beforehand, finally gets to them and shots Nobody in the back. Before falling down, Nobody also kills Wilson and at the same time it seems that Blake’s soul finally leaves his body; The three men dying at the same time.The movie presents America in nearly late 19^th century, a period of swift changes in the lives of Americans. The technological advancements and industrial developments, contacts and conflicts with indians, migration from villages to cities and rise of violence in the cities, and a change in people’s lifestyle due to new conditions of work and living are among the main features of this period. A time when carrying a gun was a norm, even for a woman like Thel. The black and white cinematography adds the nature of these features to the film in the best way. The break between the episode and the fade-out are just in line with the uncertainty of the time. The film’s protagonist, William Blake, also is an excellent manifestation of the era; shaky, uncertain and paradoxical, with possibilities of corruption. A comparison between Blake’s appearance and that of the people of Machine, tells a great deal about the differences between the culture of the west and the culture of east. Even the kind of language they use is different sometimes. As a man from the East, he never smokes while people that appear in his way always ask him” if he has any tobacco!” .actually the word “tobacco” is one of the words that is repeated so many times in the film. Another repeated word or better to say phrase is “stupid white man”, which is used by Nobody to call Blake. This depicts anther intention of Jarmusch, that of presenting the conflict between whites and indians. One of the strange things about it is that this time it’s a white man who is called stupid and not an indian. Nobody is somehow more knowledgeable that Blake but still as the beautiful metaphor of his name suggests, he is considered nobody in the world of whites. Therefore we are encouraged that in this film the director sides with indians and not whites. He shows the indian villages that burn in fire thus pity among us. Industry and its developments and the consequent problem form another major concern of Jarmusch. He tries to show how industry ruined the lives of people and how actually it deprived Americans of their colorful lives and turned it into black and white. As Blake is told, in the city of the Machine (again another metaphorical name) the only work is to make coffins, things that are of no use for a live man and that only suit a “dead man”. Morality is not saved from all these ruins. As it is implied prostitution and immoralities have spread among people and they feel not ashamed of it. Killing is considered as common and ordinary task, easily done, basically with a gun, a product of technology and industry. So it seems that Jarmusch is ironically criticizing technology and its consequences.

The film was made in 1995 when America had recently been engaged in wars abroad (with Somalia, Panama and Iraq). This gives us a clue that may be the film is bringing into concentration the previous consequences of violence and force so that we take good lessons out of it and not to wish them happen again. Besides, the film suggests that Americans should not consider non-Americans as “nobody” anymore.

All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Discord, Study Shows

"Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of "occupying forces" as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the "U.S. military last month."

                                                                            wasingtonpost, Dec.19,2007

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/18/AR2007121802262.html

Americans are right about the existence of “shared beliefs” among different Iraqi sectarian or ethnic groups but actually they have come to this conclusion too late. If nothing else, these people have a shared history that binds them together despite all the surface differences; a history of misery and despair especially during the despotic regime of Saddam. With the overthrow of such regime, they thought they have gained their freedom but the hostilities among different sects and divisions ruined the sweetness of the moment they had just celebrated. With all the American forces sent to Iraq, increasingly, in order to make the situation peaceful, still the violence kept going on and on. That was when Americans understood that they alone cannot succeed in advancing peace in the country and that they needed the help of Iraqis themselves to establish order. They even sought the help of Iraq’s neighboring countries such as Iran to bring peace back to the country. In the negotiations that Iran and America had over the situation, the Iranian side suggested removal of the American forces from Iraq and handing the control over to Iraqis to be the best solution to this problem. But even before that, Iraqis had protested against the presence of American forces whom they believed were extending the scope of hostilities and violence instead of bringing them to an end. One thing is clear; like any other nation faced by crisis, Iraqis have understood that the best way to overcome the problem is to leave behind the dividing beliefs and ideas and just try to unify against the present threat.