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By: Susan Handa
In my lifetime, being an American meant being a member of the richest and most powerful nation on earth; endowed by birth with rights to which other nations could only aspire, and fully anticipating that my rightful ‘pursuit of happiness’ would result in an even more comfortable life than my parents’.
At some point in my adult life, I became aware that we Americans, who constitute only 4.5% of world population, use 25% of available energy. We use 5 times more biologically useful land per person than the world average. In a world tied together by global supply chains, with almost instant communication, aspirations of ‘the rest’ are matching pace with our own expectations.
So…..I began to ask myself- Is the Earth, on whose services, tho seldom acknowledged, all of our ‘economic/financial calculations’ rely- able to support 7 billion of us humans, almost 3 x as many as when I arrived in 1952, each with aspirations to the same dream?
And, if the answer is NO; What does it mean to be an American? if it is unreasonable to expect each generation to own more ‘stuff’; if the pursuit of happiness no longer include a flat screen TV in every room? a new Apple product each year? A larger house than our parents –What now?
To answer that, Americans must look a little deeper. Our self- definition must consist of more than superficial measures like affluence-and include the qualities that make us who we are.
We are well equipped to do that. Our DNA draws on an exceptionally large gene pool, making us adaptable and creative. We have an inherent distaste for hierarchy, and contain a strong affiliative bent. A Frenchman, writing about American society in 1840, said’ Americans form associations to accomplish things that individuals could not do alone.’ We are volunteer do-gooders, and that is good for Us and others.
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