How Americans See Themselves

How Americans See Themselves
It is usually helpful, when trying to understand others, to
understand how we see ourselves. A few comments about
Americans’ self-perceptions appear here; others come
later.

AMERICAN WAYS

Americans do not usually see themselves, when they
are in the United States, as representatives of their country,
even though they are quite patriotic at times. For a
period following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
Americans displayed considerable emotional attachment
to their country. But that began to fade after several
months. Usually, Americans see themselves as individuals
(we will stress this point later) who are different from
all other individuals, American or foreign. Americans often
say they have no culture, since they often conceive of
culture as an overlay of arbitrary customs to be found
only in other countries. Individual Americans may think
they chose their own values rather than having had their
values and the assumptions on which they are based imposed
on them by the society in which they were born. If
asked to say something about American culture, they may
be unable to answer and they may even deny that there is
an American culture and become annoyed at being asked
such a question. “We’re all individuals,” they will say.
Because they think they are responsible as individuals
for having chosen their basic values and their way of life,
many Americans resent generalizations others make about
them. Generalizations such as the ones in this book may
disturb them. They may be offended by the notion that
they hold certain ideas and behave in certain ways simply
because they were born and raised in the United States
and not because they had consciously thought about
those ideas and behaviors and chosen the ones they preferred.
At the same time, Americans will readily generalize
about various subgroups within their own country. Northerners
have stereotypes (that is, overgeneralized, simplified
notions) about Southerners, and vice versa. There are

from :

GARY ALTHEN
with Amanda R. Doran and Susan J. Szmania

American
A Guide
for Foreigners
in the United States
Ways