Individualism of Americans

Individualism of Americans

(major: Business English class:4 No:110202099 Name:叶慧

Abstract: dividualism is the soul of the American culture. It can originated to the beginning years of its history. Individualism is always a double - edged sword. It influence different aspects in America. And different culture can have different views toward individualism, such as China and America.

Key words: originated, double-edged sword, different aspect, different views.

Individualism is regarded as a highly respected value by Americans. It contains Individual Freedom, Self-reliance, Individual equality, individual equality, For the Americans，they will feel that individualism is their self-confidence, independent performance, and this performance is that they are most proud of. As immortalized soul of Americans, individualism has been encouraging generations of Americans to strive for creating a great nation. The strong sense of individualism cultivates the American concept of liberty and equality, their continuous pursuit of individual rights and their principle of independence. Individualism encourages American people to pursue their happiness, supplying them with the opportunity to enjoy their life and guarantee the nation’s success.

The origin of American individualism can be traced back to the beginning years of its history. When “May Flower” carried the British to the continent of North America, it was doomed that individualism would be fully developed on this piece of land. Because there was only millions of Indian indigenous people living on this piece of land before these people coming. They lived in the most primitive life, and their social conditions were extremely bad. In order to change this situation, the British had to rely on their own hands conquering the nature in order to achieve self-reliance survival. Those immigrants were Puritans who left the UK for being persecuted by religion. They hope that they believe in God in accordance with their own will. Therefore, those puritans paid less attention to the complexity of religious ceremonies, mistrusted “the spokesmen of God”, such as priests, bishops, etc. Therefore, regardless of high or low status, rich or poor, every one is equal before God. Such kind of relationship —“one-to-many” between God and people is the “mass base” forthe survival of the individualism. As puritans believe that there is a direct link between God and man, and all the people are equal before God.

However, individualism is always a double - edged sword, which brings various sophisticated social problems to American society as well. It has also brought about many social problems since its birth. For us Chinese, we should observe individualism in a right perspective and employ the attitude of ＂keeping the cream and rejecting the dross＂ to learn from American culture.The negative effect of individualism is obvious. Individualism, when driven to the extreme, can easily bring about negative results. For instance, in his hot pursuit of self-interest or individual identity, the individual is likely to hurt the interests of his peers, his family, his

community, and even the societ. When it according to Chinese, Speaking of individualism, what comes to our mind first is that “everyman for himself and the devil takes the hindmost” or “profiting oneself at the expense of others”. Also, China’s Dictionary defines individualisma “all personal interests as the starting point of thinking for undercut, profit-seeking, intrigues, etc.” All in all the Asians viewed individualism as a derogatory term.

Individualism has effected America a lot in different aspects, such as politics, business, society and ect. Political individualism in its most common, though not its only meaning is a fundamental belief in the protection of the rights of the individual against the incursions of the state and of political power. The doctrine of economic individualism holds that each individual should be allowed autonomy in making his or her own economic decisions as opposed to those decisions being made by the state, or the community, for him or her. For some individualists, who hold a view known as methodological individualism, the word \"society\" cannot refer to anything more than a very large collection of individuals. Society does not have an existence above or beyond these individuals, and thus cannot be properly said to carry out actions, since actions require intentionality, intentionality requires an agent, and society as a whole cannot be properly said to possess agency; only individuals can be agents. The same holds for the government.. An individualist enters into society to further his or her own interests, or at least demands the right to serve his or her own interests, without taking the interests of society into consideration. The individualist does not lend credence to any philosophy that requires the sacrifice of the self-interest of the individual for any higher social causes.

Different culture can come about different value The individualism and collectivism as the produce of the difference between china and America focus on expressing the different between east and west culture .through figuring out the differences, we can understand the difference why Chinese and Americans behave. If we have a good impression on it not only can we improve our English-studying but also understand the western social culture. For example, it is popular that serve for people wholeheartedly in China. but in America, they believe in“the first is doing for themselves, then for others.” The values asserting collective interest fostered in China the spiritual tradition of patriotism and collectivism. The Chinese highly value friendship. Chinese expect friendship to be long lasting. In America people prefer to be independent rather than dependent, so they do not feel comfortable in a relationship in which one person is giving more and the other person is dependent on what is being given. For Americans friendship is mostly a matter of providing emotional support and spending together.

To a conclusion, individualism surely help Americans to built a great country. But every thing has two sides, it also bring some bad effects. And culture differences can influence a lot, for example the different views toward the individualism between Chinese and Americans. In order to get a rational understanding of American

individualism ,one should have profound knowledge. After my searching for every kinds of informations,I think culture is a very important thing, it will influence a lot. And the individualism in American has influenced a lot. References:

材料来源：《读与写》0804期

作者：陈曦

http://www.hhfg.org/fjywh/f404.html

《Individualism: An American Way of Life》 作者：Horace Meyer Kallen

出版商：Liveright, Incorporated, 1933

http://www.google.co.uk/books?lr=&hl=zh-CN&as_brr=0&id