You know how we stereotype people from other countries? The French, for example, are snotty, arrogant cowards with little waxed handlebar moustaches and glasses of champagne; Germans are drunk partiers with all the beer and sauerkraut they have; Arabs all say strange prayers, wear turbans, have four wives and an AK-47. Did you know that other countries do the same thing to us? The stereotypical American is a fat, loud, rude cowboy barging in and blowing stuff up with his six-shooters.
The cowboy encapsulates the essence of the American ideal of individualism: a man on the prairie with his herd of cattle, guitar, alone under the wide, bright heavens. The idea of a self-reliant, self-made man ties in perfectly with the American Dream of elbow grease and time: a man who needs nobody and makes his way in the world to wealth and affluence with no regard to his start in life. Consider some great American idols of past eras: Abraham Lincoln, who rose from his humble beginnings in a Kentucky log cabin to bind the country together; John D. Rockefeller, who became the world's richest man; Andrew Carnegie, who, born poor in Scotland, became wealthy and influential; Benjamin Franklin, who became powerful through his own wit, intelligence and hard work. These men embody the American Dream of individualism.
But bear in mind this important fact: the American Dream is based upon greed. It is, in essence, the desire to accumulate wealth; by hard work and perseverance, perhaps, but getting rich nonetheless. Add individualism to the mix, and the American Dream becomes one of greed and pride: accumulate wealth for me.
Is this dream of individual success healthy for the nation? There is something to be said for collective responsibility; after all, the notion of utter self-reliance is a pipe dream: we all rely on thousands, if not millions, of other people to bring us the basics. For examples, take food at the supermarket (or Out of Bounds), electricity from a plant along the Ohio, gasoline from a British Petroleum refinery in Gary: We need other people to facilitate the transfer of these goods to us. Our economy and society have become so interconnected that if we fall, we all fall together.
In fact, in a society such as ours, the prospect of individual success tends to outweigh most notions of social responsibility which require individual cost with no apparent individual gain. This is, of course, known as the tragedy of the commons after a well-known fable: a village of farmers let their cows gaze on the village commons; year after year, the commons were grazed down, but no individual farmer was willing to pull his cattle from grazing there lest his competition gain an edge; at last the village commons wilted brown and all the farmers suffered.
It is precisely tragedies of the commons that await us if we fail to acknowledge collective responsibility. This past week, the price of oil reached $96 per barrel as the United States' crude stocks fell by 3.5 million barrels instead of the forecast 100,000 barrel increase - the second week in a row stocks have fallen unexpectedly. We've all noticed the strange weather patterns: the temperature tomorrow, Nov. 3, is forecast to reach 60 degrees. Meanwhile, sea levels continue to rise worldwide and polar ice continues to slowly, inexorably melt.
Our dependence on foreign oil - almost 60 percent of our oil is imported - and global warming are tragedies of the commons just waiting to happen. Weaning ourselves from oil and mitigating the effects of global warming are possible, but require sacrifice on an individual scale, which is precisely where individualism fails: we can't all be cowboys, riding alone, apart and independent. After all, where would we graze our cattle?
Write to Neal at necoleman@bsu.edu
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