This is America

Ever since America solidified its position as the wealthiest country in the world American people have become accustomed to an easy lifestyle with opportunities for wealth being guaranteed for practically everyone. Americans have access to easy and convenient solutions to most of their problems. You're hungry? Go to McDonalds. You're hot? Turn on the AC. You’re tired of work? Take a sick day. Because Americans are so accustomed to finding easy solutions when they are faced with a task that requires more effort or sacrifice Americans have trouble handling it. A couple ways that Americans cope with the stress of an overwhelming issue are mistargeting the source of the problem, and waiting until someone else fixes the problem for them or neglecting it completely.

Americans often misplace their anger onto the wrong people or things that are not the source of their problems. A couple of examples of Americans misplacing their anger is the violence against Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the violence against Muslim Americans after 9/11. Immediately following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 “Hate crimes against Muslims… soared to their highest levels” (The New York Times). Americans felt hopeless because the true perpetrator of the attacks was still unknown. People decided to take Justice into their own hands and commit violent acts against Muslim Americans who had nothing to do with the attacks, people just wanted to feel like something was being done to quickly solve the problem and attacking Muslims in their neighborhood was a conveinent solution. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, makes a point of addressing the issue of white privilege in America because it is white people who make up the majority in America and use minority groups as an outlet to pass blame. He said, “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one… just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had” (Fitzgerald). Minority groups are easy to blame because as a minority it is hard to fight back. The passing of Judgement and blame onto American citizens because of nothing more than their skin color or religion has been a problem in America since its creation.

America hasn’t always been the wealthiest country in the world and in some ways our wealth has made us lazy. It took a lot of hard work and innovation to become such a prosperous country. Until around 70 years ago America was known for having a very strong, hard working, and large middle class. F. Scott Fizgerald acknowledged this important attribute America had at the time by writing “we beat on, boats against the current” (Fitzgerald). That hard working mentality could be found in patriotic Americans across the country but today, hard workers are hard to come by. One example of this problem is that Americans are neglecting energy sustainability and global warming. About 80% of America's energy comes from fossil fuels and there are no strict federal regulations that are trying to push out the use of fossil fuels (University of Michigan). While other first world countries are pressuring gas powered vehicle companies as well as energy production companies to switch to other sources of energy by increasing taxes and regulation there is far less of that in America.  Powerful politicians and even the president himself have denied the prevalence of the issue to please the American citizens that would rather choose to believe the problem doesn’t exist.