Interconnectedness vs. Separateness: Why Americans overinflate themselves and try to "fit in"
Uploaded by WWu777 on Aug 01, 2007
Interconnectedness vs. Separateness: Why Americans overinflate themselves and try to "fit in"
“The ego thrives on separateness” – Dr. Wayne Dyer “Four Pathways to Success” (audio tape)
In America, there is a common saying which applies to basic life wisdom, "You're on your own. No one will take care of you except yourself. You have only yourself to depend on." However, what they negate to say is this primarily applies to America values and cultural mentality, not the whole world. You see, in Western culture, there is this false teaching that we are all separate individuals with separate interests, disconnected from each other. This culture of individualism creates a strong but separate sense of ego in us. And it naturally leads to selfishness and narcissism as well, which are the norm in US culture.
Many immigrants upon arrival in America notice that they suddenly seem to have an individual ego that is detached and disconnected from others. All of a sudden, they feel alone as though they don't exist and nobody cares about them, even in crowded places, in a way that they never did back in their home country. They experience this immediately because wherever you are, the collective consciousness of the people and culture where you are at, determines the reality of that space or region, which can be strongly felt even without prior knowledge of such. The New Age and esoteric mantra that "thought creates reality" does have a degree of truth to it.
In America's case, since the majority population believes that they are individual separate egos detached from others, any newcomer immediately FEELS like a separate disconnected ego, even if he/she felt connected wherever they came from prior, because that is the new reality that he/she is in. It's a reality co-created by the American population, lifestyle, culture, and collective thought/beliefs/values. In essence, they're on their own once they come here, literally and figuratively, unless they have pre-existing friends or relatives. But even if they do, their social interaction will usually be limited to them.
Hence, America has a discrepancy between lip service and reality (but every country has such discrepancies in fact). America likes to boast to the world that it is an inclusive cultural melting pot, when in reality, it is extremely socially non-inclusive - people don't generally talk to strangers...