In chapter 5 of Who Are We, Huntington makes many novel arguments regarding religion in America. I was surprised to hear about the supreme court case in which voted to take the words “under God” out of the pledge of allegiance. Many argued that this was a ridiculous maneuver, and the case was overturned. Further, Huntington makes the argument that America is overly Christian, which was somewhat surprising to me. There is a lot of animosity, tension, and lack of morality in modern America that I thought would be explained by a lack of religion, but religion seems to be very prevalent in American society. In the eyes of the Europeans, Americans have a high level of religious commitment. A quote from Who Are We encapsulates this sentiment well: “The United States is by far the most religious and Christian community in the world; and that, just because religion there is the most free” (85). This quote also speaks to the lack of morality in America today. Since there is so much freedom of religion, people tend to rationalize many things they do with religion. In countries with radical religious systems, the people are all very similar because they face persecution or even death if they do not assimilate. In America, this is not the case, you have the freedom to do anything. This is something that Tocqueville talks about and demonstrates the goals of the settlers that came from Britain. The settlers came looking for religious freedom, and it has been attained.
Author: Bobby Bohner
Chapter 4 of Who Are We? discusses Anglo-Protestant Culture. Huntington asserts an interesting point that America would not the same as it is today if it had not been inhabited by British Protestants. If it were inhabited by French, Spanish, or Portuguese Catholics, America would be a very different place. Expanding on this idea, Huntington explains that originally, almost all parts of America were fundamentally English. This makes sense considering the settlers came from England. Further, Huntington argues the idea of “anglo-conformity”, which is the idea that people who were not white Anglo-Saxon protestants were expected to assimilate and became Americans by adopting the Anglo-Saxon culture that started with America’s British settlers.
Huntington also discusses “The American Creed”, which is an idea that all Americans have a “something in common: a social ethos, a political creed”. Huntington argues that the principles of the creed have three outstanding characteristics, in particular that the principles have remained remarkably stable over time. This is an expansion of something Huntington argues prior, which is the idea that America was founded on Anglo-Saxon ideals and not much has changed since. Common ideas and principles have persisted from the early American times.
A portion of the chapter is titled “Individualism and the Work Ethic”. Here, Huntington argues that Americans are very individualistic. This individualism comes from the idea of the Protestant work ethic, Huntington argues. Through various sources, Huntington demonstrates that Americans take great pride in work and individual achievement. These points further expand on the idea that many American ideals are from the settlers that came to America from Britain. For example, Huntington shows a graph that demonstrates how much pride different countries take in work that they do. America and Great Britain have scores that are so much higher than any other country, which validates Huntington’s argument that a lot of Anglo-Saxon ideals still exist in American culture. I pose the following questions: what areas of American culture are different than British culture? Also, has America improved on or made worse the Anglo-Saxon values that British settlers brought to America.
Tocqueville has a lot of interesting assertions regarding the three races that existed early on in America: the white man, the African American, and the Indian or the native American. Tocqueville draws extensively upon the idea that he mentions in prior sections of Democracy in America regarding the system of castes and classes that people are put in and the effect it has on them. Tocqueville explains how the three different races are almost hostile toward one another due to insurmountable barriers that have been raised between the groups, raising the white race above the other for reasons that Tocqueville feels are education and law. Tocqueville has an excellent foresight here considering education and law are still two factors that separate groups of people in modern America. Interestingly enough, the section mentions that Tocqueville’s analysis is the “probably future condition” of the United States. Although all of the races are on the same soil, Tocqueville asserts that they do not mix or unite with one another, and they fulfil their own unique destinies as separate races. Tocqueville also asserts that although the races are separated, they begin to forget about their old country, since a different language and different customs are forced upon all of the races. Tocqueville points out that African Americans were so isolated between two races since they are “sold by the one, repulsed by the other”. Overall, Tocqueville’s analysis of early American society is very wise and applicable to society today.
Tocqueville sets up an interesting contrast between those who migrated to the shores of New England and those who migrated to the south. The settlers of the shores of New England were groups such as puritans, who sought religious freedom, worked collectively, and promoted equality in the pursuit of manifest destiny, the idea that they were destined to come to America and expand. The southern immigrants, on the other hand, held a different social condition. Many of these settlers brought with them aristocratic ideas and a motivation to make profit as they settled in areas such as Jamestown.
Tocqueville’s analysis of Native American lifestyle as opposed to an aristocratic lifestyle is enthralling, especially considering it was written in the early 1800s. His analysis has parallels to points he makes in “How Equality Suggests to the Americans the Idea of the Indefinite Perfectibility of Man”. In regards to aristocratic societies, Tocqueville asserts the idea that people in these societies are naturally more rude because of the fact that the rich and powerful band together and separate themselves from the poor and the lowly. This, in turn, causes the poor to feel oppressed and have a sense of anger because of their lowly social position. This anger arises from the realization that they feel stuck in their low class and have nowhere to go, causing them to accept their lowly position and give up on improving their place in society. This idea is similarly painted by Tocqueville in “How Equality Suggests to the Americans the Idea of the Indefinite Perfectibility of Man” when he explains how in aristocratic societies, a person is put into a lower class and this impairs their ability to want to improve and perfect their life. Tocqueville paints the idea the in Aristocratic societies, although they are stable and have many benefits, they put people into classes which has a profound effect. In regards to the Native American lifestyle, I found it extremely interesting how Tocqueville asserts that “although they are ignorant and poor, they are equal and free” which says a lot about what we can learn from more primitive societies.