What is the most American thing on your beat?
Journalists from the New York Times where asked: Name the one item within your area that best captures America at its 250 anniversary?
A loose interpretation of their choices:
Jason Zinoman [critic at large]: Randy Newman’s ironic song Political Science:
- No one likes us, I don’t know why.
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try.
And all around,
even our old friends put us down;
Let’s drop the big one
and see what happens!
Joshua Barone [classical music]: Rodeo by Aaron Copland. It depicts the story of a Cowgirl competing for the affection of the Head Wrangler and the Champion Roper in the American Southwest.
Vanessa Friedman [fashion]: Not the T-shirt and jeans but sports bra, workout clothing and gear.
Erik Piepenburg [culture]: The horror movie Get Out (streaming on Netflix) involving the transplantation of wealthy white brains into Black bodies.
Kevin Roose [technology]: Amazon Prime. Americans want to spend money on things cheap. They want it delivered fast and they want it all the time.
Mekado Murphy [culture]: The Beast. This is the most American, wooden, roller coaster. It shattered records for length, height, and speed upon its debut.
James Poniewozik [television critic]: TV show Survivor. Not idealistic but iconic and competitive: only one can (and will) win, as proclaimed by competitors: The tribe has spoken.
A.O. Scott [critic at large]: A very american poem: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. Walt Whitman’s meditation on the past, present and future.
Jancee Dunn [wellness]: The (wellness) obsession about maximizing productivity and (reluctantly) sleep.
Elena Bergeron [culture]: Ice Hockey, with the US winning gold for both men and women at the recent winter olympics.
Jennifer Szalal [book critic]: Non fiction book: Paved Paradise: How parking explains the world. A perfect description of the american fixation on cars and how to park those cars.
Bill Wasik [science]: Liquid rocket fuel, a most American science discovery, leading to the crowd favorite and TV spectacle of broadcasting rocket launches.
Madison Malone Kircher [internet]: Bama Rush. Referring to the week before university starts, when new students vie for a place in sororities (= social organizations specifically for women at colleges and universities in North America).
Kim Severson [food]: M&M candy, the perfect illustration of the story of America through food. Melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
MJ Franklin [book review]: The book The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. It describes the history of an African-American family in the South from the colonial slave trade through the Civil Rights Movement.
Helen Shaw [theater critic]: The Century Cycle, a series of ten plays by American playwright August Wilson, collectively chronicling the African American experience in the 20th century.
Alissa Wilkinson [film critic]: Movie There will be blood, an epic period drama film about the pursuit of power, and a ruthless quest for wealth, loosely based on a 1927 novel.
Zachary Small [culture]: video game franchise Grand Theft Auto, perfectly capturing the weird complexity of American culture.
Elisabeth Vincenelli [culture]: Demolition Derby. Cars racing around in an oval arena, ramming into each other until there is only one left still riding.
Jason Farago [critic at large]: the Statue of Liberty. French, an icon, yet the most american art work.
Gia Kourlas [dance critic]: the classical ballets Stars and Stripes (an overtly patriotic celebration of postwar confidence) together with Appalachian Spring (American ideals seen through a pastoral narrative of a pioneer couple).
Jon Caramanica [pop music critic]: Forgiatto Blow’s hip hop song Trump, Trump, Baby. A reflection of what’s relevant in today’s America and an ode to the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
The view from below
The list above, as seen by journalists, is admirable and often to the point, yet it fails to capture the view that seems prevalent with the ordinary person.
That might explain why so few people I know see a reason to celebrate this anniversary.
For millions, this 250th anniversary should be a milestone that feels like a glorious victory lap. Instead it feels like checking your account balance after a bad weekend in Vegas. The mood is far from patriotic. I’d argue that fewer Americans are proud of their country than at any time in the last, say, 25 years.
Historically, the country’s bureaucracy and legal systems functioned as the padded walls keeping collective delusions contained. Those days, however, appear to be long gone.
Congress currently enjoys a public approval rating that hovers somewhere between head lice and used-car salesmen. Laws are no longer drafted to help citizens, but written by donors, for donors, wrapped in legalese so dense it functions like malicious software code, engineered explicitly to hide the backdoors and corporate exploits from public view.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, once sold as the nation’s impartial referee, has shed any remaining pretense of neutrality. A majority of Americans now view it unfavorably, and the court itself has done much to earn that skepticism. It increasingly resembles an in-house corporate legal department, rewriting the rules to suit those already holding power.
When secular temples crumble, people used to turn to actual temples. But those are largely empty too. It seems undeniable that the pews are graying leaving open the way for a radical interpretation of a christian religion which denies women their rightful place, takes away traditional faith, and removes the old social safety nets with it — community ties, family networks, and basic neighborly goodwill.
When personal bankruptcy is seen as an acceptable remedy for soaring health care costs, surely it is difficult to be proud of the system 250 years of America has produced.
Increasingly opinion polls paint a picture of a starkly divided populous. Conservatives look out the window and see Marxist radicals hiding behind the hedges. Progressives look out and see fascists operating the lawnmowers.
The tragedy is that the vast majority of Americans surely are remarkably decent people who just want to pay their bills, grab a beer, and be left alone. But they are trapped inside a malfunctioning simulation, engineered to amplify their worst impulses, while observing the structural failure of the institutions meant to serve them.
That might explain why so few people I know see a reason to celebrate this anniversary.
Perhaps that will change at a future independence day, when we can conclude that the business of America is no longer primarily aimed at making the rich richer, but also includes respect for our earth and support for the health, education, housing, nutrition, and universal human rights of its residents.