Anyone else have a problem with the phrase "our way of life"?

[IrateCitizen]

I was watching Sportscenter before leaving for work this morning (as usual), and they were replaying the memorial service in San Jose for Pat Tillman. The person speaking said something about how he died to "defend our rights and our way of life."

Every time I hear that phrase, "Our way of life," I just feel sick. Why? Because the "American way of life" is the way of wastefulness, of pollution, of rampant consumerism with little or no regard to its impacts. Each time I hear someone extoll the virtues of the "American way of life", I just want to scream!

Does anyone else out there feel the same way?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. yes i do

also its assuming all americans have the same "way of life" and like their current way of life

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. I certainly don't want anyone do die to protect

'my way of life'.

[wtmusic]

3. same as the "color of our skin"

(* comment from day before yesterday)

[ret5hd]

4. yes i do

[Failure]

5. I do. nt

[Webster Green]

6. Code words.....

for: We are Americans. We rule. Fuck you!

Greed, arrogance, and racism.

[Solly Mack]

7. Me!

I snarl everytime I hear the phrase.

[theboss]

8. So, you're not down with America?

Working "He believe in wastefulness, pollution, and rampant consumerism" into a eulogy is tricky. Believe me. I've tried.

[IrateCitizen]

17. Not the America of greed and wastefulness, no I'm not.

And you're right -- working all of that into a quick soundbite capable of persuasion ain't the easiest thing to do. I've tried as well.

[LynzM]

9. Yup...

If you look at all of america, 'our way of life' is very diverse in a LOT of ways (well, excepting in most cases the flagrant consumerism), and to lump that all into one big category is wrong :(

[DinahMoeHum]

10. Yeah, I do, if it means continuing a foreign and domestic

policy based on the phrase "f**k you - I do what we want."

:kick:

[camero]

11. when politicians talk about "our way of life"

they don't mean ours. They mean their's. They only want to enhance and conserve their own wealth. They do not have the people at heart.

[Zorra]

12. Yes.

Live simply so that others may live.

[cmf]

13. I feel the same

It makes me sick to think that our soldiers as well as innocent civilians in other countries have to die, just so that I have the right to drive an SUV and live in a suburb.

[blm]

14. Yep. Gives me the creeps every time I hear it.

Especially when it comes out of the mouth of a typical manipulative demagogue.

[Lavender Brown]

15. Absolutely.

Because the right wing's definition of the American way of life is obviously not shared by us all. And I'm still wondering HOW we are defending our rights by going to Iraq. :eyes:

[sweetheart]

16. white supremacy, empire and racism

It is a strange legacy indeed "our way of life"... ha!

It appears that the racism is soooo endemic in american culture, that
we do little else but perpetuate it under the great banner of our
neoliberal imperialism and militarism.

When i hear such phrases, i wonder who "us" and "we" are...
white men?

[Solomon]

28. The politically correct label is "Western Civilization". The truth is

that it is "White Supremacy."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. It always reminds me of a Tom Toles cartoon from

about 15 years ago.

Picture a grim industrial landscape with black smoke, a jam-packed freeway, and a stinking river with fish skeletons on the banks.

From inside one of the cars comes a speech balloon: "Those environmentalists just want to destroy the American way of life."

:-)


Besides, it is so shallow to define "the American way of life" strictly in material terms. During my teaching days (10-15 years ago), I heard a presentation by some college students who had taken a three-week study tour in Eastern Europe. It had included brief homestays in both Hungary and Romania. Student after student said things like, "They didn't have cars or VCRs, and they all lived in apartments. It made me appreciate the American way of life." They didn't even mention anything about political freedoms.

Finally, one of my colleagues, who had lived in Europe for several years, asked irritably, "Wasn't there anything positive in their societies?"

The students looked at one another and at him, shocked by the question. Finally, one young man spoke up timidly, "I guess I envied their family life. Both my parents have been divorced three times, and I've never had a place that felt like home. My Hungarian host family said they'd never heard of such a thing."

Quality of life has many aspects. One of the happiest periods of my life was graduate school, when I sometimes had to live on cereal for the last two or three days of the month. Yet my life was exceptionally rich in other ways. I was also happy as a student in Japan, living in one room with no central heating and having to bathe at the public bath house.

Defining "the American way of life" purely in material terms is great for the mass marketers and merchandisers, but for the rest of us, it's superficial and misleading.

[IrateCitizen]

26. Exactamundo, Lydia!!!

Here in the US, we seem to have confused "standard of living" with "quality of life". The awful truth is that fulfillment levels lie on pretty much a parabolic curve. Your fulfillment goes up as you achieve the ability to provide necessities, extras, and even some luxuries. But there is a point on that curve at which your fulfillment actually begins to DECLINE in reference to the acquisition of more luxuries, because you end up sacrificing your quality of life in pursuit of those luxuries.

It's kind of like that commercial that has the guy showcasing all his new stuff -- the country club membership, the new house, the new boat, etc. -- and he then says, "How do I afford it? I'm in debt up to my eyeballs. I can barely make my finance charges."

That's the epitome of the "American way of life". And we wonder why our kids seem so distracted and hyperactive, and why we have everything but yet so many of us are so unhappy.

[peacetalksforall]

19. It's a phrase that is too often used to put down other cultures....

it is used to connote superiority...
it once meant something more valuable...
like allowing refugees a second chance....

[callous taoboy]

20. Like sandpaper on my keester:

It is the smug, self-righteousness of it that gags me. It's like when I lived in Anchorage we had a baptist minister who was always writing letters to the editor attacking "The homosexual lifestyle."
Like there is "A" homosexual lifestyle.

Be careful, though, about turning around and branding all Americans as wasteful polluters. My friends, family and myself all try to be green with each decision we make. I now commute 7 miles to work on an electric scooter, for example.

[IrateCitizen]

25. You and your friends are going against the grain

As am I, considering I try to do all my errands in nice weather on my bicycle, and I commute to and fron work via rail.

This doesn't change the fact that I see suburban warriors in Hummer H2's cruising my streets, or most people using a car for every 1/2 mile trip they make, or people caught up in the whole idea of "keeping up with the Joneses".

[Cerval]

21. I'm with you.

Pat Tillman did not die representing my way of life.

However, he died representing his convictions. I do believe it is admirable to die for one's convictions even if I don't share them.

[newyawker99]

29. Hi Cerval!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[blindpig]

22. code

Shorthand for shameless greed, instant gratification, conspicuous consumption and rampant Randism ruled by a chimplike hierarchy wrapped in the flag soaked in Mel Gibson's blood. Fuck those people.
I like to think we can do better, but I'm having my doubts.

[TreasonousBastard]

23. Yeah...

the sentiment itself is not so bad, but it's usually code for "I got mine, buddy."

[oldcoot]

24. The context bothers me

The context of this phrase bothers me more than the actual phrase. This person is implying that the war is justified because Iraq posed a threat to the U.S. way of life. It should be obvious at this point that Iraq posed no threat to American rights or the American way of life. Indeed, if we were really concerned about protecting the American way of life we would declare war on those corporations which using outsourcing.

[IrateCitizen]

27. I see "our way of life" as 4% of the world's people using 25%...

... of its resources. That, in a nutshell, is what I hear everytime I hear the phrase "the American way of life". I guess that's why for me, it's not a matter of "context", but the very phrase itself that gets my hackles up.

[davekriss]

33. Actually it's 6% using about 35% of the world's resources (n/t)

[noiretextatique]

35. yes, this is the "way of life" they're talking about eom

[davekriss]

37. Post WWII Security Apparatus all about "conserving"...

The post-WWII security apparatus -- you know, the one We the People spent several trillion dollars funding -- is all about conserving the advantaged state of America vis-a-vis the rest of the world (and elites within America vis-a-vis the rest of us).

Here's the words of George Kennan in 1948:

"we have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population....In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity....To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives....We should cease to talk about vague and...unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."
---Kennan, Policy Planning Study 23, available here.

Could this be what Bush means when his media trumpets, "They hate us for our freedoms", Kennan's "we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment"?

The Bush Doctrine, announced by the NSS (and available at whitehouse gov), makes clear that the USG will cut down threats to our hegemony by reserving (to us alone) the right to pre-emptive military action. It suggests we'll even go to war to enforce low marginal tax rates!

Iraq is the Doctrine's first example. Let's hope its the last as well.

[noiretextatique]

39. i don't think iraq is the first example of this doctrine

but i agree with you: i hope it is the last.

[historian]

30. Ask those who instinctively praise america...

whether they have travelled anywhere else and seen other parts of the world.
And no i dont mean having been in the military nor sent overseas by a company or the govt. I mean anyone who has travelled out of intellectual curiosity and with an open mind. Then ask them why they think the way they do.

[robertpaulsen]

31. I googled the phrase "our way of life"

Probably 90% of the entries dealt with Christian conservative websites or the war on terrorism. But I think the roots of this phrase in this country go back to the Civil War. The North was viewed as trying to take away their way of life by abolishing slavery, as they did again in the 50's and 60's by enforcing desegregation.

Anyway you cut it, this phrase is myopic, xenophobic and racist.

[mrgorth]

32. Yes

I think "our way of life" is pretty fucked.

[WLKjr]

34. Heres what I think when I hear that phrase

there are two types

Corporate America way of life: constant consumption & greed, and no conservation & much pollution

then you have the regular average joe/jane whatever race and religion:

just trying to make it a day at a time, try to be the best you can be at everything, live long and prosper, and also looking out for a neighbor in need and helping them as a community, becuase no one should be left behind in America.

Now I know that the above doesn't apply to everyone, but thats the way I try to live, how bout yourself? Does anyone else feel similar or am I just living a wet dream?

[ArkDem]

36. God, how I hate us.

.

[davekriss]

38. Don't hate "us"

In fact, don't "hate" at all. However, fight those that would repress progressive change. Speak -- shout! -- truth to power.

[dawn]

40. It makes me uncomfortable, too.

It's like saying that the way of life in other countries is wrong. And such a funny thing to say when America is full of people from every country on the globe.

I also think it smacks of consumerism, greed, apathy, and selfishness. I don't think people should die to defend that.

[taughtmepatience]

41. I think

"our way of life" refers to the freedom that we enjoy as Americans. We have the freedom to choose a life of materialism and greed or a modest life. To me, this is the beauty of America -- that we can all have the hope for something better .

Insinuating that "our way of life," though, is the same for all Americans is shameful.

[Ladyhawk]

42. "Our way of life" has made me a very lonely person.

Generally speaking, my family is into consumerism and even though I'm actually living below the poverty line, I am finding it hard to cut back. I don't buy clothing. Lately, I haven't bought anything I didn't actually need. I haven't been able to go to the movies since December.

All of this wouldn't matter if I had some decent human companionship. Greed and consumerism tend to make people shallow. Dogmatic religion tends to make them arrogant and narrow-minded. The county in which I live is full of these people. All I really want anymore is enough food to eat and some decent human companionship.