I’m a Pisces. I’ve spent most of my life on the edge or in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; great place for a fish. I’m dreamy, impractical, and idealistic, which is how we Pisces are often described…
Don’t worry, I don’t buy into that stuff. It’s just a cute coincidence.
What is it about symbols that Americans find so irresistible? Crosses on chains, swooshes on clothes, team logos, cartoon characters…
I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that human brains are hardwired for semiosis. But I also think Americans so readily embrace symbols because they’re lazy. Symbols allow them to condense complex concepts into manageable chunks so that they don’t have to think about them anymore. They provide the good old American bottom line.
How many people who wear crosses around their necks actually spend time reflecting on Christian philosophy, all that Christianity represents, the good it has done or the havoc it has wreaked? Probably about three, I’d say. How many people who buy Nike t-shirts to jog in go beyond Just do it to think about the sweatshops where they’re made? When they embrace this symbol of a lifestyle built on physical perfection, are they at all disturbed by the way American culture, in glorifying physical prowess and disdaining intellectualism, resembles Nazism? Not bloody likely.
So say you’ve got some guy with a Taz tattoo, a pentacle around his neck, and a Harley sticker on his F150. Nobody would find that odd in the States. What is he doing? He’s using these symbols to externalize his self-concept. He’s decided who he is and how he wants to be seen and he doesn’t have to think about it anymore. He’s branded himself.
What we have here is another insidious effect of capitalism. I’ve lived in France for a year now and I’ve noticed this self-branding phenomenon doesn’t exist here. I’m convinced that one important reason for this is that the French mind resists the aggressive marketing that is such an integral part of a wildly free-market society like America. They think here. They don’t just sit back and lap up the lifestyle concept being spoonfed to them via some slick, subliminal ad campaign. They resist manipulation and conformism. They won’t allow themselves to be summed up by a swoosh.
Another aspect of the French mind in play here is that the French operate on a much more abstract level than Americans. They are simply not about their stuff the way Americans are. The things that really matter to the French are not material and, therefore, they can’t have logos attached to them. A French person’s self-concept is built around his ideas, doubts, creativity, principles…
Which Looney Tunes character would that be, ya think?
Sure, there are the bourgeoises who run around with their garish peripherals festooned with double Cs and LVs, but their values aren’t representative of the culture as a whole. At least, not traditionally. The latest election proves that France’s values are gradually coming into sync with those of America, but it’s a slow process. I’ll be dead long before the transformation is complete…
The French are rabid individualists in that they strive to maintain their individual identities. American individualism is of the “I do what I want, deal with it” variety. French-style individualism doesn’t preclude concern for the greater good. American individualism, on the other hand, is all about ME.
For Americans, it’s the packaging that counts, for the French it’s what’s inside. It’s sad, really, that Americans have turned out to be Nietzsche’s Last Man, that they’ve settled for it, never looking back. The French, however, are surely closer to his Übermensch.
I hear what you are saying, but I’ll have to say that most “Americans” I know sound like what you call “French”. (Perhaps this is self-selection, having to do with my education and career.) I’ve seen the Americans you are talking about walking around at the grocery store or at the theater, but there’s more to America than the Americans you describe. It’s difficult to generalize accurately about Americans and the French.
I’m stuck with being an American and I’d like to think that we Americans can also be self-defined individualists who value ideas, doubts, creativity, principles… and who are capable of rejecting “free” market capitalism and the logos of corporate slavery.
Hi Donavan. I know it’s bad to generalize. But I’m so disillusioned these days when it comes to Americans. I’d have more faith in them if they weren’t letting their country go down the tubes. If they hadn’t re-elected Bush. MoveOn gets 500,000 signatures for a major action and they get excited. But there are 300 million people in the States! What are they all doing? I get the distinct impression people like you are at the far right end of the bell curve.
I’m not sure I like being on the “far right” of anything. I even walk on the left side of the sidewalk. And, yes, I’m sure I exist in a microcosm. (BTW, I’m not sure B*sh actually won either of those elections.)
[...] I hear that Build-a-Bear has just come to France. Not to Paris, but to three wealthy suburbs. Will it fly? Or will the French give it the same hostile reception they gave EuroDisney, that symbol, to the French, of American merchandising gone wild. The French, as I’ve said before, resist manipulation. They don’t respond well to the hard sell. And the Build-a-Bear approach is pure, in-your-face, buy me. But considering that most of the residents of these suburbs probably voted for “Sarkozy the American,” maybe they’ll be sucked right into the void. [...]