Youthful Excesses
Do you remember that old biological saw, first proposed by Ernst Haeckel in 1866: “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”? His basic idea was that, as the body of an embryo develops, it resembles the adult stages of the species from which it evolved.
Haeckel was wrong, of course—but his idea might serve as a metaphor for something else. What if we picture the body politic as a developing human? The United States likes to think of itself as a young and vigorous country, but let’s see where the metaphor takes us.
When the country was new (and newish), it saw the continent the way an infant encounters a roomful of toys and candy. It shouted, “MINE! MINE! MINE!,” and proceeded to grab everything it could. “MINE! MINE! MINE!” is, I think, a fair definition of “Manifest Destiny.” Baby America just scooped up natural resources and land with both hands and thought nothing about the consequences.
Infants are unaware of consequences.
As children, we like to play pretend. We dress-up, like it’s Halloween, to pretend we’re Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. We wear green and eat green bagels, drink green beer, and scarf down platters of Corned Beef and Cabbage. We do this despite the fact that none of those things are traditionally Irish. We do it because we’re children and we don’t understand the people we’re pretending to be.
On Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that isn’t even celebrated in Mexico, we stick wedges of lime into the necks of our Coronas, and swill them down while munching on mountains of nachos and slurp up bowls of chili con carne (despite the fact that nachos and chili con carne are American inventions). We do it because we’re children and we don’t understand the people we’re pretending to be.
We use the slang from The Sopranos and The Godfather, while we eat spaghetti and meatballs or pepperoni pizza (despite the fact that, in Italy, only American tourists order meatballs on their pasta—and pepperoni is an American invention). We do it because we’re children and we don’t understand the people we’re pretending to be.
“Gabbagool” is a New Jersey word, not found in any Italian dictionary.
Americans love to go to “ethnic” restaurants because the flavors are “exotic” and the prices are low. It’s fun to eat there. It never occurs to us that the prices are low because the entire family is working, often without pay, in the kitchen. When we leave a tip—which is based on the unnaturally low cost of dinner—it never occurs to us that we’re stiffing the waitstaff.
We’re still selfish children.
I think America is just beginning to grow up. We’re beginning to realize that—even when we use the most “authentic” ingredients—we don’t necessarily know anything about the “ethnic” people whose food we’re preparing. We’re beginning to understand that calling it “ethnic” is code for “cheap”—and tends to punish the restaurants we love by keeping them at a bare subsistence.
We’re beginning to understand that the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources has environmental consequences. As children, we need to learn that when we make a mess, we’re responsible for the clean-up.
When the country was young, it had no problem thinking that other races—especially those from Africa—were just another resource to be exploited. We—for the most part—have outgrown that stage, but we have not quite gotten to the place where reparations need to be made. Or that immigrants need to be paid fairly for their labor. We’re still young—and selfish—enough to make it hard for us to part with actual money.
Most American men have lived their lives in a state of prolonged adolescence. We have treated women and girls as objects, and never even thought about it. The Me Too Movement has been a wake-up call. Some of us have not only changed our behavior toward women, but have forced ourselves to make uncomfortable reappraisals of our past behaviors.
It’s about time. It was time a long time ago.
America is, I hope, beginning to move along with the ontogeny of its body politic—and accept responsibility for its actions. It’s time to become adults; we can’t go on being selfish brats forever.
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