Are Americans really the most confident people. I fell in love with American confidence as soon as I landed in New York. I was moved by the powerful optimism of the New York City Marathon. And I also wanted to learn from it – mention accomplishments in job interviews. And ask “How are you?” to strangers with a big friendly smile and without waiting for the answer. Just striding towards my bright future.
Ten years in, I still love the buoyancy but I wonder, is it real? Are Americans really the most confident people in the world? A population of people who collectively feel like they are the shit. They all the anwer the same. Even though I asked friends and people I met. Throughout the years and they are all very difference from each other. In effect Americans routinely answer the questionnaires saying that “theirs is the best country in the world”.
When I google confidence and America through, I find this: The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.An invisible threat, a crisis of confidene and a loss of unity. Sounds like the summer of 2020. The only thing missing are the weird fireworks that went on every night for over a month in front of our windows in Brooklyn.
Everything is predicated on the idea that we are number one. That we are smarter, better A population of people who collectively feel like they’re the shit. They all answer the same. Even though I asked friends and people I met throughout the years and they are all different from each other.
In effect, Americans routinely answer to questionnaires saying that theirs is the best country in the world. When I google confidence and America though, I find this: The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It&s a crisis of confidence. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.
An invisible threat, a crisis of confidence and a loss of unity. Sounds like the summer of 2020. The only thing missing are the weird fireworks that we went on every night for over a month in front of our windows in Broooklyn.
Carter&s speech is from the summer of ’79 though. In the middle of oil crisis right after the loss of the Vietnam war, the nation was down and the President tried to address it in what’s later been called the “Malaise Speech”.
But that’s not the only crisis of confidence. In 2009, right after the financial crisis, the American Psychology Association thought we need te ‘create a confidence virus to spread throughout the land to change the attitudes and behavior of the American public’.
In 2020 we certainly had a virus, but it wasn’t a confidence inspiring one. More than that, when I look at the history of the United States, I wonder, are these crises of confidence recurring? Or was confidence a myth to start with?
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