America Fears Everything

The Number One Problem in America:

Americans Are Afraid of Everything

What feelings arise in you when I say that Americans fear everything? How would you respond to a statement like this? With agreement or questioning, with dismay or rebuttal? Upon reading Victoria Hardy's essay Fear in America from the American Chronicle, I called into question how many fears encompass the lives of each and every American. Rupert Wilkinson says the four fears of America are being owned, falling apart, falling away, and winding down. Hardy writes that in America "we fear terrorists, disease, war, weather, strangers, molesters, drug dealers, gang members, each other and our news programs perpetuate that it is not just normal, but sane to live in fear."

The collection of essays I have written (and posted) on the problems with American society today include lack of education, parenting, vanity, and intolerance which are prime examples of a large proportion of our fears; the fear of whether or not you will succeed in life, the fear that you will let your children down, an extreme fear of imperfection, and fear of any person that we do not understand. American phobias are as vast as they are ridiculous.

Lack of Education causes Misunderstanding which causes Intolerance which causes Hatred which causes American people to Fear Everything.

Fear of Homosexuals: Homophobia

Pictures like this one depict an intolerance of people in two ways. Firstly, a man holds a sign that shows his hatred of the homosexual community and his views on same sex marriage, secondly, the (hilarious) caption shows how some White Americans still have a hatred of African American people, even after the Civil Rights movement. I chose this picture because it shows that no matter who you are, an intolerance and fear of that which you do not understand is still prevalent. Americans hatred and intolerance of people cause large amounts of fear.
Some American people fear homosexuals, and are against the idea of same sex marriage because they fear what will happen to their marriage if legalization of same sex marriage ensues. Kathy Belge states that "some opponents of gay marriage fear that by allowing same-sex couples to marry, it will lessen the validity of heterosexual marriage", which is ridiculous. My opinion is that the "validity" of heterosexual marriage is depleted way more by divorce and abuse rates than by whether or not two people of the same sex decide to bind their love in marriage. The fear of homosexuals is simply an intolerance, and a fear of what we do not understand. If American people could appreciate differences, and see that diversity is what makes our melting pot country beautiful, hatred like this could finally end. The youth of America can break the cycle of discrimination.

Fear of Imperfection: Atelophobia

Americans have a vast fear of not meeting the expectations of society. We fear being thought of as ugly, imperfect, too fat, too skinny... Anything that an American person knows about themselves is just another thing that they fear others will hate. Those who fall into the angst of a fear concerning their various imperfections fall into a despair that causes irreversible damage to self esteem and in some cases their entire life. The suicide rates of American teenagers is astonishing. When Americans fear things that fall under the category of vanity, depression ensues, followed by despair, and in some cases, followed by death.

Atychiphobia - Fear of failure.
Autophobia - Fear of being alone.
Cacophobia - Fear of ugliness.
Catagelophobia - Fear of being ridiculed.
Obesophobia - Fear of gaining weight.
Philophobia - Fear of love.

Fear is defined as "an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation" by Merriam Webster dictionary... Unpleasant. How can our news stations and governments officials encourage fear when it causes hatred, suicide, and a general feeling of unpleasant emotions? When Americans realize that everyone is equal, the intolerance of people based on their sexuality will cease to exist, and people can finally live their lives the way they were meant to; with the idea that LOVE is LOVE no matter who possesses it. The young and bold generation of American youth is perfectly capable of changing the way Americans live in fear. If we begin to instill a new idea of what beauty means in the minds of the American people via the media, this issue and many more would disappear. Organizations like To Write Love on Her Arms aim to raise suicide awareness, yet the issue still remains, and will continue to unless something big is done. If America's youth can begin a new trend of tolerance and acceptance of each and every race and ethnicity, the overwhelming fear of that which we do not understand will finally start to end.

Fear of Foreigners or Strangers: Xenophobia

The topic of illegal immigrants arriving from Mexico has become more and more prevalent in recent years, and American people have not neglected to show their standpoints and feelings towards the Mexican culture and community. Since 9.11.2001 Americans have had an extremely heightened fear of terrorism, which unfortunately has resulted in a fear of all middle-eastern people, and turned into a hatred by many Americans of the Islamic culture. Xenophobia is the fear of strangers and foreign people, which to me means all that do not fall into your societal grouping, religion or ethnicity, or into the category of your race.
Americans misunderstanding and fear of that which is foreign to them has always existed, from the beginning when immigrants arriving to this country were persecuted by other immigrants, to the idea that illegal immigrants are to be the demise of American citizens. The immigrants arriving from Mexico in recent years, while illegal, do not pose that large of a threat on our job market, although the argument has been made that they are "stealing our jobs". Honestly, which jobs are the people who state this referring to? Personally, I do not want a single one of the jobs that many illegal immigrants posses; the grunt work of American citizens. People who do not fully understand the events of September 11, 2001 have created an insanely large intolerance of the middle-eastern culture. By educating American students and pressing the idea of understanding in schools, we can not only learn to treat others with respect, but we can better ourselves as a country and as individuals.

What those who fear terrorism in America do not realize is that every country in the world has had some form terror brought down upon them. While many Americans fear, and even hate, the Middle-Eastern cultures, what they fail to realize is that the USA is frequently thought of as a force to be feared above all others.

Solving America's Largest Problem:

The solution to our overwhelming fear of all things lies in the youthful generation of America.

[It is our responsibility as a generation of willful and capable people to change the ways in which Americans live their lives.]

The young adults of America, generation y, are ambitious enough to solve this problem, and by elevating our all encompassing fear, eliminating the majority of hatred in our society. Kaila Krayewski speaks highly about generation y stating that "it is a generation of strong-willed, passionate, and optimistic youth. They have great expectations and are known for expecting (and demanding) to get what they want."

Be the change that causes happiness.

equality.
understanding.
tolerance.
acceptance.
LOVE.

Intolerance of Americans

To the Diversity Committee,

An overwhelming issue that envelops our society is the intolerance of people based on ethnicity, race, and other general appearances alongside intolerance towards those of different social classes. Citizens who fall into these social groups make up a vast majority of our country. Media like Cosmopolitan and People magazine depict an idea of the perfect woman and encourage young Americans to fit the mold of a cookie cutter type of beauty. Since the beginning of human interaction, an idealistic woman has existed. Literature like the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison tells a story of this idea years before Cosmopolitan Magazine sat on the coffee tables of a large number of adult women and young Americans. The Bluest Eye exemplifies the idea of a stereotypical perfection in a group of African American people that drives them into hardships and even insanity. Through the Diversity Committee at the, a campaign should be made to stop this global and local issue of intolerance. The ideal woman today is seen as a tall blond with an hourglass figure and a perfect face, but this ideal woman does not exist in a natural society, just in our popular forms of media, and to become “perfect” is an impossible task.

In the Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove longs for the fair skin and blue eyes of popular American icons like Shirley Temple, until she drives herself into madness. This text shows us how Americans who struggle to maintain or achieve perfection often fall into depression when they fail. Popular media of every generation has deemed it essential for young people to fit into social norms of beauty and perfection that are almost impossible to reach. Today, when unable to fit into the cookie cutter version of beauty, many Americans develop eating disorders. One in every one hundred women in America suffers from Anorexia Nervosa, and two in every one hundred women have suffered from Bulimia Nervosa, these are two very difficult diseases of the human mind that encompass many members of our country, including some men. Ending this overwhelming issue of intolerance in America’s society is a vital task that the Diversity Committee should seriously consider taking on. If the committee takes on a campaign of this magnitude, it will impact the entirety of at least the Colorado universities if not gaining countrywide attention; considering that this issue affects all Americans. According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, around 8,000,000 American people suffer from an eating disorder, this statistic is too important and drastic to let pass. Considering the fact that 95% of people with eating disorders are under 25 years of age, this issue directly affects universities and colleges around the country. The condescending articles of magazines like Cosmopolitan and People seriously hurt our culture, and airbrushed made-up models being the basis of comparison for women in America must stop. If the Diversity Committee at does not do something, whom can we look to for the remedy of this nationwide craze for beauty? In the Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove’s character dreams for nothing more than what society regards as beautiful, and never achieves it. This idea Toni Morrison depicts is not unlike the way many of America’s youth feels on a daily basis.

Every woman hates something about herself; whether it is a social or economic place in society, their race and ethnicity, or something about their body shape, weight, or skin color. If no woman, and not many men, can feel beautiful in their own skin, then our entire nation, as well as our students, is doing something wrong. If popular literature like the Bluest Eye shows a family that is considered ugly based upon nothing but their race, and media like Cosmopolitan and People magazines show us the perfect, yet fake, American women we should idolize, intolerance will never disappear and more Americans will continue to fall into plastic surgery and eating disorders. This issue is nothing short of an epidemic in our society, and something drastic must be done.

Problems in American Parenting

America’s problems in parenting consist of many different errors that could be remedied with simple consideration of both the individual you are raising and the way you were raised. Sometimes the instinctual things about life are the best to follow; which means that hitting a child, ignoring a child, and placing every burden on our societies young people are not ways to raise the future of America. Children are being raised one of two ways; either in a place with no rules or guidelines and a low standard of what it means to succeed, or by those certain overbearing parents who give their kids too many rules to memorize.
There are complete extremes in our generation, especially in its ideas of parenting. The problem with American parenting today is that our society is slowly losing control of the youthful generation, and forgetting the proper way to raise children. There are three different forms of analysis that exemplify the way Americans raise children.

An Ethos Analysis:
The best way for respect in a relationship, especially between a parent and a child, is to set a list of boundaries that are not all strict, but all completely understood by both parties. From my direct relationships with parents and their children, as well as my relationship with my parents, I have discovered the two extremes in parenting. The first is a set of parents with no regard for their children and who neglect to care for them. My friend Phillip grew up with a complete lack of rules, from not needing to pull grades to being disrespectful to authoritative figures. This is large percentage of American parents’ problem in raising their children. With no expectations from his parents, he didn’t graduate high school on time and took over a year off before realizing that he needed to go to college. Americans need to learn how to use moderation in every part of their lives. On the opposite side of the parenting spectrum, there are parents who are overbearing and controlling so much that they drive their children into rebellion. A girl named Aimee and I grew up together, in the same environment, with completely different upbringings. Her parents have restricted her in so many ways that it is more simple to explain what she is allowed to do than to list off the things that she is forbidden to do. Her senior year of high school, Aimee’s parents put a GPS tracker in her cell phone, followed her from school to her friends’ houses, and other things that exemplified overbearing parenting. These two examples of young adults are being raised in completely oppositional and unfit forms of American parenting. Phillip’s mother showed such a complete indifference to him that nothing seemed to matter in his life; this kind of neglect in American parenting is not acceptable. Phillip got into drugs, alcohol, and a complete disregard for his education. Aimee, though her parents raised her in the exact opposite way, experienced a lot of the same forms of rebellion. For example, when she found out that her parents were tracking her, she bought a “go phone” and left her old one in the library. These two young adults are both subjects of American parenting at its’ worst and the solution to bad upbringings throughout our generation is to treat your children with respect and give them proper initiative to do well in life.
The children and young adults I encounter (usually) have some large problem with either one or both of their parents. The best way to raise children is to show kindness, treat them with equal respect, and allow them certain amounts of freedom. Although it will seem completely biased, I believe my parents did the best job at conveying exactly what was expected of me, as well as maintaining my high level of freedom. I have always had a lack of leeway in school, but I am allowed every other privilege I could hope for, and I always have an open line of communication with my parents about every aspect of my life.

A Pathos Analysis:
Parents in America today seem to have completely lost control of themselves and their children. Mankind continues to get worse at conveying their emotions as time goes on. Not only do parents in this generation lose sight of how to raise their children, but they have also been forgetting the proper ways of discipline. Today, if a parent doesn’t know how to raise their children, or they are stressed, or confused, they seem to be turning to abuse. In a ten-year study, it was recorded that the number of child deaths per day due to abuse and neglect had almost doubled since the 1900’s. There is no clear explanation for this, because the demographics of child abusers span from every socioeconomic level in education, wealth, religion, ethnicity, and culture. The biggest problem with American parenting is the selfishness that causes child abuse. The only way Americans should be allowed to raise children is if they are ready to be fully devoted to loving someone else unconditionally. Child abuse and neglect both show insane immaturity in American parents because damage to the children of today span their entire lives. Over 60% of people in drug rehabilitation centers reported that they were abused or neglected in their youth, and 80% of the group of 21 year olds interviewed in the same study fit the criteria for at least one psychological disorder. Abusing a child cannot only ruin your life, but will almost always ruin the life of that child. The future of America is based partially on the results of our generation’s ability to raise children; we all need to start doing a much better job.

A Logos Analysis:
The problems in America are numerous and some of the time unsolvable, but the problems with American’s parenting skills could be easily solved with simple logic. According to “Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2005” there are around 13 million single parents in America. The abuse rates in this country continue to go up alongside the divorce rates, so we continue to get worse at marriage and raising children as time progresses. Of the men and women who are raising their children alone 38% live in poverty. Poverty in a family can never be helpful in the attempt to raise America’s youth because of a simple fact; without food humans become a bit irate. Only 31% of all single parents receive public assistance, and they continue their life with malnourishment. Logically, raising a child on your own is not the best way to go about it and before one can jump into childbirth; the consideration of their ability to raise a child should be accounted for. The solution to these problems in American parenting is to simply figure out exactly how children should be treated as individuals, and to respect your children like you want them to respect you.

The Lack of Education in America

The problems with America as a society span from the government, to the media’s instillation of low self esteem in our youth. Every country has its problems, so the solving of each small issue is a task that is nearly impossible to accomplish, but what many American people tend to notice is that the largest of problems often fall from importance. While America’s problems spread widely across the board of categorized imperfections, the most important issue we face is the lack of education in our society; this display of disobedience and blatant laziness will only continue to escalate unless some drastic changes are made.

The biggest problem, as well as the most overlooked in American society, is the lack of education in our citizens and the youth of America’s disregard for their futures in schooling as well as careers. The issue in this lack of education in America has always been evident in that most people do the bare minimum in order to get by in life and school. Most of the blame for this new “high school dropout” phenomenon falls on those belonging to the baby boomer and x generations for raising our youth without much penalty for their actions. The only way to motivate American children and teens to succeed is by implanting a sense of need in their minds from an early age to their filling out of college applications. Education seems unimportant today because job openings at the family gym, or the McDonalds and Starbucks on every corner are always viable options. A solution to this problem is to convince the future generations of America that it is not enough to be self-sufficient; you must also be able to get by and defend yourself with a high level of intelligence. It is unfair of course to place all of the blame on the older generations for our society’s uneducated people, because in some cases structure from the parents does not change the rebellious ideas of teenagers.

Another large portion of the blame in this epidemic of stupidity can be placed in the world of reality television and untalented celebrities. Why would the youth of America strive for higher education when they have the chance to be on the Real World or be famous like Ashlee Simpson and T-Pain? The creators of this world of talentless fame are fueling the fire in the lack of education. A perfect example of the state of mind Americans have is in shows like Maury and Jerry Springer, programs that lower the standards of Americans to such an extent that it’s impossible to think that you, yourself, could need to be educated any more than you are. The invention of synthesizers in the vocals of new music is another thing we use that demonstrates the simplicity of fame. To be a famous musician today does not necessarily mean that you have training or that you have talent, so today’s average teenager does not feel the need to educate themselves, and instead, they hope to gain fame and fortune.

This problem manifests itself today in the daily lives of every American citizen whether or not they realize it. The lack of education in America is such a predominant and important problem that it is astonishing when proper attention is not given to it. My direct relation to this problem is in both my close personal life and my distant relationships. For almost a year I have been dating the exact kind of person that I love to complain about. My boyfriend, David, did not have the credits to graduate at the end of his senior year of high school, so instead he got his G.E.D. While this is better than dropping out entirely he still has yet to apply to any colleges, well after receiving a G.E.D. David comes up with a plethora of excuses as to why he is not yet enrolled in a schooling program, but none are acceptable, and I feel as though voicing that opinion to him alone is a small step to fixing America’s largest unsolved issue. David happens to be someone I care about deeply, so I let his disregard for education temporarily slide, however, there are others who I do not accept excuses from. My roommate, we’ll call her “sloth” for all extensive purposes, is a perfect example of the absence of appreciation for our educational system. She tells me that the only reason she attends the university is because of “parental force” and the fact that marriage is the alternative to higher education in her country. “Sloth” will stay up until 3am or later playing games and watching movies, then she will sleep through her morning classes, and nap all through the day. This disregard for the amazing opportunities American universities offer is obscene, as well as a problem that is important and overlooked by society. Culture today does not expect everyone to do his or her best in attaining knowledge, which is obviously a very important issue to remedy.

Onto the question of “who facilitates this problem”? There is only one group that is entirely to blame and that is the unmotivated youth of America, who are not interested in becoming graduate students or having backup plans. At least they can all rely on the fact that there is always a comfortable couch in the basement of their parents and a job at the gas station. My solution to this national problem is to simply campaign to raise awareness of the education level of our country. America as a country is ranked extremely low on the scale of educated people, and 5 out of every 100 students in American high schools drop out and do not receive a degree. Another way to solve this enormous issue is to instill in the minds of parents that their child’s future is at risk unless they set strict guidelines. Coming from the standpoint of a structured childhood I can honestly say that strict rules in the ways of education are necessary for American children. Young adults today rely on their parents more than the baby boomer generation relied on theirs.

Obviously, the lack of education in America is overlooked by the media, the news, and even by current students of universities. If we continue to allow this epidemic to occur, an entire plague of moronic behavior will ensue, and the world will continue to deplete in education. This problem is too big to be ignored and something must be done to remedy it.