The Ideal American :
America is interesting. It captures the imagination and attention of the world but
almost all of the attention it receives is negative. A gas guzzling, beer drinking, loud,
and highly violent culture are some of the more common attributes dumped on America. It's
the mass murders, militia standoffs, and government scandals that make the foreign press
headlines. Asia feels were lazy and bloated with sucess. France thinks were un-cultured,
and most of the third world views us as intrusionary bullies. Even the United Nations is
beginning to despise our power. But not much changes in the way America is involved with
the affairs of the rest of the world. We are despised but accepted. The rest of the world
has no choice, they can't deny us because we are key to their survival and they know it.
This dichotomy plays havoc with how the ideal American is viewed. Because America and
the rest of the world plays to the drum of the moment, America and what it believes is
constantly changing and evolving. It is this fluidity of acceptance of new ideas, that
keeps America vital and a step ahead of ther rest of the world. It is a place where the
adventurous spirit of the pioneers who settled the west is central to the soul of
America and is valued above most everything else. Change and new ideas is essential to
Americans. It is what their country is based on. Fresh ideas, whether accepted as true or
right by the general public are discussed. Ultimately the new ways may be ridiculed,
scorned, outlawed or viewed as evil and unfit for the country. But first the ideas are
always debated and weighed with a generally open mind. Creative and new ways of looking
at things are judged before being dismissed. People whose ideas are not accepted may be
then be placed in a negative light or even hated. But no matter how vehemently opposed an
American may be to the beliefs of a person or group, he/she can't help but respect the
radical for the fact that they develped a new idea, and acted on it. Just as the pioneers
who settled a hostile country, the radicals who believe and act on their convictions gain
the respect of the American public. I feeel that this creativity, convicition and hard
work are essential to the life of an ideal American.
Moral purity and the golden rule attitude are also considered a basic tenet of being a
good American. But these values can easily be replaced with hard work, dedication,
sucess, and ultimately public recognition. In the mind of Americans, these qualites can
effectively override the moral purity qualifications. People such as the great tycoons
Rockefeller, and Trump. Or even some of our presidents, namely Nixon. They swindled,
stole, cheated and downright stepped on the backs of others to reach their positions. At
all times they certainly did not practice ethical business practices to achieve their
stature. But, there stature is not diminshed much because of how they achieved their
greatness. Twenty five years later, President Nixon is eulogized as a great man by most
of the country, and excluding text books, Rockefeller is remembered solely for his
unselfish use of his money toward many splendid public works.
How quickly America selectively forgets what is was evil about the person, when the
person is so powerful, and has such an impact on history. Because a man is sucessful and
achieves great power, they are revered. It is this power and drive that is admired by
Americans and considered ideal traits. That is not to say that humanitarians and
religious prophets can't be considered ideal Americans, or to posses the ideal traits.
There power is not as obvious but are also respected only because they posses the same
type of influential power enjoyed by tycoons and political leaders.
I believe the ideal American is the person who works hard for what they desire, or with
conviction in what they preach, and succeed in gaining recognition, whether favorable or
not. It is here in America where being noticed, commanding power, and/or being original
and dedicated, are the virtues that people respect and see in an ideal American. These
are the people that the American public reveres as ideal. In this country, all the
conclusions drawn about ideal Americans inevitably leads to equating the "ideal" American
with the "noteworthy" American.
It is not common that a caucasian person as myself would usually claim Malcolm X as a
person I would choose to follow as the ideal American. But using the terms laid out
before the reasoning becomes clearer. I do not think of Malcolm X or El-Hajj Malik
El-Shabazz as the only type of ideal American. He simply possess most of the traits I
established as being an ideal American.
How can this be true if one stops to consider the life of Malcom Little? Besides being a
drug dealer, he was a murderer, mugger, thief, and consequently a convicted criminal. He
was a uncotrollable drug user, and virtual socio path. He was even nicknamed "Satan",
for being one of the meanest, most evil inmates in prison. For decades after being
released from prison he succumbed to the inane racist philosophies of the Nation of Islam
and it's bigot leader Elijah Muhhamed. Malcom X as he was now called preached hatred,
bigotry and violence to all that would listen.. He was responsible for countless deaths,
riots, and general prejudices being worsened all for the cause of the racist Nation of
Islam. For most of his years he preached that the white man was "the devill", and should
be wiped out from the earth. Finally, towards the end of his life he opened his ignorant
eyes to what was so obvious to countless others. He saw that what he had been preaching
was evil and wrong, and rebuked much of his earlier beliefs.
Malcolm cannot be rembered as an intellectual genius, nor as a testament to the virtues
of a great man. He preached hatred and intolerance for too long, even with his upbring
taken into account, to be considered a brilliant visionary.
He was not an ideal American in terms of being a good citizen, morally pure, or
patriotic.for being the morally pure, upstanding American citizen. Instead, certain
attributes of his life and it's effects, qualifies him as a different type of an ideal
American.
While hated by many, none can deny that he changed the world around him permanently. His
life was a testament to dedication, hard work, and perserverance. His pursuits were the
wrong ones, but he believed that he was doing the right thing. The goals were morally
wrong but his conviction was unfaltering. He never lagged with a gap between his thoughts
and his actions. Whatever he desired he went and attempted, and continued until all
options were exhausted. Wholeheartdely he commited himself to his work with the same hard
work ethics that the great tycoons did. Only his goal was not to improve his standing in
life, but to improve his peoples', he must be respected as they are because of his
commitment to his goal. While the tycoons ultimate goal was simply self fufillment, a
selfish, morally incorrect purpose in life, they were viewed as ideal Americans because
they achieved what they set out to do through dilligent hard work. Malcolm X did the same
and so should be viewed in the same light as these "ideal" Americans.
As was already established, the thoughts and actions of Malcolm (or more precisely the
those of the dishonorable Elijah Muhammed whose he followed) were inherently evil, and
assinine. The general population may have desired Malcolm to die and not worthy of being
alive when his beliefs became public, and he campaigned for them. Their hatred was fresh
and vehement. These were new troublesome ideas that this young radical was claiming. It
was because they were new or becasue they were voiced publicly for the first time that
the population became so angry and worried. His thoughts were scary in their newness.
Like an ideal, free thinking American, Malcolm had used The Nation of Islam teachings to
spring these creatively evil thoughts on an unwilling public. The population recognized
the terrible creativity and freshness behind these ideas. They realized that like other
ideal Americans in history, Malcolm had new theories, but more importantly that he new
how to use them. His thoughts were unlike past notable Americans, but they were just as
creative and original as those men and women who were considered ingenious role models.
Malcolm's ability to implement these new ideas on the population effects the world around
him. He sets out to change the world with fresh, new ideas, and suceeds in gaining
recognition. For good or ill use, he still embodies the pioneering attitude so key to
America.
Some may disagree with my position. They may claim that no matter how creative, hard
working, and dedicated Malcolm X was, he still preached hatred and cannot be considered
an ideal American. His evil also outweighs his impact on history and his noteworthyness.
I cannot begin to defend the views that Malcolm held for so long. As they are certainly
wrong. All that can be done is to try to justify the reasons that Malcom may have
believed these things. His cruel life all pointed him towards these beliefs. A much more
honest and religious man, may have come to the same conclusions had he have lived the
life that Malcolm lived. One of abuse, poverty, murder, and hopelessness, all at the
hands of the white man. His actions were not justified, but can almost be considering his
plight.
It is this partial justification that I offer as an answer to his inexcusable acts. What
Malcolm X preached was what he truly believed to be the truth. Every shred of his
exsistence rested on these racist beliefs. Until near the end of this life, he believed
that what he was doing, was the word of god, Allah. He believed he was doing the most
sincere and morally correct thing any man could do. Every time he preached the devil as
the white man he believed he improved the world. How I ask can you hold a man completely
accountable for his actions when he feels he is improving the world around him for the
good of the people? I don't excuse him completely. I only say that like any ideal
American he was following his set of golden rules. Be kind to black men, and hate white
men. Just as a pious, American citizen believes that being kind to your fellow man, and
being a good citizen is essential to being an ideal American. Malcolm believed that what
he was doing was essential to being an ideal American, or an ideal person. His intentions
were good, it was only that his whole philosophy was wrong, through no complete fault of
his own.
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