THE AMERICAN IDENTITY

To define identity, we should answer the question of "who are we?" do we define it by referring to our religion? Nationality? Ethnicity? Race? Gender? Or etc. However, what has gained significance in terms of identity in the modern era is "nation-state".

Due to the ideological questions brought by modernism and post-modernism and the new circumstances of living regarding mass migration and expansion of communications, "identity" has turned to one of the most challenging issues of the day. However, the problem is much deeper for America. As America is basically shaped through migrations and immigrations, there's no classic bondage to form one identity for it.
There are three major theories to explain American identity. First the melting pot, the traditional view that different people would come to the scene of America and get absorbs in its whole. This theory is rejected as many people did not match themselves with the mainstream. Second, is the salad bar. Here, multiculturalism gets possible but the continuity of unity is endangered. Finally, the stew is proposed. In this theory all the particulars exist but the compound exists as well.

By the way, Huntington in his book "WHO ARE WE?" says that the basis for American identity has been 1) Christianity (protestant ethics), 2) Anglo-Saxon laws, 3) good opportunity for everybody. He believes that immigration that has brought people from around the world to America is weakening these primary elements which once were the founding reasons for the formation of America.

Weisskirch in his paper, "Ethnicity and perceptions of being a typical American…" says that "the view of who are an American and what is considered American is rapidly evolving". By referring to Citrin, Reingold, & Green, he explains that the national identity of American emerges because of the perceived commonalities of the members that there are some unique characteristics in being American, regardless of origin". According to Dr. Hosseini, there is an "American Idea" to which great commitment is hold and forms the core elements of American nation.

THE CANADIAN JOURNALIST

Dr. Zafar Bangash, the journalist and the director of "The Crescent", the Canadian newspaper was our guest in FWS. He's a Muslim anti-Zionist journalist who is writing and criticizing by Islamic ideology for three decades. What he discussed to us was mostly about Canadian attitude toward its Muslim citizens and Muslims on the whole.
"Canada is dependent on US economically and militarily" he expressed,"90% of Canadian export is to US that's about 8 to 9 hundred million dollars". He said that at the moment, the extreme right wing conservatives have the power, whose attitude towards Muslims and military actions is even harsher than George Bush. Despite 55 to 60% of people's disagreement with Canada's sending soldiers to Afghanistan, the government does so. On the other hand there are troops in Iraq and government holds strong support for Israel. For example, the government's reaction is hypocritical toward Canadian citizens being killed in Afghanistan and Lebanon. Also, Canada was the first to cut off aid to Palestinians when Hamas won the election of 2006. At the end Dr. Bangash believed that Muslim countries like Iran "should establish good relations with Muslim communities in other countries".

AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM IN CYBERSPACE

Internet is a universally used device which has many strong potentialities like changing the centuries- old ways of thought and patterns of communication. Worldwide relationships inevitably convey many new meanings and reflections to the lives of people. In this between, America, as the dominator of the cyberspace, exports its culture effectively. One important aspect which is held by the help of inherent characteristics of the cyber space itself is individualism.
Individualism is a modern concept referring to "societies with a loosely knit social framework, where the interests of the individuals usually prevail over the interests of the group"(Tapanesa, Smith, White. Cultural diversity in online learning. Sciencedirect.com). As McKay says in "American politics and society", "it is rooted in pluralism". Meaning there's no special ideological, ethnic, religious or linguistic, in whole collectivist prejudice in a society and all of them are accepted beside each other. This situation is contrary to the collectivism. In such societies "individuals are integrated into strong and cohesive groups based on protection and loyalty"(Tapanesa… Cultural diversity…).as a matter of fact, according to McKay, "individualism is the best thing to represent Americanism". It is one of the most fundamental traits of American identity as this society is basically founded on diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic and etc groups. Formally, they all are equal before the law and make one united whole.

Internet is one of the tools conducting individualism. However, nowadays, most of the people of the world share the cyber space; it's United States that still dominates this network. Its search engines, famous news, scientific and many other sites belong to U.S. As a result internet with millions of viewers everyday is a great tool for cultural export. American goods, books, movies, stars, models and etc are advertised in universally famous sites. All these will the American way of thought, part of which is individualism.
People need to interact with the world and the fastest, easiest way is using internet. It doesn't matter how collectivist they be, they have to face the diverse cultures ways of thought and as a matter of fact have to respect all in the interactions if they all are the citizens of a united cyber space with the ultimate levels of diversity. So, in this way, individualism enters the lives of people from eastern or western collectivist countries. According to Geert Lovint in "Mass psychology of the net: A proposal", when internet began to serve the public, " postmodern theory spread the rumor that there were no longer crowds, only micro units, communities and most of all, scattered individuals, trying to define their own uniqueness, each of them dealing with their own psycho specialties. The social sciences and humanities followed the 'lonely crowed' in their spasmodic attempts to differentiate themselves"(139-140).
At the end, internet is one of the most effective tools to convey individualism as an inseparable part of American identity to the old world whose culture is mostly collectivist. The reason is that as an American invention, it's still dominated by them both in hard and soft wares. On the other hand, interaction with people via internet, automatically leads to a sense of individualism.

MINORITIES DEVELOP A MINORITY MENTALITY

Imam Abdol Alim Musa is a black man who has been directing an Islamic movement, A'Sabiqun, in America for 30 years.
We were happy to meet him at the faculty of world studies, last week. He had a very interesting story about his life when he told us that he had been one of the biggest and richest drug dealers in his youth. Hopeless of getting what he has been after, he gets interested in Islam, leaves all the treasures behind and starts an Islamic movement.
Imam Musa spoke to us of many different issues about American society, blacks, Islam and etc. he talked about the black ancestors who were captured from Africa and transported to U.S. Then, their everything, meaning their culture, language, religion and whole being was taken from them. They even were not given true information about their African history. What blacks knew was that Africa was an undeveloped land with uncivilized people whom whites have been savored.
"Human being acts according to self image" he said, "until recently we never reached our full potential as we didn't have a full image". As a result there were no true answer to the question of WHO AM I?" for the blacks. They were brought up by the mentality of colonization. By the away, he believes that their Fitrat still exists and helps them to find the true answer. "if you want to rest your people, it's not to improve their physical conditions but to make a good image of them", Imam Musa recommended, referring to God saying, "I’m TO THE BELIEVER WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM ME". As a result, "Islam is accepted as a transformation in black community" he declared. By accepting Islam, the answer to the big question "who am I?", changes, so the image changes."Minorities develop a minority mentality" he expressed referring to the minority Shia and Iran who have been able to stand firm against the enemies by the help of Allah. Sabiqun is a minority group as well which has been wonderfully successful to survive despite being the target of American government for past 30 years.

This is my second week in the faculty of world studies and I'm mixed up with the heavy body of tasks. These days "globalization", "analytic approach to history" and "vital issue of difference in American ethnicities are discussed.
Globalization, for example, is the controversial issue which has faced extremist approaches. There we discussed that its causes are far-fetched as it is a multi-disciplinary phenomenon which needs deep and analytic knowledges of many sorts. It's results as though more observable, are more readily prone to discussion. The three waves of globalization, its discourses, from equalizing it with Americanization to a new colonization were taught and finally Iranians point of view about it was argued.

History, actually is a narrative, expressed Dr. Hoseini in the history course. Narratives are subjective, that's why the history books have different approaches according to the conditions of th their own time. For example, American histories of the 17th cent. are religious, 18th cent. are secular and 19th cent. are in a metropolitan atmosphere. History is not the knowledge of the past but for the present and future. people learn from it but what they take depends on how they look to it. In fact, there are several theories on the case. One is linear, a process starting from one point and coming to an end in another particular one. The other is cyclical, in that there's a paradigm shift after acertain period of time. The third is the Pendulum. The base, in this case, is fixed but the pendulum moves to the down left, then to the balanced point and then the down right, or vice versa and this continues.According to the third theory, from Ronessance to the 20th cent., there's a paradigm shift. Accordingly, people move from the old world to the new world(America), but interestingly this shift has changed its way and the 21th cent. is the time when the new world moves to the far east of the old world, meaning east Asia.
"Identity", a word that people needed not to hezitate, in the past, to define. However, it has turned to be one of the most controversial issues of the world, especially for America. America for its diverse ethnicities, cultures and religions needs to define a new identity different from what was common in the past to save its unity.
These were the gists of what we were taught and a lot of papers and research are left on our shoulders to be done as soon as possible.

"THE POET OF BRILLIANT WATERS"

on 29th of September 2009, we had the opportunity to meet the American poet and writer, Dr. Christopher Merill, on the faculty of world studies. He "directs the international writing program at the university of Iowa"* and has recieved awards from the Academy of American poets for "Brilliant waters" and "Watch fire"**
Gladly, he was so touched with the Iranians' habit of honoring the guests and felt coming back home while visiting the tomb of the king of ghazal, Hafez, at Shiraz.
There, a friendly meeting was held and the students posed diverse questions from civil and foreign policies of the U.S. to its culture and literature, although, he insisted that he's there just as poet and writer.
Dr. merill believed that "literature is a good field to know Americans". The diversity of ethnicities in U.S. is an important issue that not only is reflected in the works of famous writers but also the giants of American literature are themselves from different ethnicities. These help the diversity to be brought under the flag of unity. "Writers responded to the condition of own time" he believed.
To answer a question about 9/11 and its aftermats for the Islamic world, he said that "it's easier to be afraid of it than to do something about it" as the reason for Islamophobia spread through America at the time.
Dr. Christopher Merill, as an American literary man who is interested in the elitist world while living with the mass in the heart of society, believed that the slogan of change,introduced by president Obama, brought hopes but can not expect to happen in a short period of time. He expressed that media and writers should do their job in realizing the idea.
At the end he admitted to share his classes in Iowa via vidio conference with the faculty of world studies.


*&** : http://www.christophermerillbooks.com/