Final Essay- "How I make sense of the American Way of Life?"

Before this year I never really questioned why I lived life the way I do and what my motives were behind the life I lived. Overall I find myself to enjoy the way my life is run, but I don't know if I could say the same thing if i was being brought up in a small town in the south. I feel privlliged to live in New York City were I am surrounded by a wealth of culture and diversity although my life seems normal, it is not typical in anyway.The majority of americans grow up in the subarburbs were cars are needed to get everywhere, children and teenagers travel back to forth school participate in extracirculars and for fun meet at the local towns mall or find a free house and use it to their atvantage. I am lucky that thoes are not my only options, new york does not fit the norm of everywhere else. In gerneral we live in a country based on wealth that relies too much on the media for how to live the "american way of life" Commercials, magazines, tv shows, news stations,and newspapers are sublimity feeding us preceptions on how our lifes should be run. We base our lives on what will make us "look cool" and "fit in".

Every America has there own definition of their American way of life, a lot has to do with their background and experiences. Every one wants to achieve the “America dream”, but what defines that. We live in a land of opportunity and most want to take advantage of it. Status is very important to most people and it is most of their goals in life to make it to the top. America is supposed to be a place where everyone, people born dirt poor or filthy rich are given the same chances and opportunities to succeed in life. Financially it has become very difficult to support American family lifestyles “at this point in time the economic system is horrible. The Richer are getting Richer, the middle class is becoming smaller and more people are becoming poorer and poorer.” (Taylor) How much freedom and opportunity do we actually have? Generally speaking the lower class seems to have a much larger struggle.

Does everyone living in American dream the same dream? Is it to“ work hard, start families, try and make money, and pass down tradition and values to the next generation.” (Fanning) Is that the typical American Way of Life? Who is the one who determines the way we choose to live our lives? People all around the world go to great lengths to get to America because of the “freedom” and “opportunity” they hear we Americans have.

Population seems to be growing at a alarming rate, part of being an american is rasing a family. Little girls grow up caring for babydolls, playing house in a plastic model in their back yard or learning to cook from there mothers. From a young age we are surrounded by parternal instict and we out even relazing it we begin our training. Mothers always say it has always been their dream to "Finally" become a grandparent, and most women say they had always known their job in life was to be come a mother. In the united states their is controversy surrounded around the topic of Birth,what is the "American Way of Birth" ?
Child birth and the job of raising a child is a life experience that should not be missed. Women are born with this amazing ability, your body is made to do it so we should take advantage,Women are following the social norm. Once we are married the next thing people expect is for a couple to have a baby, Family Pressure: Mothers want to see there sons and daughters having kids of there own. Grandchildren become a competition, the proud grandparents want to show off how "beautiful and perfect" there newest additions are, lastly teens think it seems like the "cool" thing to do, something to dress up and play around with. They see all the celebrities are want to follow in the same footsteps, not realizing how big a responsibility it is.

How many of the women in the world specifically in the united states are having kids for the right reasons? One idea that was tossed around was the theory that all people have some sort of "deep physical hunger" (something they cant live without), in this case it would be sex. According to Andy "Birth happens because of irrational reasons, a deep physical hunger for sex. People do not give birth because they want to have babies, but because they want more sex.

Why has the AWOB become so alienated? Technology has advanced us in ways that allow childbirth to be easier less painful, but that could lead to the reason why women today are having so many more children. In general women are scared the pain of going though a natural childbirth will cause them, that why they take medication, "its not natural, but its normal." The American way of birth has now become a battle between the "normal" vs. "natural" way to deliver babies into this world, it is becoming harder and harder to find couples that have have a "natural" birth and harder to find couples that have not have a "normal" one.

Years ago in the united states midwives where represented as dirty, unsafe, germ filled, poor people, they made sure to use propaganda to make everyone think that was true. So it is not a new idea in America that hospitals are the "safer" place to have a child. Are the American women the only reason for this dramatic change in the way we give birth or are the doctors to be blamed? American doctors are only taught one way, according to Susan Hodges from the Documentary The Business of Being Born "Very few doctors have ever seen a natural birth in medical school." Like in the tittle of the documentary, birth had become a business, it had become this very impersonal experience that is being rushed by doctors who want to make as most money in a days work as possible. If the mother's cervix is not dilating fast enough the doctors will speed things up, by inducing them with medicine, they want to get them in and out as fast as they can. A women interviewed said they liked the doctor aspect "surgery is easy, its a one, two, three step process." I think it goes unrecognized how manipulated the doctors really are, most of the time they have no real reason for injecting the women with medicine, inducing labor or calling for an "emergency c-section". in reality they are the ones putting the baby though distress causing things to go wrong. In most counties around the world their "normal" way of birth is our natural birth. according to Marsden Wagner an M.D "every where else in the world that's what they do. They lose less mothers and babies where midwives are used."

In our culture birth is considered a crisis, the women have got themselves in this mind set that they will not be able to go through the experience with out the help of medicine or the "comfort" of a doctor. In times of crisis, human beings (soon to be mothers) tend to do what the alpha male tells them to do, they follow the orders of ones in charge (the authority figure). Referring back to the documentary a source who's name i did not catch said "the medical field had convinced most women that they can not birth." The American way of birth has become this high paced rush for both mother and doctor, bright bright lights, medication and unnatural birth positions, its a race to see who can get out faster.

The media will go to any length not only influence us to do what is 'normal" they will sraight out lie to us, to get their way. Connecting this to another unit we covered which was the "American way of food" Everyone wants to enjoy what they eat, the smell, the appearance and the overall taste is what attracts people to their food, but do they really know where what they are eating comes from? what did they use to make is taste so good? but most importantly how healthy is actually is for your body? Taking trips to grocery stores is a weekly trip most people make, before hand; they raid there pantry's and empty refrigerators and begin making there lists. The average American household shops based on the price not the quality, everyone is looking for the best deal and the majority of the time its the concentrated foods that are sold for cheap because they are made in enormous quantities produced my major corporations.

While reading Micheal Pollan's book called The Omnivores Dilemma, he brought up a very interesting point that the average American has too many choices of food. To support that thought on a trip we took in class to a local supermarket we were asked to count the amount of a certain product, the numbers were really surprising, walking down the cereal isle i counted 76 different brands and types, the same thing happened when i counted the different types of pickles (37). Walking into a supermarket it is very hard to come across any fresh produce at an affordable price, people see the expensive price tags and walk the other way. We consume because it is in front of us, in actuality it is not curcial. We shop for packaged foods that come in bulk or is sold for a considerably cheaper price. Organic food seem to be harder to find, i think most people find the labels on the products comforting cause they think they know where its coming from when the reality is that its mostly lies.

In order to keep of with the demand major corpurations use large factories to produce there product. Chickens and turkeys are crammed into tiny cages, while the cows and pigs live in similarly horrible conditions, they are fed antibiotics to speed up there developmental process and "help" them to stay strong despite the conditions they are put through. When it is time to kill them they are put into machines where they roll out dead or knocked out. They are slaughtered by being slashed in the throat or cut in half while they are still alive. These animals never see the sunlight or get to run around and smell the fresh air.

Like every other american, i did not think before putting food in my mouth, when you are little you eat what is put in front of your face. I am older and wiser now and can make my own desicions when it comes to the foods i put in my body. It has been about 9 years since i have had a peice of beef and pork, i made that desision based on thinkng the amimals were "too cute to eat" i am very happy that i made that desision, but i understand why is more important know. Although they are cute, the real reason i contiue to not eat them is cause i dont stand for how they are treated, they deserve a like just like humans. In the next year i am setting a goal to stop participating in the typical american eatting norm, and i will stop eatting mean all together.

Everything that we have studied and analyzed has lead to the last unit in this class, collapse (although it was short, it was very helpful in understanding the direct effect of how we live the way we do, and what it all really means) The word collapse can be imterpreted in many ways. In our class there was a little confusion as to which one we were refering to; Global warming, humans starving to death or the one "where everyone just dies and the world blows up" ? The possible collapse of the American society is a probable one and a sad reality at that. We like in a greedy nation where we value prosperity and anything that helps us gain more money (the wealthier the better!). Large demand leads to exploitation of our resources, oil is has been at its peak for many years in the united states and continues to decrease in not just this country but many other major oil countries. Oil seems to be what keeps out planet spinning, but at the same time is destroying it.

Fossil fuels are limited! but we do not treat them and preserve them like we are worried it will run out anytime soon. Almost everything you can think of involved the use of fossil fuel. What will we do when it runs out? Will the world turn to completely mechanical machines? and how will we be able to keep up with the demand if our resources and machines are slower? No matter how you look at it oil will be needed (even a little) for the human population to live.

The united states was a very subborn nation and made a mistake by not listening, we reached our peak oil in 1950, which is the point at which we have produce the maximum amount of oil. That may have seemed good at the time but from forever after that the amount produced each year will continually decrease. It is becoming harder and harder to find out most valuable resource, other countries have reached there peak as well and it will start to take affect on us negativly.

Although i dont believe the earth will blow up and everyone will die a tramatic death in the year of 2012, i do however believe we will face a major change in the way out cvilization lives. In class the other day we disccused possiblities for the future, a "loooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggg ression" the ecomony will stop growing. when we get out of college there will be less jobs for way lower wages. Massive inflation will affect everyone, things that once held value will become worthless. The key systems in the united states will start to break down. It is important that we prepare for it as best we can, having a set of back up skills will come in handy. Occupations that directly benfit people will be the most sucessful.