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The first version of this essay appeared in February 2010.
1
The force that historically has driven America – and the United States in particular – is a dynamic tension between dualities.
These dualities (or opposites) consist of worthy, even noble motives or ideals that happen to be paired against one another, pulling in opposite directions. Yet the opposition is not between good and bad (not between good and evil, and not even between moral and immoral). Both members of each pair are unquestionably good.
Consider, for example, the classic duality between Reason and Passion.
By nature, passion - or as we might say more often today, emotion – is volatile, always changing, “in the moment,” unpredictable.
Reason by contrast is orderly, considers both the past and the future, is predictable (though not unchanging).
The ancients said that one should seek a balance in one’s life, inspired or motivated by emotion (or “passion”) and also guided by reason. An excess of either emotion or reason would lead to negative results; finding the right balance in one’s life between these opposing internal forces was the ideal.
An individual or a nation driven by excessive emotion would be always unstable, untrustworthy, subject to intimidation by others more powerful, and vulnerable to manipulation. An individual excessively driven by reason would be alone, cold, selfish, calculating; a nation driven excessively by reason would not be grounded in values, and would be seeking, not ideals, but only the nation’s material and political interest.
Emotion is perhaps more critical to the individual and reason to a nation, but the opposed driving force - in some degree - is necessary to each.
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Since early in its development, American culture has been impelled forward by the tension between such opposing and interrelated forces – dualities – as these:
Reason - - - - - - - - - Emotion
Order - - - - -- - - - - Harmony
Society - - - -- - - - - Nature
Social - - - -- - - - - - Individual
Public - - - -- - - - - - Private
Duty - - - - -- - - - - - Commitment
Loyalty - - - -- - - - - Independence
Social Order - - - - - Social Justice
Law - - - - - - - - - - -Freedom
Authority - - - - - - - Conscience
Virtue -- - - - - -- - - Love
Observation - - - - - Imagination
Tradition - - - - - - - Creativity
Principle - - - --- - - Inspiration
Classicism - - - -- - Romanticism
Male - - - - - - -- - - Female
Real - - - - - - - - - - Ideal
Privileges - - - - - - Rights
Observation - - -- - Revelation
Physical Senses - - Intuition
Fact(s) - - - - - - - - Truth
Science - - - - - -- - Faith
Skeptical - - - - -- -Trusting
Knowledge - - - -- -Feeling
Intelligence - - - - - -Common Sense
Education - - - - - - -Experience
Ability - - - - -- - - - Motivation
Society - - - - - - - - Nature
Others - - - - -- - - - Self
Service - - - - - - - - Pleasure
Interest - - - - -- - - -Esteem
Respect - - - - -- - - Happiness
If an item in any pair seems negative, then we must simply remove that pair from this consideration. The point is, this list is intended to call attention to the opposing, complementary motives or ideals that have driven American culture through its history. Each item in every pairing should seem capable both of motivating behavior and of being intrinsically good.
Pursuit of happiness, for instance, is one of the self-evident rights referred to in our Declaration of Independence. Happiness is obviously good. On the other hand, who could say that seeking to earn respect – the opposing force to the drive for happiness - is not good?
Making decisions based on knowledge obviously seems desirable, yet one says, “Sometimes, you’ve got to go with your gut.” Sometimes, that is, it is good to make a decision based simply on what feels right.
Some are motivated by the pursuit of virtue, which is clearly a good thing, but who could say that it is not also a good thing to do something out of love?
And so on. (I hope the reader will be motivated, whether by curiosity or by faith that doing so would be beneficial, to think through several others of these dualities, seeing for yourselves how both ideals in each duality are good in themselves, even if they each have opposites that are also intrinsically good in themselves.)
3
Conventionally, Americans are said to be different from those in older cultures. Americans are said to be more individualistic and independent, more imaginative and resourceful, committed more to their own freedom than to tradition or social hierarchy. That kind of claim is asserted so often and is so well illustrated by reference to events that it is clearly true at least to some degree.
At the same time, however, often in our history Americans have exhibited extraordinary love of their country and self-sacrifice of many kinds – for others, for loved ones, for those in need, for future generations… This tendency to put others before oneself is also often said to be a defining trait of American culture.
Another conventional and no doubt true observation is that America was born out of the Enlightenment, the intellectual culture distilling what was special about the Renaissance into behavioral imperatives and moral values. Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Madison, and the many others who led the way to the establishment of our nation embodied the perceptions and ideals developed by Montesquieu, Descartes, Locke, Hume, and many other contributors in the eighteenth century to the cultural phenomenon now called the Enlightenment. The American founders had learned from these writers and statesmen and came to embody in laws, institutions, and in themselves the grand principles for these intellectuals such as independent inquiry, reason, distrust for convention and authority, equality of opportunity, and so on.
That is all true, but we must not forget that more than their intellectual forbears', our founding leaders’ principles, ideals, and passions grew up in the pragmatic struggle to survive and then to prosper. At every time in their lives, they lived with the sense of the wilderness stretching out in front of them, offering both opportunity and danger or risk.
Thus, American culture grows most fundamentally out of the duel between our great intellectual, legal, and social heritage and our practical desire to overcome real, material dangers and risks.
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