Ten Facets of Strangeness: An Inside Look at American Society

### **Ten Facets of Strangeness: An Inside Look at American Society**

Hollywood, pop music, and the mass media have a tendency to sell an unrepresentative America stereotype, somewhere between "rugged individualism" and the "American Dream." However, being an American or looking behind the social facade of America finds reality much more paradoxical and much more complex. There exist social organizations, rituals, and traditions that sound strange and paradoxical to an outside observer. This strangeness is not necessarily negative; rather, it is a reflection of a unique history and culture that has shaped this giant country. Here are ten such facts that might shock you.

#### **1. The Cult of Forced Optimism and Positivity**

In most cultures, it is normal and human to express negative feelings such as sadness, anxiety, or frustration. In the United States, however, "positivity culture" can sometimes be closer to worship. The person is supposed to be optimistic, ambitious, and "positive" all the time, particularly in the workplace and social settings.

* **Its Manifestations:** The trite response to a complaint like, "Just think positive!" or "Look on the bright side!" instead of acknowledging the problem. Advertising that peddles the idea that happiness is solely a personal choice, ignoring complex socioeconomic factors. In the workplace, an employee who expresses concerns about a project may be labeled "negative" or "not a team player" and hurt their career trajectory.

* **The Bizarre Component:** Such enforced optimism is damaging in that it can be counterproductive, isolating people and making them feel guilty for feeling "normal" sad. Rather than their real issues, they are coated with a veneer of superficial positivity. It is like denying an illness exists and just popping a pill.

#### **2. The Mail and System for Dealing with Things: Systemized Chaos**

You would think the nation that created the internet and put rovers on Mars would have a faultless postal system. The situation is more complex and confusing.

* **Its Manifestations:** The United States postal system employs the use of P.O. Boxes rather than door-to-door delivery in the majority of rural and suburban areas. The addresses themselves are enigmatic; instead of being tied to some specific geographic location, they are typically appended to "ZIP Codes" along delivery routes rather than city borders. Your address could be in one city, but you're really living in a township of a different town, and taxing to a third county!

* **The Perplexing Element:** This system, in its apparent lack of structure, works! The United States Postal Service (USPS) sorts enormous volumes of mail every day. But it creates confusing moments, such as having to drive miles to a common "post office" to get a package, but you get to see the mail carrier drive by your house every day.

#### **3. Tipping Culture: The Shadow Economy**

In most of the world, a tip is a free payment for something special that has been done. In America, it's an alternate economy, ethically and socially required.

* **Its Manifestations:** Waiters, bartenders, barbers, and taxi drivers typically do not receive a living wage and rely nearly entirely on tips. The standard amount ranges from 15% to 25% of the cost. Odd as it sounds, this figure is even offered to simple services like having your meal brought out to your car (delivery) or having a hotel doorman open a door for you. Tipping is a huge social norm, and not doing so is interpreted as a personal insult.

* **The Strange Part:** This system places the responsibility of ensuring an employee's minimum standard of living on the consumer instead of the employer. It is also an illogical system; why should a server be tipped but not a person who prepares food in the same restaurant? Efforts to do away with this system and offer equitable compensation have been ongoing in the last ten or so years, but entrepreneurs and even employees who would gain more in the existing system resist it forcefully.

#### **4. The Madness for Big Spaces and Cars**

Most American cities are designed around the car, not the person. It is an everyday fact of American life, but shocking to tourists from crowded European or Asian urban areas with good public transit.

* **Its Manifestations:** Suburbs have no places to buy food, restaurants, or schools to walk to. It takes more than an hour to drive to work. Giant shopping centers are ringed with parking lots and are frequently separated from residential areas. It's not only inconvenient to walk in some suburbs but also unsafe because of insufficient sidewalks or crosswalks.

* **The Unusual Element:** This voluntary confinement has spawned its own society. The car is now a house extension—a place to listen to audiobooks, eat meals, and even socialize (greeting a friend in a shopping mall parking lot is an acceptable social activity). It has also enabled serious health and environmental problems and made life impossible for the old or lower classes who cannot drive.

#### **5. Religious "Pluralism" and the Dominant Christian Paradigm**

America is constitutionally secular, but religion, or Protestant Christianity specifically, is entrenched in the social and political culture.

* **Its Expressions:** The phrases "In God We Trust" are found on currency. The legislature starts with prayer. The president swears in on a Bible. There are entire television networks committed to Christian evangelism. And yet, America is a symbol of religious freedom, and religious diversity is vast.

* **The Curious Half:** The paradox lies in the mixture. One hand, a formal division of church and state there is, and the other hand, virtually no politician can be elected to the presidency without professing Christian faith. It is a kind of "civil religion" where elements from religion are mixed in with national identity, producing the kind of climate where members of religions or atheists may feel like "outsiders" in the country of their origin.

#### **6. The Imperial Measurement System: Clinging to the Past in the Face of Reason**

In a world where the metric system is nearly universal, the United States remains one of the few countries clinging to the Imperial system (feet, inches, pounds, gallons).

* **Its Manifestations:** The units are in miles, temperatures in Fahrenheit, weight in pounds and ounces, and volume in gallons. Even in science and technology, the metric system is used but the common man lives in a world of complicated fractions and conversions.

* **The Peculiar Element:** Such conformity leads to costly errors and costs an enormous economic cost. A valuable spacecraft had crashed due to a unit conversion error between an American and European team. It slows down foreign trade and poses difficulties to education. The cause of this conformity is a mix of "American exceptionalism" and fear of the short-run financial and social cost of altering, leading to an impasse in the face of internationally dominant logic.

#### **7. Litigation Culture: The "Sue-Happy" Society**

Our society is legalistic to the core in America, but it has often been turned into a monolithic litigation culture.

* **Its manifestations:** It is by no means unusual to sue for something that would otherwise be considered frivolous or absurd in other countries. Restaurants are sued for the coffee being "too hot" (i.e., exactly what one would reasonably expect it to be), or individuals are sued for tripping over someone else's property. TV ads asking "anyone who has been in a car accident" to call an attorney are a daily presence.

* **The Absurd Feature:** It has created a network of "crazy warnings" on virtually all products ("don't immerse this hairdryer in water while bathing") to protect companies from liability. It has also brought about a huge increase in insurance costs for everybody, from doctors to car owners. It is a sign of an individualist society where any harm is seen as one's responsibility that must be compensated in money, rather than an untoward part of life.

#### **8. Halloween: The Adult Celebration of the Macabre**

While it is primarily a children's holiday to scoop up candy, Halloween in America is now a full-blown mass culture in adults.

* **Its Manifestations:** Adults squander massive amounts of money decorating their homes in terrifying ways, buying elaborate costume-inspired outfits (sometimes not terrifying but sexy or funny), and attending party themes. Large Halloween parades occur in large cities. Halloween is now a colossal commercial holiday, second only to Christmas in expenditures.

* **The Quirky Dimension:** The holiday has progressed from a simple family tradition to a stage for adults to challenge social norms. It is the one day of the year when an individual can play at being someone else in public, wearing what they wanted, and acting with unusual courage beneath the cover of a "costume." It's a holiday in honor of weirdness and the darker aspect of the imagination, something that many cultures are unfamiliar with that commemorate holidays based on family or religious ideals.

#### **9. The Healthcare Paradox: The Fittest and the Largest Living Together!**

America is the setting of a brutal paradox in nutrition and healthcare.

* **Its Ramifications:** On the one hand, the country has an actual epidemic of obesity caused by an excess of cheap fast foods, sweets, and soft drinks. On the other hand, America is the hub of the "fitness" and "health food" world. Fitness clubs are on every corner, and organic & health food chains raked in billions of dollars. Every new food fad (Keto, Paleo, Vegan) becomes viral.

* **The Alien Aspect:** This divide contains a clash of cultures between the consumer capitalism excess that pushes someone towards excess, and the "individualism" and "self-improvement" culture that pushes someone towards physical perfection and self-restraint. Culture is caught in two extremes: the salivation abandon to instant pleasure and the cruel restraint of achieving an ideal body, and most of the time, one individual belongs to both extremes at different times.

#### **10. State Primacy: Loyalty to the Flag *and* the State Prior to the Nation**

Although the national identity is intense, the "American" identity tends to be compound and with loyalty to one's city or state first.

* **Its Manifestations:** When one tells an American, "Where are you from?" the answer tends to be "I'm from Texas" or "I'm from California" before adding "I'm American." Each state has its own flag, its own anthem, its own pride, and its own laws, which can differ very significantly in the areas of taxation, education, and even criminal law. The differences between living in a state like urban New York and a state like rural Mississippi can be akin to the differences between two different countries.

* **The Peculiar Part:** This complex federal system is the historical result of the nation being founded as a union of sovereign colonies. It creates strange situations where the same action is absolutely legal in one state and a criminal act in the next. This entrenched sense of place-based identity explains a great deal of American political polarization, where the opposing party is not just seen as citizens with a different opinion, but as representatives of alternate "worlds" with opposing values.

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**Conclusion:**

The peculiarity of American society is less a structural flaw and more a sign of a unique historical path and reconciliation of antagonistic values: individualism and communalism, freedom and duty, tradition and modern. America must be approached by moving beneath the level of overused stereotypes to appreciate the richness of complexity. It is a nation that nurtures contradictions and integrates them into its own being, creating social dynamism that never ceases to amaze, for better or worse.