Does American Culture Matter?
In widely reported remarks made outside the US Capitol in November 2022, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer argued that the falling fertility rates among American citizens meant that mass immigration was needed to meet the labor demands of the US economy and maintain social security. “Now more than ever, we’re short of workers. The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants… all of them.”
Schumer’s argument echoes similar economic claims made for mass immigration in Europe and East Asia, which both also face problems of cratering birth rates, and passes over in silence another possible solution to the issue, namely encouraging existing citizens to have more children. And Schumer also remains silent, of course, about the social consequences of mass migration: namely, that when different people arrive, different values come with them, and these values may change the culture of the place where they arrive.
Does that matter? T.S. Eliot described culture as “all the characteristic activities and interests of a people,” while Matthew Arnold saw it as “the best that has been thought and said in the world.” Tim Ferris offers a more practical definition: “the unwritten rules of how we do things here.” Culture combines familiar social habits to establish certain methods of approaching problems, and also certain mental boundaries. Culture also shapes ideals and interactions by determining what is considered polite and appropriate, and what is understood to be admirable – for oneself, and for the nation.
Culture influences the outcomes of families, groups, and nations. But cultures evolve for better and worse. In the United States, American culture evolved in the late nineteenth century as the population moved from farms to urban centers, and it continued to change throughout the twentieth century. In 1948 an average American may have participated in a bowling league with his friends, attended church with his wife, and visited a movie theater once a week, but in 2022, it is far less likely that he does these things.
History is filled with examples of cultural change in the wake of mass migrations, such as when the Vikings arrived in Northern France and created Norman culture or when the Normans subsequently conquered England. There are also some examples of cultures changing through leadership, such as the Meiji Restoration in Japan. Ultimately cultural change is driven by large-scale technological, historic, economic, and ecological forces, but leadership, or the absence of leadership, has significant influence — and is in our control. As Arnold said in Culture and Anarchy, “Culture is the most resolute enemy of anarchy, because of the great hopes and designs for the State which culture teaches us to nourish.”
The gumbo of American culture contains a multifarious mixture of triumphs, tributaries and influences, from WASPs, Irish, Italians, Koreans, Blacks and Native Americans, jazz and rock, Broadway and Hollywood, the Constitution, film and television. No national story is a fairy tale, and history always includes dark passages. But there is plenty to admire and learn from in a story that includes John Winthrop’s City Upon a Hill sermon in 1630, the Bill of Rights, Natty Bumpo, Emily Dickinson, Philo Farnsworth, Dungeons & Dragons, baseball, Gershwin, Star Wars, comic books, fins on cars, chicken fried steak, Kimchee tacos, Thanksgiving Dinners, July 4th and Frank Sinatra. Everyone can of course make their own list but the cultural matrix is shared. The values, quirks, jokes, priorities, and preferences embedded in American culture have yielded many things and should not be lightly discarded.
There will always be people living on the North American continent but they will not necessarily be inheritors of historical American culture. There is no guarantee that the North Americans of the future will read and understand The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin ,or listen to Prince, or watch The Unforgiven, or even recognize The Bill of Rights. In order to secure the benefits of these elements of culture it is necessary to be intentional about the process of cultural evolution.
The twentieth-century sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote about the problem of anomie — the state of alienation that arises when society undergoes rapid change or fails to provide moral guidance. Without a shared sense of purpose, individuals become lost and disconnected, leading to social disorder, increased suicide rates, and widespread depression. This is in fact what we see today. High rates of drug use and suicides, and lower rates of family formation. Obesity, higher crime rates, and lower fertility today define American society. Patriotism is on life support and the number of people being treated for psychological issues is rising dramatically. These social symptoms are not independent of our cultural aesthetics, our desultory fashion, and our woeful state of fitness. The diminishing quality of popular art, particularly in television and film, which have become reliant on spinoffs and sequels, is also relevant.
It is increasingly difficult to identify any positive force today in mainstream American culture, that is, a force that leads us in a fruitful, healthy, and positive direction. It is necessary to have a core culture with constructive elements. Preserving the core strengths of an evolving American culture is not just desirable — it’s essential. Our political and economic leaders seem insensible to the importance of culture. But society will have some form of culture whether it wants one or not, that culture will evolve, and we must be attentive to how it evolves.
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For the sake of the future, we need to self-consciously refashion the American spirit by encouraging an American aesthetic that promotes a positive American culture.
T.S. Eliot warned about a culture that was inorganic, abstract, internationalized and deracinated by its obsession with impersonal issues. “The elites […] will consist solely of individuals whose only common bond will be their professional interest: with no social cohesion, with no social continuity. They will be united only by a part, and that the most conscious part, of their personalities; they will meet like committees.” That’s pretty much where American culture, certainly elite American culture, currently stands.
Friedrich Schiller said that “if man is ever to solve the problem of politics in practice he will have to approach it through the problem of the aesthetic, because it is only through Beauty that man makes his way to Freedom.” Beauty in this context also means passion and fun, or what Schiller called the “play drive.” Whether it is building rocket ships, restoring America’s physical health, regaining our ability to tell funny jokes, renewing an appreciation for the founding values of the country, or growing happy families, we must tap into this creative, playful spirit to refashion our culture.
This “play drive” should be and in the past has been at the heart of American originality and progress. It is what propelled us to the moon, sparked our greatest inventions, and fueled our most profound social movements. By embracing a spirit of ambitious creative engagement, we can address our current challenges not as burdens, but as opportunities for cultural revival.
The challenge is not to preserve American culture in amber, but to thoughtfully engage in its ongoing evolution to a higher form. This project is not just about effete contemplation of aesthetics or “merely” shaping our national identity, but it is about crafting a new, collective future. What the politicians and economists don’t see is that culture is, as it were, the third derivative of everything else – none of our aspirations can be achieved without it.
Perhaps what America needs is a “2039 Project”: a vision for America and its culture one or two decades from now that is rooted in our heritage, but is also contemporary and inspiring. This project would not shy away from addressing our shortcomings but also would celebrate our strengths and potential. It would embrace the diversity of ideas, characters and personalities that have always been part of the American story while fostering a collective sense of national identity.
American culture does matter. It matters because it shapes how we think, how we solve problems, and how we imagine our future. By taking an active role in culture, we’re not just preserving a heritage — we’re building a legacy. We need to ensure that the America of 2039 is a place where people still dream big, innovate, and strive – and we need to start to work towards that today.
Roy Price is a former Amazon.com executive. He’s the founder of Amazon Video and Amazon Studios. He can be followed @RoyPrice.
