Comment on Why does it seem like many Americans have an arrogant personality trait?
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 month agoburied deep in the American zeitgeist
I think you mean American psyche. Zeitgeist means the spirit of the times. It usually refers to the present way of thinking or the way things were at one time.
The American psyche is much more of a timeless thing, stretching all the way back to the attitudes and beliefs of the founding fathers when they drafted the Declaration of Independence. Norman Rockwell’s paintings, Robert Frost’s poems, John Steinbeck’s books, the games of baseball and (gridiron) football. These are just some of the cultural artifacts said to be part of the American psyche.
swordgeek@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
I actually has psyche written down, and changed it.
It’s not exactly the normal use of zeitgeist and maybe volksgeist would be a better term (except tthat we don’t use it in English), but I feel that this is a relatively new aspect to Americanism, starting in WWII. It’s still more of a growth on their psyche than a fundamental part of it.
It also has some parsllels with British exceptionalism up to the endnof the 19th century