American Mania: When More Is Not Enough Essay

INTRODUCTIONIt takes immense courage to top dog something that has been so firmly sculptured into ones mind or something that everyone accepts as normal, it also takes huge insight to be able to see past the monotony and quotidian details of life and observe something that is greatly and equally affecting a nation. Mr. Whybrow accomplishes this with great eloquence in his book American mania.Adam metalworkers American dream of depth and appetencyThe book begins with the chapter call Adam smiths American dream of depth and desire in which Mr. Whybrow gives an account of his taxi ride on the way to the airport to catch a flight from Los Angles to New York, he tells his story in almost a poetic manner describing the myriad of scenes that he observes. He points out everything that makes him reflect on how rapidly the world is moving and how everyone is creation swept away with this storm and how no one stops to hark back about where theyre actually headed and how everyone has le ss and less time for the lower-ranking things in life, things which once were considered to be the essence of life.The author seeks to explain the melodramatic shift away from social concern and toward competitive self-interest that occurred during the decision decades of the 20th Century (p. 257). Whybrow, himself a British immigrant, advances the hypothesis that Americans are a nation of migrants who are outfitted not just with the self-seeking genes yet also with the restless, risk-taking genes of those who have risked all to look for a new toss off of opportunity. Whybrow argues that highly migrant people are novelty seekers, restless and affirmative risk-takers,CONCLUSIONWhybrows theories are provocative because they not only return the possibility of psychoanalysis in the alliance of culture, speculating beyond the anthropology and identity government that all cultures are just as advantageous, but also contest us to reassess the insufficiency of our psychological desc riptions. Identifying a culture as hectic or obsessed is somewhat useful in attempting to countermand the idea of national character but to propose a elemental personality as the repository of a societys values, from which somebody character differentiates is a mammoth task Mr. Whybrow manages to make the reader question the values and beliefs that we have come to cherish so dearly.WORKS CITED dig Whybrow (2006) American Mania When More Is Not Enough. Retrieved on 18th October 2006 from http//www.amazon.com/American-Mania-When-More-Enough/dp/0393059944