What makes us Americans?

DocBrain recently read a critique of America as a disorganized society with a distorted system of rewards and punishments. If this is true, how did we get this way and what can we do about it?

As Americans, we struggle with two basic concepts:

• The concept of freedom ("life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness")
• The concept of responsibility for others ("establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty...")

DocBrain believes that freedom can only be real if the limits of principle and practicality are accepted. Freedom that challenges either usually ends in disaster. Similarly, whatever you do to help your fellow citizens can only be judged in its outcome.

One of the main problems with the US is that, as social citizens, we tend to do what we perceive is the right thing without any attempt to measure the outcome. This leads to the conclusion that something is good if it makes you feel good. In failing to either define what we expect as a good outcome and to measure that effect, we fall short of what we could actually be.

People settle into one of two camps: freedom or responsibility. Unlike freedom, the administration of responsibility requires new laws. We do not measure or optimize objective benefit. Responsibility gets a bad name as it restricts freedom and never delivers on its promise, always demanding more from us. Freedom, while a good concept, seems harsh and disconnected from others.

Defining success, measuring for it, and optimizing the path to it could lead us to that perfect balance between freedom and responsibility. And that should make anyone feel good.