Personal control over the environment

The earliest European settlers arrived in America confident they could tame this wild new land and imbue it with political and religious institutions of their own choosing. No doubt many felt they were simply following God’s directive in Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” The idea of exercising domain over nature and bending the environment to one’s own will underwrote the physical and political resolve required to move the American frontier westward. In the United States today, the value of mastering nature can be seen in the construction of highways that crisscross the nation, dams that hold back the waters of large rivers, tunnels that go through mountains, bridges that cross wide bays, and spaceships that take men and women into outer space. The ability to control nature is considered normal and even right. This results in bold approaches to overcome all obstacles and the belief that an individual should have control over their personal environment and the ability to achieve any goal.

CHANGE

Closely aligned with control of the environment is the value of change and progress. Ever since the country’s earliest days, people have subscribed to a body of forward looking beliefs and attitudes that promote progress. Various aspects of this orientation are optimism, receptivity to change, emphasis on the future rather than the past or present, faith in an ability to control all phases of life, and confidence in the perceptual ability of the common person. This passion for change and progress is evident in the way that Americans have traditionally approached the environment  as something to be conquered, tamed, or harnessed for social or personal benefit. Many older, more traditional cultures, which have witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations and believe in fatalism, view change and progress as detrimental, and they often have difficulty understanding American’s general disregard for history and tradition.

This fundamental American belief in progress and a better future contrasts sharply with the fatalistic (Americans are likely to use that term with a negative or critical connotation) attitude that characterizes people from many other cultures, notably Latin, Asian, and Arab, where there is a pronounced reverence for the past. In those cultures the future is considered to be in the hands of “fate,” “God,” or at least the few powerful people or families that dominate the society. The idea that people in general can somehow shape their own futures seems naïve, arrogant, or even sacrilegious [17].

Time and its control

For Americans, time is a valuable commodity, something to be measured and used wisely. Americans manage their lives according to schedules which are often divided into hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly segments [18]. Deadlines and due dates are a constant reminder of when projects must be completed. U.S. business representatives tend to quickly move past introductory formalities and rapidly “get down to business.” This is in contrast to other cultures, such as Mexico, where it is considered important to get to know the other person before initiating business discussions. In the United States, schedules are generally inflexible with meetings starting on time, moving through a defined agenda, and ending promptly. In other cultures, time is seen as more malleable, and spending time with someone can take precedence over a schedule. Even America’s founding fathers considered time to be important, as this quotation from Benjamin Franklin demonstrates: “Lose no time; be always employed in something useful.” The continuing value Americans place on time is illustrated by corporate practices. For instance, “Wal-Mart … pioneered the daily early-morning meeting at which all stand so as to get down to business quickly, shorten the meeting time, and then go out and execute agreements made ” [19].