Superiority Ideas in the Formation of the United States

Superiority ideas are the darkest elements of human nature. The people of the United States appreciate the notion that the nation is progressive and constantly pushing towards the equity and prosperity of all its citizens. However, the United States remains a nation of polarized cities and undemocratic schools. Within the country is a macroculture that forms the cultural norms of America; norms that alienate many of the diverse groups that are in reality the constituents that form the Union. We need to realign our ideals to truly encourage the equity and prosperity of all the citizens of America; before this can be accomplished we need to recognize the origins of the superiority views that are a part of the present American culture.

In an effort to trace the roots of the superior views that are part our macroculture, the follow exposition examines the Puritan settlers of the New World, the waves of European immigration to America in the 1800s, and the structure of the American city. The Protestant ethic of the New World and the United States has influenced the macroculture that mandates the nation’s present educational ideals and social norms. In addition, the models used by sociologists to describe the American city demonstrates that even the structure of the American city encourages the nation to be racially polarized; polarization that inevitably leads to violence. With obvious constraints, the following exposition points only to a limited portion of the possible roots of the existing superiority views; clearly there are numerous other origins that can be found within the formation of the United States that have contributed negatively to the social norms of America. The identified roots of superiority are the points of the authors interest and have been intentionally researched and described as possible sources of superiority views. Consequently, the negative attributes of the Puritans and the dominant group in America have been focused on. Certainly, not all of the Puritan ideals and Anglo-Saxon ideals have had a negative influence on the apparent macroculture of America. Our present society has had a myriad of beneficial contributions from the early Puritan settlers and the Protestant ethic. With the previous clarifications mentioned, the Puritan settlers of the New World can be contemplated and rediscovered.

The Puritans were, in their view, an “elite” subgroup of the Protestants, thus their goal in England was to halt Roman Catholic worship. Their open persistence to finish the Reformation is probably what moved James I to ship them to the New World. Many Puritans viewed their movement as a new beginning in a new land where they would build a homogeneous Christian society. They saw the New World as a blessing from God. The Puritans “...increasingly found solace in the thought of establishing a New World Zion where they would be unmolested by the Archbishop, and where they could show the Old World how God rewarded those who lived by His word.” (Vaughan 18) When the Puritans settled on the northeast coast of what is now the United States, they rejoiced in the blessings from God that they thought were clearly a result of their favor in the sight of God. Perhaps the Puritan view of the New World as being a God given blessing has its origin in their Old Testament orientated churches. Certainly their view can be sourced to the often embellished stories of the wealth of the New World.

According to the Puritans, the New World belonged to them, thus they would make the land productive through settlement and farming as ordained by God. They believed they would be rescuing the land from the clutches of the Devil.

In addition to viewing the New World as a blessing from God, the Puritans believed the land that they were settling was under the spell of the Devil and the forest was a domain of evil. “For beneath the florid plenty of the New World, the Puritan