What is this Power? 1 The Power to Define To encode To normalize To Set Boundaries

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4 Social Struggle Media Encoding Audience Decoding “Common Sense” Media Appropriation Ritual Consumption Acceptance Negotiation Resistance Code Map Template

Hector St. John ( ) What is an American?

“The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.” “There is room for every body in America; has he any particular talent, or industry?…I do not mean that every one who comes will grow rich in a little time; no, but he may procure an easy, decent maintenance, by his industry.” “He is hired, he goes to work, and works moderately; instead of being employed by a haughty person, he finds himself with his equal, placed at the substantial table of the farmer, or else at an inferior one as good; his wages are high, his bed is not like that bed of sorrow on which he used to lie: if he behaves with propriety, and is faithful, he is caressed, and becomes as it were a member of the family.”

What is an American? Outside of History Pragmatic Independent Cooperative

"Welcome to my shores, distressed European; bless the hour in which thou didst see my verdant fields, my fair navigable rivers, and my green mountains! If thou wilt work, I have bread for thee; if thou wilt be honest, sober, and industrious, I have greater rewards to confer on thee-- ease and independence. I will give thee fields to feed and cloath thee; a comfortable fireside to sit by, and tell thy children by what means thou hast prospered; and a decent bed to repose on. I shall endow thee beside with the immunities of a freeman…I will also provide for thy progeny; and to every good man this ought to be the most holy, the most Powerful, the most earnest wish he can possibly form, as well as the most consolatory prospect when he dies.” The American Dream

A Deep Code “I am being (in God’s providence) an inhabitant, and freeman, within the jurisdiction of this commonwealth, do freely acknowledge my self to be subject to the government thereof, and therefore do swear, by the great and dreadful name of the everliving God, that I will be true & faithful to the same…Moreover, I do solemnly bind myself, in the sight of God, that when I shall be called, to give my voice touching any such matter of this state (In which freemen are to deal) I will give my vote and suffrage as I shall judge in mine own conscience may best conduce & tend to the public weal of the body, without respect of persons, or favor of any man, so help me God in the Lord Jesus Christ.” —Freemen’s Oath, Massachusetts Bay Colony, written by John Winthrop

A Deep Code “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” —Declaration of Independence

A Deep Code

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. —Declaration of Sentiments (1848)

A Deep Code “The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National Independence being entirely based on the great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once our disconnected position as regards any other nation; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the past history of any of them, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. On the contrary, our national birth was the beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which separates us from the past and connects us with the future only; and so far as regards the entire development of the natural rights of man, in moral, political, and national life, we may confidently assume that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity.” —John O’Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity,” 1839

A Deep Code —John Gast, “American Progress,” 1879

A Deep Code

Individualism Work Prosperity Intergenerational ProgressFor Europeans