American individualism and Hollywood

[Dimentio]

A typical feature of any action movie is that the heroes are always outnumbered. Say we got one alien or predator against 200 marines. Then the monster will kill almost all the marines.

If we got one marine against multiple predators and aliens, the marine will come out victorious.

I wonder whether that cultural ideal is either coming from American culture, or if it has influenced American culture. Either way, I believe delusions like that have actually sink into the American psyche and could explain why the United States is generally less politically organised on a grassroot level than Europe, and why phenomenons like McVeigh could exist.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

I dont think that it is something typical american, its more of continuing on an old story-telling tradition that you can find in old folklore, about the brave and smart guy that manage to defeat a lot of obsticles and gets the princess, ore why not s:t George and the dragon. People wants theire heroes and someone they can identify with (at least for a short momment), fuck ups like McVeigh are not specific for the US, think about our own "Lasermannen".

[¿Que?]

Off the top of my head, what comes to mind is Hercules and Achilles. A lot of Greek myth involves epic battles where the hero is outnumbered, if I'm not mistaken. Probably be a good idea to look at various mythologies and things of that nature. Do a comparative study on how the idea of the outnumbered hero throughout history and culture.

More generally, though, heroes are often portrayed as being disadvantaged in some way. They must generally overcome difficult obstacles that a common person could not. Often stories describe the hero's task as a challenge that has killed or ruined anyone who has tried to accomplish it. David had to destroy a giant. The prince had to pass through a deadly forest to find sleeping beauty. The witch had eaten all prior children before Hansel and Gretel and so on.

As to how this affects American culture, it's hard to say. It's worth considering , though, that people like McVeigh are transgressors this culture. People like McVeigh and that guy in Austin recently, when they leave writing, it evinces a sophisticated level of cultural and social critique. Certainly, I don't agree with it, but the left is much more likely to organize critics with an inclination to confront power, than fearful or complacent apologists.

Americans are subdued to a great extent with fear, the threat of and reality of violence. The violent reaction of the State against a proletarian revolution is felt much stronger in the US than in Europe. We are after all, the locus of Imperialism, and the leading perpetrators of State violence, in the form of wars, capital punishment, assassinations etc. Americans have a keen awareness of the violence the State is capable of, should they rise up, such that a revolution may not be possible unless the alternative is worse than death.