America the Beautiful

I don't know if regular Americans can appreciate the mental gaslighting being done to Canadians by elected leaders in the USA and media outlets like Fox News. For most of my life, being Canadian was something Americans mocked in pop culture and media. Now, that same country is talking about taking Canada—not as a joke, but as a serious political talking point. They believe they need Canada to "Make America Great Again."

It’s making me anxious, scared, and angry.

The American Way: Take What You Want

"Make America Great Again" by stealing from others is, unfortunately, one of the most on-brand things for Trump to push. It reflects a broader trend in American business and politics: Facebook doesn’t innovate; it buys or crushes competition. The U.S. government can’t compete with TikTok, so it bans it. Elon Musk hasn't had an original thought in years—he just buys his way into companies others built and gets rewarded with influence literally next to the seat of power.

Now, the same mindset extends to national identity: If you can’t build something better, just take it.

America is an Idea

I first heard of this concept via my love of the band U2, where in the mid 2010's Bono would often say something like "America isn't just a country, America is an idea" as you can hear at the 50 minute mark in this 2013 speech at Georgetown University:

And again at the band's 2016 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction:

Even Joe Biden used the phrase in his 2020 campaign:

It’s a beautiful sentiment. I wanted to believe it.

But what happens when the idea of America shifts from ambition to envy?

Envy over Ambition

In a 2013 article titled "Envy and the American Dream", former Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria warned about a cultural shift:

Lately there are signs that America is shifting from an orientation of ambition toward one of envy. Whether it is the 99% who envy the 1% or the 53% who resent the 47% who are receiving government distributions, we are beginning to show signs of focusing more on others than on ourselves. That’s a shift we want to avoid. Over time envy has a corrosive, pernicious effect on an economy. It reduces agency and encourages people to attribute outcomes to forces beyond their control. It shifts people’s gaze toward others in a negative way and takes their focus off their own goals. In an ambition economy, people generally enjoy watching others get ahead, because it reinforces their sense that they, too, can succeed. In an envy economy, in contrast, people often feel like they’re playing in a zero-sum game and that if someone else gets ahead, it comes at their own expense.

Little did Nohria realize that within three years, one of the most spiteful, envious men in America would be leading the country.

The Mask is Off

America has always been about expansion, but now the mask is off. Instead of offering opportunity, it’s about grabbing what you want from others.

“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Trump said. “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
- Vox, October 2016

The American idea has been fully unmasked. Grab what you want from the rest of the world and just take it. You can do anything. Grab 'em. You can do anything.

Life Just Keeps On...

The strangest part of all this, as America's neighbour, is how daily life just keeps going. Most of my clients are American. We don't hate each other. We don't argue over tariffs or borders. We collaborate and work together, just as thousands of Canadians and Americans do in remote jobs, sports, entertainment, and tech.

But even as Canadians try to prioritize buying local, our lives are intertwined with American culture. We’ll still buy the next iPhone. We’ll still watch American movies. Our sports teams will still travel for away games. Social media—Instagram, X, Bluesky—is mostly American-owned, and despite our frustrations, we stay because our relationships are there.

What a mess.

What Now?

I'm not smart enough to know how to give advice to Americans to stop the path their leadership is taking them on. To think that because 75 million of them voted for one leader, and 77 million voted for one of the smallest men to ever live, and so now the rest of the world lives in chaos and fear is a hard pill to swallow. Wishing that Americans did more to get people out to vote in 2024 isn't going to change where we're at now.

I don't hold this situation against any one individual in America personally. I'm not expecting the smart, interesting tech & web developer nerds from America I know to fix it on their own. I'm not expecting any of the U2 fans I've met over the years from America to be able to fix it on their own. I'm not expecting Jason Kottke, whose blog I've read for decades, to fix it on his own. I'm not expecting the Twitch streamers I watch to be able to fix it on their own.

But I do know this: America the idea needs Americans the people to act—not just by liking posts on Threads or sharing memes on X, but by standing up, physically, in the real world, and demanding change.

Because if you don’t stop the bully you created, the rest of the world suffers with you.

And that’s a terrible idea.