This feature is the most obvious when it comes to Americans. The earliest Americans, that is, British immigrants and white Protestants, certainly considered themselves direct descendants of the Anglo-Saxons. In the United States, because of the direct collision between race and culture, it directly affects the economic interests and political balance, which makes the need to emphasize the superiority of race and culture have a market and become the so-called American exceptionalism. This attitude directly determines many social phenomena.
Let's start with race. Although they are all racial superiority, there are actually variables under the concept. It has gone through the stage of so-called acquired advantage to innate advantage and then back to acquired advantage.
Acquired superiority means that all races are homologous, starting from Adam and Eve. The emergence of racial superiority is due to the different experiences of national development later. This sense of superiority exists in those political leaders in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, such as Jefferson, who was directly influenced by the Enlightenment. For example, Jefferson thought the Anglo-Saxons were excellent, but he thought that blacks and Indians were essentially the same as whites. In other words, Jefferson believed that the land should be taken away from the Indians, but that was because the Indians themselves had low cultural quality, so the whites should take care of them. However, because of the same ethnic origin, Jefferson believed that Indians can also be assimilated and should be assimilated slowly. Similarly, there is the problem of black slaves. In Jefferson's view, it is not that they should not be liberated, but that there is no good one-off solution to ensure the current political balance and social stability in the case of liberating slaves. The so-called American riding a tiger is difficult (in Jefferson's original words, we just grab the wolf's ear and let go, not let go).
/kloc-in the 0 th and 9 th centuries, these white Protestants began to believe in the theory of innate superiority, that is, the Anglo-Saxons have superior genes in their bones, while other peoples do not. The essence of this concept is because this difference is innate, so other ethnic groups are inferior ethnic groups that cannot be educated. Therefore, racial discrimination and xenophobia prevail.
For example, in solving the black problem, those who don't accept black slaves and don't want black people to pollute society have worked with some black leaders to come up with a grand plan to send black people back to Africa. Finally, these returned blacks established a country in Africa, called Liberia, which means freedom, and the capital was named Monrovia, after the fifth President of the United States, james monroe, who was a Monroe Doctrine. For example, Catholics who come to the United States, such as Irish, are also considered to be inferior people who will only be dominated by others.
An important manifestation of this sense of racial superiority, embodied in action, is the famous theory of destiny. Americans, that is, Anglo-Saxons, believe that they are destined to spread American freedom and democracy (and Protestantism, of course) on the North American continent and manage the world for God. Therefore, under the guidance of this theory of destiny, Americans marched westward in the19th century, almost taking the whole North American continent under their own names and driving the Indians to several reservations. Naturally, there is no assimilation. In fact, Indians did not get the so-called right to vote until the end of the nineteenth century, when blacks had been nominally liberated (and isolated) for decades.
By the end of19th century, the United States had no land to continue to show its destiny in the North American continent, and the frontier disappeared, so a group of impatient people began to rush westward into the Pacific Ocean to uphold justice for heaven. At that time, American missionaries began to join the ranks of European missionaries on a large scale and went to China to preach. After the Spanish-American War, Americans even won Hawaii, the Philippines and other places. TRoosevelt even wants to join the activities of Europeans to carve up Africa and push westward to the extreme. However, the US High Court really couldn't stand it anymore and decided that places like Guam in the Philippines could no longer be assimilated. Finally, the United States finally stopped westward, officially entered the era of imperialism, and began to implement soft colonization with American characteristics.
So this situation gradually began to change in 1920s after World War I, and a so-called American culture began to take shape. In fact, Anglo-Saxon culture began this assimilation process more or less in this round of fanaticism of preaching to the world. After World War II, with the rise of the civil rights movement, various vulnerable groups began to fight for their social rights and interests, the so-called theory of racial and cultural superiority began to become politically incorrect, and the concept of assimilation began to be replaced by the concept of American nation. Finally, when we put the words white Protestants and Anglo-Saxons together, they become White Anglo-Saxon Protectors (WASP), which is used in a derogatory sense to refer to the old and young people who are in the upper class of society and help God manage the world. This is also the common reason for mentioning Anglo-Saxons now.
However, although racism has become a street rat shouted by everyone, it does not mean that the cultural concept of Anglo-Saxon people has also been abandoned. At that time, Americans raised the banner of Anglo-Saxon, of course, because behind it, they had their own characteristics superior to other nations. The so-called assimilation is to root these ideas in the hearts of ordinary Americans and make them think that this is an outstanding characteristic and an indelible national spirit of Americans.
After talking for a long time, what are the outstanding characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon nation? Although this is a bit controversial, I think the most critical concept is the so-called self-governance ability.
Tocqueville, who has a profound insight into Americans and society, once said that the independence of Americans is a unique feature. To put it bluntly, it is the ability of Americans to spontaneously form a self-management system at all levels of society and resist centralized rule. This is also a trait that early Americans have always been proud of. Because as early as the colonial period, the colonies in North America successfully achieved autonomy (in fact, because the British government could not grasp it), not only local government autonomy, but also early colonial settlements in New England, and even more autonomous small towns, the church was also an axiomatic form of autonomy. In fact, the American War of Independence was, to a great extent, a large-scale political movement, in which the North American colonies tried to maintain their own forms of autonomy (which is why Americans don't think the War of Independence is a revolution: we are obviously trying to maintain the status quo).
Therefore, before the United States, this concept of autonomy was rooted in the hearts of North American mainland residents, and was repeatedly strengthened by them, and eventually became a core concept in American life concepts, which was reflected in all aspects of life.
For example, at the lowest level, for individuals, autonomy is almost equal to personal freedom. The most basic guarantee of a person's autonomy is the freedom to carry weapons, and the best test of a person's autonomy is of course whether he can stand on his own feet. In terms of local power, the states finally formed a relatively loose federation to protect state power, which is also an affirmation of the autonomous ability at the state level (of course, before the Civil War, this was to ensure the freedom of the southern states to implement slavery). After World War I, American President Wilson's declaration of national self-determination to the world is also a political creed full of the idea of American Protestants' autonomy.
These ideas, as well as the American tradition of opposing big government and the American tradition of opposing the government's excessive involvement in private life, can be said to come from the concept of autonomy. This concept has not faded with the decline of racism. On the contrary, after breaking free from the shackles of racism, it has finally become a fine virtue of the American nation and has been carried forward, becoming a reserved vocabulary for politicians and celebrities to describe the American spirit.
Like today, when someone talks about the so-called Anglo-Saxon tradition, they usually mean this spirit. But just saying this will inevitably remind people of the potential racist ideas behind it. The so-called speaker is unintentional and the listener is intentional, so it has been largely abandoned.