Americans assume that individuals have real power to address their problems and expect them to use it. When you face a difficulty, the first question is what you’re going to do about it—not what will happen to you or who will rescue you. This applies at every level: children are encouraged to figure things out, students own their learning, workers handle issues within their scope, citizens participate in collective challenges.
While help and collaboration are valued, they supplement individual effort rather than replace it. This means Americans hold people substantially responsible for their outcomes. If individuals can affect their circumstances, they bear accountability for results. Success reflects genuine achievement; failure prompts questions about what more could have been done.
This creates pressure, but also dignity: you’re treated as a capable agent who can shape your situation, not as someone helpless before forces beyond your control. Help-seeking itself is an exercise of agency—something you actively do, not something that happens to you.
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