So- poorly phrased (hopefully-) but here is a lesson in culture and language for y’all.
In at least American English- “unique” means one of a kind. “The way Harry helps other people is unique.” “UNIQUELY” means either in a specific way connected to one particular entity- or it can just mean in a special or unusual way and not be exclusively connected to one entity.
In other words- saying: “helping people and standing up for yourself is unique to America” would mean only America does that. Saying “standing up for yourself and helping people” either means that America is known and connected to those things, and/or America has a particular style of doing those things.
Tl:dr- “uniquely American” doesn’t mean only America does something- it means America does something in a way that is not quite like the way others do it. “Theatricality is Uniquely David Bowie...” Bowie had a very distinct style- that sentence doesn’t mean that no other artists were theatrical. “Wetting the bed is uniquely Carl...” Carl is known for wetting the bed. A screw up can also be said to do things uniquely- such as a task everyone else manages smoothly but Jane Uniquely cannot manage to do without blowing up entire cities. So one must differentiate between “unique” and “uniquely” which do not have the same meaning or context in American English.
So I'm watching the BIG 12 championship... and this halftime moment is the most "american" thing ever: this girl just won a $100k scholarship, but to do it she had to toss a bunch of footballs into a box with a hole in it from 10 yards away... that's not the fucked up part. The fucked up part is there are literally coaches that train people for this particular event, and instead of throwing the football like a pocket passer, the coaches train them to make these little shovel pitches instead; as even if it slightly lowers accuracy, the sheer number of pitches negates it and it is actually more effective. So... just to summarize, I watched the bastardization of College football for the sole purpose of someone winning a scholarship based off zero merit what-so-ever... because it was slightly entertaining for a few thousand people at that moment. Murica; fuck yeah.
Perhaps a fine metaphor. What is interesting about the phrase is that it is, and was originally used as, an impossible feat. What it means in literal terms is to grab your shoes and lift yourself by your own shoes. In reality you could really only make yourself fall this way, and it would be far more efficient to jump. Of course in modern times it’s taken the popular meaning to overcome adversity through will. Now suppose you saw a person struggling to get out of a hole and they asked for help, and you replied: “grab your hair and pull hard enough of you want to get out, you’ll lift yourself out by your hair...” it’s a case of philosophy not really working in reality. Like the idea of you wish hard enough you can reverse gravity. Philosophers May puzzle this, but real world application is lacking.
Where the metaphor really falls apart though in its self consistency is- what if the person has no boots and no means to get boots other than perhaps theft? While meant often to refer to those in the most dire straights- “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” is a decidedly middle class or upper lower class sentiment given the poorest folks wouldn’t have boots- let alone full length boots that require a strap to put on.
So you at the very least have to have been given through your family or your own means a pair of boots with which to pull yourself up in order to be able to do this right? When America was “great” as some might say- perhaps the “greatest” was in the WW2 and post war periods. Companies made flour bags from prints for poor families to make clothes. Civilians did without and worked hard to support each other and the troops. Troops and volunteers fought overseas for the freedom of countries they’d never heard of and likely never would have seen.
We had rations and social services like the Red Cross, neighbors helped neighbors, people donated in drives so that others wouldn’t go without. People gave up things that were more than they needed so families with less could have some. How quickly we forget that “Great” America was very much an America built on communities and helping. With much of the racism and bigotry of the time gone or going- imagine how “great” we could be if we all helped each other instead of trying to get the most for ourselves? When America was so “great” you didn’t have the wealth disparity of today. Some, but much fewer people were trying to hoard it all.
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TLDR: You can't literally pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and many poor people can't even do so metaphorically. The supposed greatest times in America were marked by many social services and community efforts - not bootstraps.
Wow, I didn't know that. I mean, the saying "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" always made no sense to me, but I didn't know that it was actually was the point and people have been using it wrong for so long.
Lol. Yeah. No exact origin is known, but somewhere between the late 19th early 20th century the phrase began to be used the way it is today. But it laterally means, and was originally used to refer to, something that isn’t actually possible. The longer classic version was some variety of “pull yourself over a fence by your boot straps.” We lost the “over the fence” part and my personal guess is that “pull yourself up” and “boots” together just sounded like a roughneck affirmation- evoking the ideas of “getting up when knocked down” and the old sentiment used in a situation where a person has a difficult task and lacks proper tools or supplies: “you still have your boots”
The latter being used to mean that if you have a pair of (work/combat) boots then things can’t be so bad, and you still have the ability through hard work and cleverness to complete a task. There was also the strong beginnings of military culture in civilian life through the early 20th century, and several brutal conflicts where “no excuses” was a mantra and propaganda of the time held that the impossible was possible through force of will. A necessity in brutal conflict or total war which doesn’t need applied beyond survival situations.
In at least American English- “unique” means one of a kind. “The way Harry helps other people is unique.” “UNIQUELY” means either in a specific way connected to one particular entity- or it can just mean in a special or unusual way and not be exclusively connected to one entity.
*looks at American healthcare, education system and homeless veterans*
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
"Why should we help anyone, something something B O O T S T R A P S"
TLDR: You can't literally pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and many poor people can't even do so metaphorically. The supposed greatest times in America were marked by many social services and community efforts - not bootstraps.