Starbucks Red Cup: A Distrust In American Culture

Our society has come to a point where it’s peculiar to trust institutions. The general consensus of Americans is that we are better than the people around us. Because of this America has an incredible followership problem. We don’t know how to trust anymore, but the root may be underlying in the leadership for the country. The distrust in America grows every day as events unfold. We see it in the analysis of the color of Starbucks cups, and in racial incidents. The fatal flaw of America is that we always find an underlying agenda...even if there isn’t one. The distrust that facilitates the discovery of these “agendas” certainly does stem from a certain level of vanity, ‘everything must pertain to me because that is how I view the world.’ Vanity, overanalysis, and curiosity are unequivocally the main contributors in America’s resistance to followership.
There is a constant stream of beauty products being distributed to the public.
Vanity has become a common trait in American society and it grows into narcissism as we age. The idea that everything must relate to every person is silly and unrealistic, but many Americans believe it every day. They take something that, in all honesty, does not pertain to them, and relate themselves to it. One of the more common instances of this is the Starbucks’ red cup controversy. The company is being berated by some Christians for “attacking Christmas” because the cup is simply red with no design on it this year. One extremist went as far as to say that the red stood for the blood of Jesus. In reality, Starbucks came out with plain cups so the consumers could come up with their own doodles and stories, but the trust is
nonexistent.
A side effect of vanity is a narcissistic view of the world. It’s hard to avoid a followership problem when the majority of citizens aren’t willing to take things at face value...even when they should be. Take the massive media coverage of racial incidents as of late. Racial violence is a growing problem in America, just look at the Ferguson case, but the oversimplification leads to the over compensation when dealing with white cop, black civilian situations. With any occupation there are those who are working for the common good and there are those with a different incentive. The over analysis of racial conflicts creates a barrier between the public and the police because suddenly the idea is that all cops have gone bad and that all black people disobey the police. We’re so bad at following, we won’t even allow ourselves to be protected.
The old saying, “curiosity killed the cat” certainly fits this situation. American culture is filled with curiosity, but curiosity doesn’t fit the bill for a ‘good follower.’ We want to know everything as soon as it happens with instant messaging and constant news updates. Followership commands a level of trust that is disrupted by inquiring minds.
For the greatest country in the world, the U.S. certainly has a sizable followership problem. We are incapable of taking things at face value anymore. I’m not sure that the general public can be blamed for that. If we want to fix this dilemma we need to turn to leadership. We find secret agendas where there aren’t any, but also where there are. If there was more honesty in this country maybe following would come easier to those who resist it. America certainly does have both a followership and leadership problem, and the two go hand in hand. Without strong leadership the followership goes away.