In his essay “The Transformation of European Society,” Gary Nash explains how the United States (US) of the 17th and 18th centuries saw the birth of a distinct “democratic personality” . This personality had many effects on American society. Mr. Nash believed that a society with democratic personalities had the following qualities: individualization, competitiveness and opportunity. Many factors led to the creation of each of these traits. Americans wanted their own, separate lives in which they were not told how to act or what to think. Unfortunately, this was an idealistic thought. The reality was that they were straying from the original goal of working for the better of the community, in the Puritan way. Although the above-mentioned characteristics can help society in many ways, they have also consistently gone against it. For example, many businesses and even government officials have been accused of being corrupt and committing illegal acts to succeed. American citizens have been given so many options in life that many have learned they can do better than what they were born to do. The vastness of the Western lands led to many of these options. Land was cheap and unoccupied, meaning it was relatively easy to become successful and achieve higher social status through land. This was followed by the “me” personality mindset throughout much of American history. This has also led to the entrenchment of competitiveness in daily, rational and global life. A multitude of people were motivated to achieve more and become the vision of success that animated their peers. Many of their visions were to own land and be able to live a comfortable life. As Nash says, “living in a place where the ratio of people/... middle of paper ...... ed. As Nash quoted it, "this produced the greatest flow of energy since the Puritan movement a century before." Followers believed that a new source of authority was needed and the actions taken by many led to the revitalization of the mind and body. Inadvertently, this led to the creation of new branches of religion, and each citizen was able to make an individual choice to believe what they wanted to believe. This led to a more extensive sense of individualization. Over time, the masses developed a sense of needing something new, a restoration of their way of life. They knew that to achieve change, they themselves had to act, driven by the ideology of democracy. Gary Nash's essay "The Transformation of European Society" describes how the "democratic personality" actually impacted social, economic and religious conditions..