Insteadness sometimes we focus on this instead of that

Most especially in US culture, it seems like we focus on ourselves as a kind of insteadness rather than the larger forces and structures that define our existence.

For example, even when we engage in practices, such as Buddhism, where the self is supposed to be deemphasized, people in the US seem to manage to find a way to make it all about themselves and their own personal fulfillment/extension.