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American Values......
- Thread starter hal9000
- Start date
I had a class discussion with a room full of juniors once around 10 years ago about this, the consensus was that America gives people the freedom and opportunity to be who they want to be, and often that means the freedom and opportunity to move up the socioeconomic ladder and get ahead. This is to them the American Dream. The ability to vote and pick your government also came up, as did personal freedom, responsibility to family and community, that sort of thing. Note, these were 90% Latino children of immigrants, spoke Spanish at home, and were mostly dirt-poor. Most of them now have bachelors degrees and have started their careers.
I'm not surprised you don't know what American values are.
You don't travel (this place is a full time job for you on top of your teaching job) so it's probably hard for you to recognize...you can't really make any comparisons.
They mostly revolve around individualism. This country was founded with the individual in mind first and foremost.
Further, this is a young nation made up of immigrant groups, further deepening the orientation toward the individual. Because of our mass immigration we have no real history and often lack connection to family.
Say versus German values?
Americans value the individual, Germans value being a good citizen.
Americans individualize rules and laws, Germans value strict rule following
etc
Your wife is Brazilian, right? You should know better.
i think you both might be engaging in more than a little bit of revisionists' history/clownery.
Theres plenty of evidence of empirical collectivism in the constitution and in the founding of America.
That's an entirely different debate.
Anyhow, I answered your question - individualism is the core of American values.
For better or for worse.
That isn't the case in most other places.
A Constitution based on negative rights further ingrained an individualist attitude.
all the "rugged individual" stuff is way past tense - the stuff of mythology, at this point. the day when you could strike out on your own and stake a claim, clear a field, build a house, make a life etc etc without existing in the greater framework of American society are long over. we are to a great extent, mutually dependent on each other and society to function - clinging to romantic notions of a life that is no longer possible is not realistic and those values are wildly impractical. and the only people who think they can are auditioning for reality tv shows. sorry guys, you really didn't build that all by your self, it really does take a village etc etc.
I'm pretty sure that was always a myth. People lived in villages and built cities pretty much as soon as America became a thing.
I think my favorite American myth is the rugged individualist cowboy myth.