May 21, 2005

• AMERICAN VALUES - AMERICAN CREED

  In his provocative book: " Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity", Samuel P. Huntington makes some interesting points. He describes American culture in terms of our Basic Value system, most of which he terms our "American Creed".
  These core values include: The importance of the individual, the concept of equality, the demand for Liberty and Justice, the Work Ethic, Representative Democratic Government, Private Property, Protestant Moral values (which have been stretched to include Catholic Christians and other religions) , and the English language. He discusses the problems immigrant groups have had in adjusting themselves to this value system and expresses his concern about how immigrants who don't subscribe to American Values can become American and the problems which arise when large numbers reject those ideas which basically define americans.
  Criticisms of his ideas have often focused on his assertion that the American Creed is based on a value system brought over from England by the first settlers. He distinguishes settlers from immigrants by suggesting that settlers are settling new lands and establishing the social system while immigrants are moving from one established social system to another and must adapt to the new system. He pretty much rejects the "melting pot" idea and suggests as an analogy "adding spice to the soup" as more expressive of the influence immigrants have had.
  Certainly no one can deny that our present value system contains pretty much the same Basic Value Set which is straight out of 17th century Puritan and Enlightenment England and Holland. The first waves of immigrants, from Germany, Ireland, and France took up these values with little re-interpretation. The Black slaves, whose importation started even before the Mayflower landed, were more or less forced to accept them - at least to the extent that they were allowed into the system. If you look at the demands of the Civil rights Activists of the 1960's they read like a basic value list. It's no surprise that Gunnar Myrdal in his famous study of America's racial problems ( An American Dilemma - Harper '62) Listed virtually the same value set deToqueville mentioned in the previous century.
  America continues to have the strongest "work ethic" values of any developed country as well as the strongest Religious value system of any developed country, indeed one of the strongest in the world. That surely helps to account for the religious dimension of our current sociopolitical arguments.
  Huntington points out the changes taking place in our culture now. He suggests that the "Elite Establishment" has, for reasons which seem right to them, elected to "deconstruct" some of our values - notably those concerned with individual worth and rights- by emphasizing group rights with policies such as affirmative action, quotas, and acceptance of group activities somewhat at odds with our value system as it has been interpreted. Most voters have expressed displeasure with this "Liberal" attitude and the present administration has used it to further their own agenda.
  Huntington sees the rise of Hispanic culture as a threat to American democratic values, apparently because they seem to retain allegiance to their homeland more than past immigrant groups have. In my opinion, this is an unfounded concern. All groups newly come the America have kept some allegiance to their past culture, but within two or three generations, have absorbed our value system and made it their own. We are in the midst of a period of social change with the concurrent basic value reinterpretation. Those like huntington who want things to remain the same will be as disappointed as those who want a radical realignment of our values. Those that have been ours for centuries will remain, though they may be interpreted somewhat differently. We have one of the most dynamic and strongest cultures in the world, that's why we are who we are.

  • 11:59 am
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