Article Review: The Values Americans Live By

Counseling & Human Development in a Multicultural Society, HSC 503

Patrick McGrath, Ed.D.

Spring 1998

The Values Americans Live By

Author/Presenter: L. Robert Kohls       

Bibliographic Data/Source:  1984. The Washington International Center.  

1.    Identify the topic, i.e., what are the main issue(s) addressed?

       The topic is American values. The authors prepared them for foreign travelers to help them understand the treatment they are likely to receive in America.         

2.    Identify the main points, ideas, suggestions addressed?

       Thirteen values are listed to explain the way Americans think and behave. These thirteen values are intended to explain just what American rugged individualism is about and how it might be expressed to a visitor to this country.

3.    What is your reaction (thoughts about) to the main issues?

       As a person who has spent a great deal of time in the last few years studying ethics and values, I found this article intriguing. I’ve never seen such a great copulation of American values before. Seeing these American values grouped as they were I realized that, as a feminist, I have questioned the value of most of these values at one time or another. In fact I believe that many of these values are actually harmful to humanity.

4.    What reaction(s) do you have to the main point(s), etc?

       Although I agree that the thirteen values do represent what a majority of Americans have internalized, I personally do not embrace most of these values. This may explain why I often have a sense of  not “fitting in” of being different from a majority of my fellow citizens. I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on, studying, and arguing many of these values that most Americans aren’t fully aware of. Once internalized they lie hidden beneath the surface, but are not without the power to influence our attitudes and behaviors. Perhaps this is why I sometimes feel like a stranger or a foreigner to many people in my own country.

       Fatalism has been used a weapon against oppressed peoples. This value of Man’s control over Nature is threatening global safety itself and has caused great harm to the environment. Change is not always progressive. Many medical technologies are inflicted upon people before the ethical considerations and potential ramifications have been thought about. Our focus on time has led to our functioning as robots that end up actually being controlled by time rather than the other way around. I’m ashamed to see equality listed as a value we are supposed to hold. Most who have lived in America as a female, as Black, as Native American, as a homosexual etc, etc know this is a fallacy.

       Individualism and privacy have also been yielded as weapons to keep Americans from being our brother’s keepers when so many of our brothers need us. We are usually expected to go it alone, figure it out for ourselves and not complain about feeling alienated. The notion of self-help is also a harmful fallacy. Only a few non-White Anglo Saxon Americans are allowed to climb the social ladder. When someone like Colan Powell “makes it” he is used as an example of how everyone could do it if they tried. However, this is a strategic tactic of the elites who plan this and use it as an argument for the facility of their deceptive self-help concept. I have long believed that cooperation will prove to be the only way for humans to live together in peace and love. I believe that the enormous excess wealth in the hands of so few (and growing fewer all the time) is profoundly unethical and one of the most immoral acts that humans have developed. This system run by elites is at the very core of  much human misery in the world. If this one value were dissipated the world would entirely change for the better. Teacher comment: I agree! If every person had just the basic requirements such as things as food, decent shelter, reasonable safety, we could then start discussing the beginnings of equality. Until this happens there is no equality.

       It’s true many Americans have no concept about just enjoying Being on the planet. We sometimes lose sight of the present moment because it’s not valued. Our constant work orientation has made me feel guilty for the time I have spent reflecting. I have sensed that people have wondered about me. Some years ago I worked through some nursing agencies and had the opportunity to make very good money. Instead of working a lot to make even more money, I worked just enough to earn the amount of money I needed to pay my bills, not to get rich. Informality is one of the few values that I believe in. Formality is to me artificial and distancing to connecting with others. I do like being open and honest to an extent, often you have to if you’re going to protect yourself and be your own advocate in an oppressive society. Americans do like philosophies and theories that stand to manipulate the masses to come under the control of those in power. Psychological theories have blamed people with emotional problems for their problems which perpetuates the dominance of rationality. The philosophy/theory of rugged individualism has played a big part in the development of maintaining cold, aloof, and indifferent rationality. Materialism makes us forget who we really are in a spiritual sense. When our lives are focused on material accumulation we loose sight of much of life’s richness.

5.    Considering the content presented AND your reaction(s) to it, what “point” or idea would you make/share with the class?

        We ought to spend some precious time really thinking about what we are unconsciously valuing because it may actually be harming us and preventing us from living fully. Teacher comment: Yes!

6.    What questions might you have about the content and/or your reaction?

       If values are simply internalized and blindly adopted among our masses without major societal reflection, can we truly call them values?  Teacher comment: Interesting question, certainly we could call them ”ways of living” and I guess “preferred” if we wouldn’t live some other way – & if “preferred..” A value judgment is implicit if not explicit.