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Robert Kohls, most Americans are unaware of the values that shape their worldviews. I completely agree with the author's assessment in "The Values Americans Live By." Americans are extremely concerned with values such as self-reliance and independence because these extend from the myths of American exceptionalism and concepts like Manifest Destiny. Americans have been taught to celebrate pioneers of the Wild West and the cowboy culture that goes along with it. Collaboration and cooperation take a back seat in America to values like self-help. For example, Kohls notes that in other cultures, a person asking for directions will often find that someone will walk with them until they find what they are seeking. This is of course not true for all other cultures, but certainly some. One of Kohls's goals is to show readers why some foreigners seem perplexed about American culture, and the seeming dichotomies therein. Americans see themselves as being friendly, and often are. However, foreigners often perceive American's fierce independence as being a sign of selfishness.
Interestingly, Kohls claims that the future-orientation of American society is also what prevents a person from showing the stranger how to reach a destination. I do not necessarily agree with this assessment, because I find that Americans tend to be unconcerned with the future to a fault. Americans are, for example, in deep debt and willing to numb themselves with consumerism without considering the future consequences. Americans are obsessed with things like material acquisition and celebrity culture, to the extent of even celebrating a culture of ignorance. Values such as self-reliance can at least be construed in a positive way, but there is no way that valuing ignorance or denial can be seen as positive. Therefore, I do agree fully with the gist of Kohls's assessment of American values, but I would also add that there are a collection of more sinister values that have crept into American consciousness and identity. These are the values that underlie permissiveness toward religious conservatism, for example, and the hypocrisies it entails, or the permissiveness toward gun ownership. Unfortunately, values like extreme self-reliance also obscure the unavoidable need for cooperation and acceptance.
children, television and American values. The writer collects and reviews empirical evidence about the way television affects American values in the children of the nation. The writer uses a survey approach and conducts a study of children age 5- to 10-year-old and combines the results in this paper. American values are as American as apple pie. When one has children one of the things they hope for is that they
Power of Media in American Values Contemporary Discuss the power of the media in shaping contemporary American values. The online oxford dictionary defines media as "the main means of mass communication (television, radio, and newspapers) regarded collectively" (oxforddictionaries.com). This implies that the public globally are highly dependent on media to get information regarding what surrounds them, so is the American public (Edwards, 2001;9). In any case, the most efficient way of transmitting information
Media in America [...] How does mass media affect American values? American media is pervasive in nearly every aspect of society today. Newspapers, magazines, online Web sources, television, radio, and film all create a sense of commonality, and often a sense of how to behave, think, and react to social and societal situations. Today, Americans rely on a variety of media for most of their news, information, and values, whether
To wit, "half of Americans deem religion very important in their lives; fewer than a quarter in Spain (22%) feel this way, and in Germany (21%), Britain (17%) and France (13%), even fewer say religion is "very important" to their lives (PEW). Fifty-three percent of Americans are more apt to agree that it is vital to believe in God prior to having good morals and values while just 33% of
Where Problems Begin The emphasis on funding and innovation that drove the advance of the American economy throughout much of the twentieth century was without a doubt a major part of the nation's success (Lemoncik 2006). This is not where today's issues of the internal crumbling of American society has its origins, however, and in fact the facade of great wealth, opportunity, and success that the United States still puts forward
Alexander Hamilton carried on an affair with the wife of "a notorious political schemer," Maria Reynolds. Andrew Jackson married Rachel Jackson before her divorce from Lewis Robards was finalized and therefore was accused of marrying a married woman. Jackson's opponent in 1828, John Quincy Adams, was in turn accused of "corrupt bargaining" during his term. Jackson also championed Margaret O'Neill Timberlake, who married his secretary of war, John Eaton.