CHANGING US CULTURAL CORE VALUES

The following list summarizes the American values that have changed in recent years: --The concept of duty. Less value placed on what one owes to others as a matter of moral obligation. --Social conformity. Less value placed on keeping up with the Joneses. --Respectability. Less value placed on symbols of correct behavior for a person of a particular social class. --Social morality. Less value placed on observing society's rules. --Pluralism. Greater acceptance of differences in ethnicity and lifestyle. --Sacrifice. Less value placed on sacrifice as a moral good, replaced by more pragmatic criteria of when sacrifice is or is not called for. --Expressiveness. A higher value placed on forms of choice and individualism that express one's unique inner nature. --The environment. Greater value placed on respecting and preserving nature and the natural. --Technology. Greater value placed on technological solutions to a vast array of problems and challenges. --Sexuality. Less moral value placed on "correct" sexual behavior; a loosening of some but not all norms of sexual morality. --Pleasure. Less Puritanism about pleasure, especially bodily pleasures; pleasure regarded as a good. --Family. A high value placed on family life, but with a vastly expanded concept of family beyond the traditional nuclear form. --Husband-wife relationships. A far-reaching shift from role based obligations to shared responsibilities. --Health. Greater value placed on one's own responsibility for maintaining and enhancing health. --Work ethic. A shift from the Protestant ethic valuation of work as having intrinsic moral value to work as a source of personal satisfaction, and therefore less tolerance for work that does not provide personal satisfaction. --Women's rights. A higher value placed on women achieving selffulfillment by paths of their own choice rather than through roles dictated by society. This enumeration is far from complete, but it does suggest the breadth of change. Some of these changes are so extensive that they virtually reverse previously held values. For example, social conformity and respectability were once the norm of the land, but individualism and choice of lifestyle are now the norm. The almost universal rule of marriage once revolved around sharply differentiated roles for men

and women. Now roles have blurred, and a different conception of marriage has taken hold among most Americans.

America's Core Values Before documenting specific areas of changed values, I want to emphasize that all American values have not changed. Despite the affluence effect and other agents of change, many of America's most important traditional values have remained firm and constant. Since the focus of this paper is on changing values, I will keep my inventory of the values that have not changed brie The list that follows is a familiar one, but mere familiarity should not blind us to the importance of the fact that while many traditional values are in upheaval, a small number continue to win the allegiance of most Americans. The unchanged values are the following: --Freedom. Valuing political liberty, free speech, freedom of movement, freedom of religious worship, and other freedoms from constraints to the pursuit of private happiness. --Equality before the law. Placing a high value on having the same rules of justice apply to one and all, rich and poor, black and white. --Equality of opportunity. The practical expression of freedom and individualism in the marketplace, which helps to resolve the tensions between the values of freedom and equality. --Fairness. Placing a high value on people getting what they deserve as the consequence of their own individual actions and efforts. --Achievement. A belief in the efficacy of individual effort: the view that education and hard work pay off. --Patriotism. Loyalty to the United States and dedication to the way of life it represents. --Democracy. A belief that the judgment of the majority should form the basis of governance. --American exceptionalism. A belief in the special moral status and mission of America. --Caring beyond the self. Placing a high value on a concern for others such as family or ethnic group; neighborliness; caring for the community. --Religion. A reverence for some transcendental meaning extending beyond the realm of the secular and practical. --Luck. A belief that one's fortunes and circumstances are not permanent and that good fortune can happen to anyone at any time.

Each one of these values has a rich and complex heritage that is not captured by its mere mention. Despite the transformations in America's lifestyles, these core values have endured. Virtually all Americans share them; compositely, they make American culture distinctive. The United States is a nation of immense diversity -geographically, ethnically, economically, and politically. And yet, this tiny cluster of values holds Americans together as a single people and nation. They are the Unum in the national motto, e pluribus Unum -the unity amid the variety of American life.