Values -Ã we all like to pretend we have them. Republicans preach family values. Churches, synagogues and mosques advocate religious values. Here in North Carolina, we have our own brand of southern values. Don’t forget to say “yes ma’am.”
With all of these intangible values floating around, you would think that our American society is flawless. Yet values cause conflict. Divorces are often catalyzed by values. Political values intensely divide our country. Even the most horrendous battles and wars are fought over competing values.
Here in America, however, we are slowly losing our identity with individual values. In fact, the graduates coming out of our universities this decade will be the first valueless generation. We are a prototype of a new democratic society. We are removed from passionate beliefs and cherished traditions. Sure, we are also a nation of individualists who constantly search for ways to benefit ourselves; but this individualism applies only to material gain — we are not concerned with creating our own unique values.
Let me be honest: I am not the first to make this observation. Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman and political thinker, penned Democracy in America after visiting the United States in 1831. Tocqueville was captivated by the American people and their obsession with equality. He rightly argued that equality would eventually become so powerful that it would undermine our freedom when he wrote, “Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
Yes, our freedom is fading. Ideas are now commercialized. Values are universalized. We are constantly told what to think, but not why to think it. Democracy works most efficiently this way. Without values, everyone agrees. Without values, conflicts are avoided. Without values, there is peace and productivity. Finally, without values, there is equality — that thing we love so much.
How did this all evolve? How did our society transition from a passionate union of freemen and great thinkers to a society of packaged drones grasping at material wealth? Here’s a brief timeline of the cause.
1980s: America becomes wealthier and drives itself on materialism. According to the Surveys of Consumer Finances, the average yearly American income grew from $51,000 in 1982 to over $67,000 in 2001. Families begin to drive large SUVs, work longer hours and spend more money. America’s primary value becomes money.
1990s: As the playing field becomes equalized, more Americans are attending college than ever before. The U.S. Department of Education noted in 1994 that 63 percent of students surveyed are receiving some type of post-secondary education. With more middle-class and lower-class students entering the university, colleges have refocused their curricula toward workforce development. Practical sciences are studied over philosophy. Student Affairs divisions begin to replace the curriculum of the philosophical courses. Students learn “to respect the beliefs of everyone” rather than creating their own values by reading Plato, Rousseau and religious texts. America’s primary value becomes equality.
2000s: According to the Washington Post in June 2006, 25 percent of Americans report that they have no close friends. In comparison to 1965, Americans go on 60 percent fewer picnics and families eat together 40 percent less often. The new trend is social isolation. Technology replaces reading, spending time with people and practicing art. America’s primary value becomes unconscious isolation.
You see, we are now a valueless generation! Our country cares mostly about money, equality and social isolation. Public schools and universities do not teach students how to find meaning in their lives and how to define their own beliefs. Oh no — instead schools teach us how to become productive citizens so that we can make money. Equality ensures that everyone has the opportunity to make money.
We are void. We exist, but forget to live. Our latest technologies such as the Internet and iPods plug us into a gratifying world — a world where we forget our emptiness.
So, I urge you, go free yourself. Go read a new book. Go march on the street. Eat dinner with your family. Have a long conversation with a friend. By doing all these, you can uncover the mind of God. You can have values. Until then, you remain a prototype of the valueless generation.
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” — 1984, George Orwell
E-mail Forrest at [email protected].