How Do We Value Society?

How well do you think the average American knows what’s going on in the rest of the world? How much news coverage do today’s media devote to international issues? Do many folk believe we have much or anything to learn from foreign countries about how to run our country? My guess is the average citizen knows little about other countries, because the media does not cover it well and if they do it is condescending and we are so egotistical as a country we think everyone should imitate us rather than learn from them. I think it is a foolish attitude.

Every country today is affected by globalization and economic difficulties. But the European countries with longer histories and many Asian countries with even older histories and newer ideas have many ideas we should be paying attention to.

I’m still slogging along with my reading of William Greider’s Come Home America. It’s long and like ice cream, if you read too much of it too fast, you’ll get a headache. But he makes great points about this topic. He says, “If you ask what makes these countries different, the essential answer is that they value ‘society’ more seriously…by virtue of their longer histories, possess a deeper understanding of what can go wrong if the economic system is allowed to overpower the concerns of the people.”

Wow, I think that nails it very well. We pride ourselves in this country on our individualism, and that is a positive value, but it should not go to the point of “survival of the fittest.” We are a civilized people who are to value each member of our society and provide and protect them.

I believe this country had a real sense of the importance of society at the founding of our country and I also think it was implicit in the workings of the country following WWII and after the Great Depression. After WWII we realized in was in our self interest as a country to build the economies of those who had been our enemies. Our economy would grow as a result and it did. Following the Great Depression we developed programs to provide a society safety net so that never again would there be 25% unemployment, and that the middle class could grow and flourish and that each generation could have a better life than the one previous to it. And it was true up until about 35 years ago when governmental began too much deregulation and the powerful to advantage of the less powerful and special interests of those with the most power and affluence began an oppression of the middle and lower classes. Today we no longer expect the next generation to have more than the previous, just the opposite, we expect them to have less.

The government has lost focus in its terms of responsibility for the people, for society in general and has favored the few. As a result we have become a great debtor nation that look for short term interests of the few at the expense of the many. And now we wonder how can we get a government back on track that seems controlled by these affluent vested interests.

We have a lot of anger but it is often misdirected at the wrong people. The conservatives who understand this, such as Grieder, want to get it back on track and write convincing books to bring conservatives back to values that benefit the overall society. The liberals have consistently been moving to the right over the same period of time and have also lost sight of their heritage to work for the society as a whole.

Making money and getting rich is good, but not at the expense of others, of society in general. That is why we should become more aware of our European neighbors who maintain that value better we have.

Who are we as Americans?  Our European and Asian neighbors learned the hard way when fascism overtook their countries. We have been lucky not to have gone through what they had gone through but now we seem to be willing to throw some people away for the benefit to others, and we have been weakened by this thinking.

We need to see the long term affects of our actions upon our society. What are the consequences of unregulated businesses and banking institutions? What costs is our society incurred alongside the debt we have as a government and individually? What can we do about it?

I hate to leave with a bunch of questions but I will.