49. Discuss lifestyles in the USA: individualism, competition, privacy, work and family life
(To wszystko w pewnym sensie łączy się ze sobą, ale starałam się to jakoś rozbić i poukładać. W sumie na zajęciach z Dopierą mieliśmy tylko indywidualizm, reszty nie omawialiśmy... Nie wiem, czy znalazłam to, o co im chodzi - ogólnie, bierzcie z tego to, co uważacie za ważne :P)
INDIVIDUALISM
The one value that nearly every American would agree upon is individual freedom. Whether you call it individual freedom, individualism, or independence, it is the cornerstone of American values.
At the time of the formation of the United States, many of its citizens had fled from state or religious oppression in Europe and were influenced by the egalitarian ideals that later found expression in the French revolution. Such ideas influenced the founding fathers of the U.S. Constitution (the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans) who believed that the government should seek to protect individual rights in the constitution itself; this idea later led to the Bill of Rights.
Jefferson believed that a free individual's identity should be held sacred and that his or her dignity and integrity should not be violated.
19th century Transcendentalist philosophers (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller) argued for more individual self-reliance. They encouraged individuals to trust in themselves and their own consciences and to revolt against routine and habitual paths of conduct.
Pragmatists (early 20th century - William James, John Dewey) insisted upon the individual's ability to control his or her fate.
Individualism is not only self-reliance but also economic self-sufficiency - it has been a central theme in American history. In early days most Americans were farmers and their success depended not on cooperation with others but on their ability to confront the hardships of land and climate on their own. The concept of 'rugged individualism' is identified with frontier heroes who braved the wilderness alone.
Then in industrial era: celebration of the small businessman who became a financial success on his own.
The 1960s ushered in a radical extension of individualism, broadening it from the political domain to personal life styles.
Even in today's society, where most Americans work for large organizations and few people can claim economic self-sufficiency, individualism persists. Individual proprietorship in business is still perceived as an ideal - the majority of American businesses are small, and many are owned by an individual or a family. It is part of the "American dream" to "be your own boss," and being an entrepreneur is one of the most appealing ways to improve one's economic future.
Government regulation is often resisted in the spirit of individualism - so the laws that protect the independence of the individual worker are defended.
i taki dodatek nt. zmian w społeczeństwie:
the goal of self-fulfillment
The conception in the sixties and seventies was that self-fulfillment consists of filling as many personal needs as possible: the more needs you meet the more self-fulfilled you would be. This is the ethos of "you can have it all" - career, family, affluence, leisure, self-esteem, sexual gratification, self-expression, and guaranteed entitlements.
Today's culture is evolving a different notion of the self. It holds that self-fulfillment is not a matter of how many needs you can fill, but whether there is a good fit between you and the world in which you live your life.
COMPETITION
President Lincoln expressed the value of “equality of opportunity”. Americans understand this as the right to have equal chance for success in life but not that everyone is or should be equal. They see life as a race for success. Equality means that everyone should have an equal chance to enter the race and win. If life is seen as a race, then a person must compete with others. It is expected that everyone should attempt to be successful. The more successful are considered as winners. People are striving to achieve, move up, attain the 'dream'. Winning at any cost has come to be acceptable - the end justifies the means. This has now led to the ethical dilemmas of sports, business, education. The pressures of competition in life begin in early childhood and continue until retirement (it is present in nearly all aspects of life). Learning to compete and win is part of growing up. Competition and the desire to win are considered healthy and desirable. It has made Americans aggressive and direct. Competition determines one's movement up the company ladder.
PRIVACY
Privacy is also important to Americans. The notion of individual privacy may make it difficult to make friends. Because Americans respect one's privacy, they may not go much beyond a friendly "hello." Ironically, it is usually the foreigner who must be more assertive if a friendship is to develop.
Americans are known for their tendency to `lay their cards on the table' but at the same time they strictly avoid some topics (personal, religion, politics). Communication consists of small talk and personal stuff is not discussed.
WORK & FAMILY LIFE
- influenced by the transformation in social values (60's)
Some of this period's most important value shifts:
# Expressiveness: a higher value placed on forms of choice and individualism that express one's unique inner nature;
# Sexuality: less moral value placed on "morally correct" sexual behavior; a loosening of some but not all norms of sexual morality;
# Pluralism: greater acceptance of differences in ethnicity and lifestyle;
# 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;
# Women's rights: a high value placed on women achieving self-fulfillment by paths of their own choice rather than through roles dictated by society.
FAMILY
The main purpose of the American family is to bring about the happiness of each individual family member. The traditional family values include love and respect for parents, as well as for all members of the family.
However, the emphasis on the individual and his/her right to happiness can be confusing. It allows children to disagree, even argue with their parents. While in most other cultures such action would be a sign of disrespect and a lack of love, that is not the case in the United States. It is simply a part of developing one's independence.
Family as an institution has changed dramatically over time
The basic forces for familial change are:
# economics
# demography
# change in women's roles
Economics
Originally, American Puritan families were living off the land and self-sufficient. Parents kept control over their children not only by handing down the family craft and source of income, but by dowries and inheritance of the family lands. Kinship ties through intermarriage between first cousins and even between brothers and sisters were used to cement political and economic relationships. Children were often kept economically dependent for years. Women were expected to be submissive in the home, although wife abuse was not tolerated.
By the Eighteenth century, families had begun to purchase more goods and services from others, and their children exercised more personal choices over who they would marry. As the family unit became more dependent on public services, it also became more isolated and private.
Demography
Through the years, the gradual reduction of fertility within marriage, along with the gradual aging of the population, has created a family experience of no parenting responsibilities, being grandparents, caring for parents, and prolonged widowhood that was not known in previous generations. The average Puritan marriage lasted twenty-four years. Remarriage after the death of a spouse was quite common.
Roles
The dramatic increase of women working outside the home has helped make women less dependent on their husbands, and has changed traditional perspectives about housekeeping and child rearing roles. It's a shift in both the nation's economy and daily life. For some families it allows them to own a bigger house or to drive better cars. For many more families, two paychecks are necessary to put food on the table.
Puritan fathers didn't take an active role in child rearing until a child reached the age of two or three.
It was discovered in 1899 that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. State legislatures decided to fix the problem by making it harder to get a divorce. At one time, South Carolina actually prohibited divorce. Despite these efforts, by 1924, one out of seven marriages in America ended in divorce.
WORK
Material wealth is probably the most widely accepted measure of social status in America. Rejection of European class structure and the adoption of a more classless society saw the emergence of a substitute for judging social status. The quantity and quality of an individual material wealth became that substitute. However Americans pay a price for this: hard work. That is also the essence of America dream for many foreigners. That is to say if you want to be success, hard work is requested. The land and other rich natural resources were exploited by hard work as was the industrialization of America. The wealth generated was and is still converted into material possessions and a high standard of living.
Achievers are always admired and it motivates most Americans. The ideal person is the hard worker - this is tied to a strong belief in action or doing something most of the time, materialism (acquiring possessions), and the upward movement from one class to another as the measure of achievement.
U.S. work life has changed because of the different roles of women - with automation of the workplace by the 1970s, large numbers of women began entering the work force.
The 1980s brought new complaints of work-life balance related stress. This time period was given such names as “the ME generation,” “the age of narcissism” and “the pursuit of loneliness.” The number of cases of emotional depression in the United States was believed to have doubled between 1970 and 1990.
“What you do is what you are” was the common and unhealthy assumption. compelled to do more, to move faster, to compete harder. They, in turn, have set the pace for other age groups. The signs of increased stress are legion and have been intensified by the economic climate.