The Norms and Values Of America

This week we discussed the norms and values that Americans have learned to live by. We broke these down into 13 separete values. The values are Personal Control over the Environment, Change, Time and Its Control, Equality, Individualism/Privacy, Self-Help, Competition, Orientation, Action/Work Orientation, Informality, Directness/Openness/Honesty, Practicality/Efficiency and Materialism/Acquisitiveness. Although these are the values that Americans follow other countries might have completly opposite values such as Tradition instead of Change or Hierarchy/Rank/Status instead of Equality. Through democracy we are able to change the norms and values of a country and the United States is a mix of many cultures norms and values. America impacts other countries values to change and as do other countries on America. A great current example is how America imposes its Democratic values on countries such as Iraq, Afganistan, Russia, etc. Maybe one day, all countries will have the same values and norms but, currently values of America are looked down appon by some other countries. I agree that some values are not Personal values of my own like Materialism but to fit into this society you must accept some of the American values. Ironicly to remove Materialism i must accept Change. This is also true to change a value in another country. To challenge the values of another country you must break the values of that country, even in the United States.