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Values And The American Culture Essay The values that drive American culture as such are their ability to assess almost all of its situational issues boosting the ease with which they were able to adjust to changeable life conditions making sure the link of its race. This constitutes American behaviors, its mores and traditions which were handed down through generations with little modifications. This is its own culture. Like their gestures, eating habits, drinking habits, sex, and laughter which are all personality indicators are likewise their cultural markers. Even their food preferences and attitudes toward food which necessarily reveals their inner self is also a display of their culture, because food plays an important role in the lives of all people beyond its obvious one, a necessity. Sam Keen cites Geoffrey Gorer: the most significant common traits in these peaceful societies are that they all manifest enormous gusto for concrete physical pleasureeating, drinking, sex, laughterand they, they all make very little distinction between the ideal characters of men and women, particularly that they have no ideal of brave, aggressive masculinity ( Watters 2005), reminds me in particular of a proof of American culture having been developed through generations of varying grades of adjustments and alterations to continue to live and survive in the midst of fierce environmental situations. I think this is what most American teen-agers call an attitude of being cool! Normally however, things happen because something else took place, consequently, events takes place; a battery of events, a domino effect, because there are only few things that come to pass all by themselves. The above citation also reveals a view of a society that is exactly the living portraits of their ancestors; a society that is composed of people who are just as weak as those who nurtured them or the other way around. They look like disconcerted, unsettled group at one point; of what appears to be simpleton in ignorance for men and women alike can rise above the limits of physicality in determination to achieve the optimum level, a better and compromising society. That men and women alike can rise above carnality to supersede poor human idiosyncrasies and egocentricities. That men and women alike are capable of rising above the meager desires of the flesh. In other words, it is a pity, for these is how this particular group of people has been nurtured. The prayer of the poor souls by Mark Twain is indicative of that particular generation weakness in personalities. In this 21st century, who would rush out to applaud soldiers going to war? Who would go to church and pray that the soldiers be safe? People would think of it as a sickening idea. However, in the past that was their last recourse in the midst of tribulations for a prayerful congregation that seems to be lost and in need of some supreme powers to overtake the opponents, whose reasons for warfare is not so clear, who have no alternative but to suffer the chills of the uncertain, mercy from the Supreme Being for the children’s lives that will be lost including their very dreams, all of it is simply the result of their foolish obsessions. It was a reflection of the achievements in education and technology of the time. Praying for the security of forces in times of war, a war which was usually conducted as a result of overt desire for what is transient and materialistic, a war that simply runs counter to the ideals of preservation of life even at the fetal stages, for even in the most difficult problems in science and mathematics there are almost always solutions, there are those born physically defective that are even helped to bring about normal living. Bravery could have meant patience, learned, forgiving, persevering and endurance overlooking the mistakes of others, talking about matters on the tables of logic and reason, sourcing-out what can be afforded whether intellectual or material. For going to war is a mere reflection of bravery in cowardice, it is illiteracy in the midst of modernizing technology, it means plummeting economy, bankruptcy, too elementary an idea of hiding in the power of guns and bullets, the manly relief of those who have frustrations in their younger days. Why pray for those who go to war? Let them be, and let their desires be fulfilled to the fullest and let us see what beneficial results it would bring. War on the other hand is a balancing factor; its mortality factor is justifiable (Miller Levine 2002). The population must be equated with its resources. Otherwise, everyone will suffer for lack. It is a way of getting rid of what is surplus. Painful maybe as it seem, but, that is one glaring generality of a truth which people have to learn and accept. For if human population increase is merely brought about by desire and lust without considerations of the intellectual nature of people, then there must be some way to balance the situation without necessarily putting forth in public the real reasons for going to war. Mead presupposes that there are really people who are avid at inventions, eager to go to war (Watters 2005). This is simply just like a fashion show of prowess and might, a beguiling entrepreneur masking the motivations of greed, a game of the ignorant for in it there is no virtue. It is the making of the poor in spirit a dangerous invention of murky imaginations, an out-dated social waste. Of warfare’s and duels and fights are the painful consequences of improper family breeding, wrong values at the wrong places (Watters 2005). A concrete illustration of the concept of culture as eventualities can be seen through Samuel Langhorne Clemens life (Mark Twain 2006). From the time he was born until when he was a writer, where he made clear his fine evolution on how things were with him that brought about his totality as a person, an American personality. At one point in his life he used aliases, pseudonyms, and allegories to show major happenings and events that molded him into being. He could have been blunt and straightforward. But, looking back at his childhood years where he grew up moving from place to place as his family moved, adapting constantly to constant ecological changes, orphaned from a mother’s tender loving care, model by an uncompromising father, growing up with a bully aunt, which strained him to be smart at his age, in his own little way. He felt none in his family could be a confidante to a witnessed absurdity, to comfort him in dire need of a shield, to listen to his stories, to guide him through his journeys. Better are the hens and the chicks, the cats and its kittens, the dogs and its puppies, and the birds and its nestlings, even the lions and its cubs does have their own bonding ways. So, at the outset, he has to deal with his fears, deal with his own problems, and gain his own wits, create his own little world for a young boy at his age, pushing him to make decisions of his own to secure his life. Pity, but the prices of sternness, negligence in family responsibilities, bully, poverty, economic instability, politics, and war, has to be paid for tremendously, by the horrifying lives of those left behind to pursue an undefined journey. Does this mean life in America is indifference? Life is not that easy and rosy. Tom who is the male counterpart of various animals and Sawyer who saws timber (Merriam-Webster Inc. 2004) nicks across the very soul of Samuel Clemens, a reality of how one person can become because of the many and various factors that are sometimes, somehow, are beyond ones control. Nature as they say have its own ways of making a man, and molding him accordingly. Another life clarifies what brought about the American culture. Contrary to those fairytales, Louisa May Alcott as a teenager was riddled with the necessities early in life. She was supposed to be left at that young age to be bemused by the fleeting amenities of a young lady. But, the burden of working in the shadows of her dreams to bring about the basics of life seemed just inevitable to her. Multitasking was the name of her game to help finance her family needs. It is a show of the ability of women to find ways and means to sustain life. She was not bitter though. The story was also an eye-opener and disappointment to realize how some men are narrow in outlook in putting up with a simple family needs for sustenance. She pursued the unknown fields with tenacity to success, allayed fears and troubles. In her story â€Å"Little Men†, she bared another of the wholesome American family and its spirit, the willingness of granting opportunities to those in needs, without necessarily prejudicing family interest, without setting too many rules, making life easy and desirable (Alcott 1986). It also depicts the truth that more is given to some, and to others are less, and only the poor and the weak are the justification of the wealthy. To those who are given more, a lot more is required of them. Others may not realize this. But, others does, especially those who give themselves time to reflect for whatever comes and whatever leaves them. George W. Renwick, A Fair Go for All: Australian/American Interactions, 1991, wrote: The value systems of Australians and Americans combine competitive and cooperative strands, but in different ways. The Australian harmonizes them while the Americans see them as mutually exclusive and is torn between them. Americans are always ready to put themselves in competition with the group or groups to which they belong; it is often â€Å"either the group or me. † For the Australian it is the group and me, with a great deal of personal privacy as well. † Australians search for ways to collaborate with the competition while Americans seeks ways to â€Å"beat† it. The American position seems to be that too much cooperation weakens one’s advantage. This may stem, in part, from the different ways such values are inculcated. Much is made of mandatory participation in team sport in Australian schools. Americans place more emphasis on the outstanding individual and early on learn â€Å"spectatorism,† with its powerful identification with the few superior performers. Finally, another attribute which drives American culture is their preference to physical evidence and eyewitness testimony. They see facts as the supreme kind of evidence. Popular best-selling books weave their tales by giving clues to the appearance of physical evidence or fact: a button that is torn-off a sleeve, a telephone answering machine, a caller ID, and a bank-book of regular deposits or withdrawal, are all pieces of evidence from where American behavior, motivation and values are apparent (Lustig 1996). References Alcott, Luisa. Little Men. U. S. A: A Signet Classic. 1986. Lustig, Myron W. and Jolene Koester. Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures.US: Harper Collins College Publishers. 1996. Miller, Kenneth R. Biology. Upper Saddle River: N. J. Prentice Hall. 2002. Renwick, George W. A Fair Go For All: Australian/American Interactions. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press. 1991. Tan, Amy. Fish Cheeks. New York: Ivy Books. 1989. The Merriam Webster Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusettes. Merriam-Webster Inc. 2004. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. (ed. Unabridged). New Delhi. UBSPD. (Original work published in 1876). 2006. Watters, Ann. Global Exchange. U. S. A: Stanford University. 2005.