Hi,
I read this article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Hope that America gets some great political leaders with good morals.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0112/03/opinion/opinion3.html
Middle Americans yearn for a spiritual sea change
Those who love the United States and those who hate it have some points of
agreement, writes Richard Eckersley.
With the war on terrorism in Afghanistan close to a victorious end and the
growing speculation about what happens next, it seems a good time to raise a
fundamental issue that so far appears to have been overlooked: at one level,
Americans and those who stand against them in the war may agree.
Commentators on the terrorist attacks on the United States fall into two
broad camps. In one are those who say that the US's persistent, often
self-interested, meddling in the affairs of other nations and the gross
global inequalities in wealth make the attacks explicable (although not
justifiable). The American people may be "innocent" victims of the attacks,
but the American nation is not.
In the other camp are those who say the terrorists (and many in the first
camp) are driven by a hatred of America (and modernity generally) and all it
stands for: its lifestyle, its values - and its success. Jonathan Rauch,
writing in Atlantic Online, says the terrorists, like radical
environmentalists and anti-globalists, are driven by a horror of the open
society, with its "uncontrolled political and social change", "spontaneous
creativity", "freedom from the tyrannies of overlords" and "freedom to build
and inhabit a fluid, creative culture".
There is another perspective, which in some sense straddles these two
viewpoints. It concerns the evidence that Americans have deep concerns about
their society and lifestyle.
One exit poll conducted at the latest American presidential election found
that a majority of voters said the most important issue influencing their
vote was not jobs, education or taxes, but moral and ethical values.
In a wide-ranging 1999 survey of Americans' views on the past and next
century, the Pew Research Centre found that despite a prevailing mood of
economic and technological triumphalism, Americans expressed misgivings
about the moral climate, "with people from all walks of life looking
sceptically on the ways in which the country has changed both culturally and
spiritually". Only a minority (44 per cent) said life in America had become
better since the '50s.
A 1999 Gallup poll found that 49 per cent of Americans believed there was a
moral crisis in the US, while another 41 per cent believed there were major
moral problems. Only 23 per cent admitted to being optimistic about future
moral and ethical standards in the US, while 43 per cent were pessimistic.
These results support those of another survey, conducted in 1998 by The
Washington Post, Harvard University and the Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation. The survey found that 76 per cent of Americans thought the
country was "pretty seriously off on the wrong track" when it came to values
and moral beliefs. More than half (55 per cent) believed "people and groups
that hold values similar to yours" were losing influence in American life in
general.
While the moral qualms appear to have existed for some time, they may have
intensified and clearly reflect the characteristics of the modern American
way of life.
A 1995 study, Yearning for Balance, conducted for the Merk Family Fund, says
Americans share a deep and abiding concern about the core values driving
their society. They believe that materialism, greed and excess characterise
the way they live and underlie many of their worst social ills.
The report notes that focus group participants agreed firmly that there was
a tension between their own priorities and those of society. "The frenzied,
excessive quality of American life today has left people yearning for
balance in their lives and in their society. They feel that an essential
side of life centred on family, friends and community has been pushed aside
by the dominant ethic of 'more, more, more', and they are looking for ways
to restore some equilibrium."
It comes as no surprise, then, that the "ecological footprint" of each North
American - a measure of their consumption pressure on the Earth's
resources - is about twice that of Western Europeans and more than six times
that of people in low-income countries, according to the World Wide Fund for
Nature. If ever there was a nation that does not need to consume more, for
its own sake and for the sake of the rest of the world, it is the US -
except, of course, in terms of the modern global economic system.
We have heard a good deal recently about the heroic role of the American
consumer in propping up the global economy, and concerns that the terrorist
attacks will undermine consumer confidence and tip the American and global
economies into recession. Despite the social and environmental costs,
American leaders have told the world the American lifestyle is not open to
negotiation - apparently not even with their own citizens.
At this level of analysis, then, we can find at least some common ground
between the American people and those who "hate" America. President George
Bush has said that Americans are reassessing their priorities in life in the
wake of the attacks. If September 11 proves to be a tipping point in the
American way of life in this sense, then it will indeed be one good to come
of the tragedy, as Bush remarked.
As we begin to plan the peace after the war, America - and the rest of the
West - will have to think hard about these fundamental issues of lifestyles
and values if that peace is to endure.
Richard Eckersley is a fellow researching progress and wellbeing at the
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian
National University.
I read this article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Hope that America gets some great political leaders with good morals.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0112/03/opinion/opinion3.html
Middle Americans yearn for a spiritual sea change
Those who love the United States and those who hate it have some points of
agreement, writes Richard Eckersley.
With the war on terrorism in Afghanistan close to a victorious end and the
growing speculation about what happens next, it seems a good time to raise a
fundamental issue that so far appears to have been overlooked: at one level,
Americans and those who stand against them in the war may agree.
Commentators on the terrorist attacks on the United States fall into two
broad camps. In one are those who say that the US's persistent, often
self-interested, meddling in the affairs of other nations and the gross
global inequalities in wealth make the attacks explicable (although not
justifiable). The American people may be "innocent" victims of the attacks,
but the American nation is not.
In the other camp are those who say the terrorists (and many in the first
camp) are driven by a hatred of America (and modernity generally) and all it
stands for: its lifestyle, its values - and its success. Jonathan Rauch,
writing in Atlantic Online, says the terrorists, like radical
environmentalists and anti-globalists, are driven by a horror of the open
society, with its "uncontrolled political and social change", "spontaneous
creativity", "freedom from the tyrannies of overlords" and "freedom to build
and inhabit a fluid, creative culture".
There is another perspective, which in some sense straddles these two
viewpoints. It concerns the evidence that Americans have deep concerns about
their society and lifestyle.
One exit poll conducted at the latest American presidential election found
that a majority of voters said the most important issue influencing their
vote was not jobs, education or taxes, but moral and ethical values.
In a wide-ranging 1999 survey of Americans' views on the past and next
century, the Pew Research Centre found that despite a prevailing mood of
economic and technological triumphalism, Americans expressed misgivings
about the moral climate, "with people from all walks of life looking
sceptically on the ways in which the country has changed both culturally and
spiritually". Only a minority (44 per cent) said life in America had become
better since the '50s.
A 1999 Gallup poll found that 49 per cent of Americans believed there was a
moral crisis in the US, while another 41 per cent believed there were major
moral problems. Only 23 per cent admitted to being optimistic about future
moral and ethical standards in the US, while 43 per cent were pessimistic.
These results support those of another survey, conducted in 1998 by The
Washington Post, Harvard University and the Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation. The survey found that 76 per cent of Americans thought the
country was "pretty seriously off on the wrong track" when it came to values
and moral beliefs. More than half (55 per cent) believed "people and groups
that hold values similar to yours" were losing influence in American life in
general.
While the moral qualms appear to have existed for some time, they may have
intensified and clearly reflect the characteristics of the modern American
way of life.
A 1995 study, Yearning for Balance, conducted for the Merk Family Fund, says
Americans share a deep and abiding concern about the core values driving
their society. They believe that materialism, greed and excess characterise
the way they live and underlie many of their worst social ills.
The report notes that focus group participants agreed firmly that there was
a tension between their own priorities and those of society. "The frenzied,
excessive quality of American life today has left people yearning for
balance in their lives and in their society. They feel that an essential
side of life centred on family, friends and community has been pushed aside
by the dominant ethic of 'more, more, more', and they are looking for ways
to restore some equilibrium."
It comes as no surprise, then, that the "ecological footprint" of each North
American - a measure of their consumption pressure on the Earth's
resources - is about twice that of Western Europeans and more than six times
that of people in low-income countries, according to the World Wide Fund for
Nature. If ever there was a nation that does not need to consume more, for
its own sake and for the sake of the rest of the world, it is the US -
except, of course, in terms of the modern global economic system.
We have heard a good deal recently about the heroic role of the American
consumer in propping up the global economy, and concerns that the terrorist
attacks will undermine consumer confidence and tip the American and global
economies into recession. Despite the social and environmental costs,
American leaders have told the world the American lifestyle is not open to
negotiation - apparently not even with their own citizens.
At this level of analysis, then, we can find at least some common ground
between the American people and those who "hate" America. President George
Bush has said that Americans are reassessing their priorities in life in the
wake of the attacks. If September 11 proves to be a tipping point in the
American way of life in this sense, then it will indeed be one good to come
of the tragedy, as Bush remarked.
As we begin to plan the peace after the war, America - and the rest of the
West - will have to think hard about these fundamental issues of lifestyles
and values if that peace is to endure.
Richard Eckersley is a fellow researching progress and wellbeing at the
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian
National University.
