On CSPAN2 now - America's Values Crisis - I found it facinating...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

is this crisis of values real?

Has America lost its traditional values? Many politicians and religious leaders believe so, as do the majority of Americans, based on public opinion polls taken over the past several years. But is this crisis of values real?
This book explores the moral terrain of America today, analyzing the widely held perception that the nation is in moral decline. It looks at the question from a variety of angles, examining traditional values, secular values, religious values, family values, economic values, and others. Using unique data from the World Values Surveys, the largest systematic attempt ever made to document attitudes, values, and beliefs around the world, this book systematically evaluates the perceived crisis of values by comparing America's values with those of over 60 other nations.
The results are surprising. The evidence shows overwhelmingly that America has not lost its traditional values, that the nation compares favorably with most other societies, and that the culture war is largely a myth.
The gap between reality and perception does not represent mass ignorance of the facts or an overblown moral panic, Baker contends. Rather, the widespread perception of a crisis of values is a real and legitimate interpretation of life in a society that is in the middle of a fundamental transformation and that contains growing cultural contradictions. Instead of posing a problem, the author argues, this crisis rhetoric serves the valuable social function of reminding us of what it means to be American. As such, it preserves the ideological foundation of the nation.
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/library/main_2.html

My Notes –

I found it very interesting…

Research shows we are not losing our values, we test the same now as we did 20-30 years ago.

Our values are a strange combination of Traditional and Self-expressive. This makes us the oddballs of the world. We are slowly becoming odder, moving more to self-expressive.


Link to World Values Survey site - http://www.worldvaluessurvey.com /

Why are we so different? – in other countries, people are born into their countries values, in America, we are people who gathered together because of our shared values.

The conflict created within our society – this internal clash between strong traditional and strong self-expressive values creates a conflict within us and results in Cognitive Dissidence. As we move more towards Self-expression, the more extreme a crisis we envision. This is why the extreme right is becoming more extreme, they are reacting to the paradox, it makes them uncomfortable.

Traditional Values does not equal Conservative Values

Rabid Right latched on to his book, but only for the traditionalist parts – he says, “hold up. You need to read this book with one eye open. The left eye”

Embrace the Paradox

Q & A

Politics is estranged from the electorate – dangerous and it worries him.
“Our citizens are already there, & we are waiting for our leaders to join us”

Why did Kerry lose and Bush win? Kerry promoted the Self-expression angle, Bush promoted the Traditional. Traditional trumped Self-expression (in this attitude of fear and uncertainty) . Media was a large part of this, emphasizing the black/white view of things.

Abortion – when you ask the question : Is abortion murder – 50% say yes, 50% say no. divided along dem/rebub lines, pretty much.
But when you divide the question into sub questions – i.e.…Is Abortion acceptable when the pregnancy is a result of rape, is it acceptable when mother’s life is in danger, is it acceptable when child will be born severely deformed, or when it will create great hardship for family, Is Abortion a matter of personal choice? 80% of Americans answer yes. It’s how you frame the question, and media and politics knows this, uses it.

Seeing a trend towards Post Materialist values, we are becoming more concerned with quality of life than materialistic goals.

Voter numbers are so low because (darn – missed that part) but as we move towards more Self-expression, more people will vote. He sees the numbers rising greatly in next several elections.

Israel is pretty far from us on values map.

What do we do? (as activates, citizens) Find the common ground in our conversations, bridge the divide in our personal contacts with others – we think alike more than we know.

From Greater Democracy website…
http://www.greaterdemocracy.org/archives/000330.html

Wayne Baker, author of the new book America's Crisis of Values, is quoted in a Detroit Free Press article as saying: "I believe that this culture war is a myth in this country... We think we're divided -- and we're really not."It's a question I've been pondering: If the United States is united, if Americans share the same core values of freedom, equality, justice, community, etc., why do we sense that we are deeply divided? Is it possible that the divisions we sense are not the ones we think? Is it possible that we are divided not by our values nor by our religious beliefs nor by our politics? Is it possible that the divisions we see (i.e., pro-choice vs. anti-abortion, fundamentalist vs. mainstream, science vs. religion, conservative vs. progressive, red state vs. blue state) are less divisions than they are symptoms of change?

More at link.

[mzmolly]

1. Great job on this thread! Recommended. Thanks for the research.

You should broadcast this far and wide. AAR might like to to a spot?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. Wow! it got no reaction buried in the...

Book TV thread.

Thanks!

[graywarrior]

2. Brilliant.

Just recommended this.

[Helga Scow Stern]

4. Makes a lot of sense. It's all about how you ask the questions.

We have so much more in common that Rove et al would have us know. The great dividers. Divide and conquer. They won't get away with it forever.

[Cleita]

5. Traditional values are those that belong to certain groups of

people who follow their traditions. To impose your traditions on another group of people who have different traditions is pretty heinous to me. This is the beginning of bigotry, racism and a divided nation.

We need laws that everyone agrees on, like all people believe that murder is a transgression that we all agree on and there should be laws making it illegal and that define a punishment for it.

Most people believe in property rights and no one should help themselves to another's property without the other person's agreement to this. Stealing is frowned upon all over the world.

Everyone agrees that they must care for their children and not deliberately harm them.

There are many other universal principles here that can work in bringing cultures and traditional values together so that we can have a well ordered society.

On the other hand, we have no right to force people of different traditions to practice our religion, celebrate hour holidays, or in other ways impose our traditions and culture on them with the idea of replacing their's.

When I hear guys like Jerry Falwell prattle on about traditional family values, I fear his version of it. If his congregation and followers want to emulate what he says, so be it, but keep him out of my bedroom and my private life. We need laws keeping people like him where they belong.

[libodem]

6. thanks for the heads-up.

caught the very last of it. This subject has interested me very much for some time. My ears perked up yesterday, when I heard, Tony Snow, mention on his nasty hateful rw radio dictation that the Dem's are against or attacking marriage and conservative social values. That gave me some pause. I thought my social values are straight, moral and ethical. I'm honost, don't lie, don't steal, don't kill, don't envy, don't covet, don't do any taboo sexual practices, honor my parents, love others as I love myself...sometimes more so...do unto others as I would have done, care about marriage, children, family, community, government, making a difference. I'm sick of being lied about.

[suziedemocrat]

7. I consider myself a very moral, non-church going Democrat!

I'm tired of Republican painting liberals as being so amoral.

I just think morality should be defined by each and every person for their own circumstances. What would be a moral choice for me might not be the most moral choice for you. And we can both be right. (maybe i feel this way because I believe in reincarnation and I think each of us are here to learn different things.)

But even if you have the most absolutely rigid morals in the land - I think that is even MORE of a reason to vote Democratic.

If you think abortion is murder - abortions went down under Clinton and are going up under Bush.

Crime, and I'm pretty sure drug use, were down under Clinton and are up under Bush.

Even if you think gay sex is wrong - isn't being in a committed relationship and being open and honest about your life better than pretending to be straignt, marrying someone from a different gender (and possibly not letting them ever know the "real" you), and having secret affairs or one night stands?

It's almost as if the Right doesn't really want the behavior they condemn to stop or decrease - they just want to condemn people. It feeds into their obsession about who is going to heaven and hell.

I think arguing about what is "right" or "wrong" is a waste of time, and belongs in a church and not the political arena. If we want these people to see the light - perhaps we should say - OK - even if "X" is wrong - isn't the Democratic way better. It almost always is.

[housewolf]

8. I caught this on booktv last week

and very much enjoyed the presesntation. It's a new way of looking at the world and gave me lots to think about.

Thanks for a great post - you did an excellent job of presenting the information to DU'ers.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. we are in the midst of growing cultural contradictions

The gap between reality and perception does not represent mass ignorance of the facts or an overblown moral panic, Baker contends. Rather, the widespread perception of a crisis of values is a real and legitimate interpretation of life in a society that is in the middle of a fundamental transformation and that contains growing cultural contradictions. Instead of posing a problem, the author argues, this crisis rhetoric serves the valuable social function of reminding us of what it means to be American. As such, it preserves the ideological foundation of the nation.