INTRODUCTION

Like peoples everywhere, Americans don’t think of themselves as having American values. We simply imagine that the qualities we hold dear are those that matter to all mankind.

In this we are mistaken. American values are uncommon. This becomes quickly clear when an American advisor launches a project in an underdeveloped country. The American, who plans to bring prosperity to the natives, ends up in despair because nothing gets done. He cannot imagine that there are societies where getting things done isn’t top priority. He is baffled to discover people who do not aspire to change their standards of living. He cannot understand individuals who are not eager to change their status in society. He goes home in defeat, thanking God that he is an American.

What he does not understand is that American values could only have been forged in a new country full of opportunity. We are a nation almost entirely of immigrants, steeped in the belief that • anyone with talent can get ahead.

American culture is commonly dated from the first permanent English settlement of 1607; from that point we see our history as a record of progress: from wilderness to jet planes in a few centuries. We conquered the original inhabitants, overthrew the English rulers, cleared the forests, opened the West, built skyscrapers, won the World Wars and extended the comfortable life to the masses. We achieved all this - as we see it - because of dynamic individuals who never stopped seeking a better way.

Equality

More than anything else, our values have been shaped by the fact that this has been a nation in which ambition could be rewarded. That all people should have an equal chance at success remains a sacred belief.

It has been opportunity, rather than democracy, that has given • America its name as the Land of the Free. Were resources scarce and possibilities limited, people would only be free to go nowhere, and equality would have had a very different meaning. Our equality is the equality of opportunity. “Any man’s son may become the equal of any other man’s son,” wrote Fanny Trollope in 1831, “and the consciousness of this is certainly a spur to exertion.”

When the country was founded, the population was small and the resources were vast; those both aggressive and lucky could go far. In 1782, a Frenchman, St. John de Crevecoeur, noted that it was in going from a servant to a master that a man became an American. Actually, many people through the years remained downtrodden, but there have been enough examples of upward mobility to keep the myth of equality alive. Democracy could promise visible fruits. Everybody might not win, but everybody (so goes the myth) was eligible to get out on the racecourse. Family and connections were not required. Effort and brains and imagination were.

Because the country’s natural resources seemed endless, Americans developed an economics of abundance. We do not see our personal wealth as having been gained at the expense of others, as most of the world does. Instead, we think of the rich as creating opportunities and jobs for others. We are very frank about liking rich people and wanting to be rich ourselves.

The American system contributed the sense that everybody played by the same rules. The government’s job was to keep the course equal, to protect the rights of the individual. When people at least believe that they have a chance, it seems worthwhile to try to advance themselves - and when they fail, to try again. If, on the contrary, they feel that only those in favored positions can succeed, they are not inspired to make an effort. (The belief in this fairness was often naive, but it kept people trying.) Despite the fact that it obviously is not so, we like to think that anyone can become President of the United States – regardless of family, wealth, or background.

Future outlook

Americans are profoundly future-oriented. Whereas other societies look to the past for guidance, we cast our nets forward. We have a nearly exclusive respect for the future and what it will bring.

It’s the belief in a brighter future that gives us our optimism. Whereas most peoples see their histories as cycles of good times and bad, we see ours as one of constant improvement. We trust that we have the power to affect the course of events. We do not believe that bad things are God’s will, things to be endured.

Even these days, when not all progress seems positive (nuclear weapons, air pollution, unemployment, loss of world power, etc.), the belief remains that for every problem there is a rational solution. If it’s ourselves we must change, we do so.

The notion that the present can always be improved accounts for Americans being in such a hurry. The contemplative man accepts the world as it is; the active man changes it. It is change that Americans believe in. Consequently, to say that somebody is “very energetic” (no matter in what cause) is one of our highest compliments.