| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| 'Values' Update - Is the U.S. Declining Because Americans Abandoned ‘Bourgeois Values'? |
| 2017-09-10 |
| [New York] It’s rare for an 800-word newspaper column to generate as much controversy as the one published a month ago in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In it, Amy Wax and Larry Alexander, law professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of San Diego, respectively, argued that the collapse of "bourgeois values" ‐ defined by the duo as, among other things, being "neighborly, civic-minded, and charitable," not using bad language, respecting authority, and eschewing "substance abuse and crime" ‐ can go a long way toward explaining what they see as America’s recent socioeconomic difficulties. They believe it accounts for social trends ranging from low male labor-force participation to the opioid crisis. Key to their argument is the idea that some cultures embrace bourgeois values more than others: All cultures are not equal. Or at least they are not equal in preparing people to be productive in an advanced economy. The culture of the Plains Indians was designed for nomadic hunters, but is not suited to a First World, 21st-century environment. Nor are the single-parent, antisocial habits, prevalent among some working-class whites; the anti-"acting white" rap culture of inner-city blacks; the anti-assimilation ideas gaining ground among some Hispanic immigrants. These cultural orientations are not only incompatible with what an advanced free-market economy and a viable democracy require, they are also destructive of a sense of solidarity and reciprocity among Americans. If the bourgeois cultural script ‐ which the upper-middle class still largely observes but now hesitates to preach ‐ cannot be widely reinstated, things are likely to get worse for us all. It’s worth pointing out that this is not a new argument, of course ‐ it’s a mix of, among others, brand-name conservative figures like Richard Nixon and David Brooks and Charles Murray. Conservative critiques of the counterculture ethos, of the reckless individualism of the liberal ideal, have been going on for decades (or longer). Still, the Inquirer column caused an uproar on the Penn campus, and that uproar became a full-blown conflagration when Wax gave a provocative quote to the Daily Pennsylvanian, a Penn student newspaper, for an article about the growing controversy: "Everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans," she said, since those countries embody bourgeois values. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #7 "Bourgeois values" is part of it. Part of the problem imposed by the current american mandarinocracy is that we don't even have the vocabulary to describe the problem. The values that made us strong were Traditional British Protestant values. The Southern Baptist church down the street may not match that value set as well as one might hope, but everyone else, including the current iterations of the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic church, appear to be worse. Sinners in the hands of an angry gaia! |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2017-09-10 12:22 |
| #6 Remember how they raked Dan Quayle over the coals because he dared to suggest that kids need their daddies? |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-09-10 11:10 |
| #5 #2I left the USA for China for the reasons she mentions. Posted by Beau Oh, really? Lulz |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-09-10 08:43 |
| #4 ....rap culture of inner-city blacks; the anti-assimilation ideas gaining ground among some Hispanic immigrants. These cultural orientations are not only incompatible with what an advanced free-market economy and a viable democracy require "Free-market economy and viable democracy".... in other words modern civilization. How enlightening. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-09-10 08:36 |
| #3 "Everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans," Not my ancestors or many others who left or were thrown out of Europe by it indigenous governments. Do not confuse European with American. They may look alike (to you racists) and seem similar in behavior but they're two different creatures sort of like lamas and camels. Go look for the Bill of Rights in their papers. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-09-10 08:30 |
| #2 @#1 I'm not sure if that is 100% true now. I certainly don't want to go to Germany/Sweden. Asia is becoming a good plan B for hard workers that have grown up expecting just rewards for their efforts. I left the USA for China for the reasons she mentions. |
| Posted by: Beau 2017-09-10 07:58 |
| #1 Still, the Inquirer column caused an uproar on the Penn campus, and that uproar became a full-blown conflagration when Wax gave a provocative quote to the Daily Pennsylvanian, a Penn student newspaper, for an article about the growing controversy: "Everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans," she said, since those countries embody bourgeois values. ...Well, there's yer problem right there. You told the truth. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2017-09-10 06:50 |