Yankee culture has many commendable attributes. Extreme individualism is not one of them.
Individualism was the core of the frontier psyche. The pioneers were, in many ways that, self sufficient and self-sufficient. At the same time, early Americans were additionally terribly conscious of the common good. That consciousness was reinforced by the Civil War, the Great Depression, and WWII. But, in the expansiveness of the late twentieth Century, and especially in the previous few years, individual rights have trumped responsibility to the group. Whereas each society struggles with balancing individual freedom with the common smart, America has lost its balance. Our survival now depends on re-establishing it.
I've got had the wonderful opportunity to travel to 48 countries and to teach in eight of them. A graduate student and I conducted cross cultural research on twenty eight of those countries. We have a tendency to compared the societies on eleven generic social priorities including "Individual Freedom". Social priorities vary widely among countries and our varied analyses failed to perpetually yield the same result. But, there's a world wide perception that "Individual Freedom" is excessively high within the United States.
While folks of other cultures view our individualism as dangerous, we have a tendency to are happy with it. We tend to are happy with it until it severely damages the common smart-like the monetary system upon which we have a tendency to all depend. Then we have a tendency to get angry that government, as the defender of the common sensible, did not forestall such destructive individual greed.
The Wall Street mess could be a logical extension of the unlimited American individualism that we hold therefore dear. CEOs simply pushed the pendulum further off center once they demanded obscene salaries and took wild risks with different people's cash whereas solely considering their individual wealth, power and ego. As a result of of their position, their extreme greed has had a dramatic negative impact on the common good.
CEOs in different cultures act differently. For example in 2005, per the Institute for Policy Studies, the CEO of British Petroleum (BP is the second largest oil company in the planet) created a handsome $5.6 million. The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell (the third largest oil company) made a handsome $4.1 million. The CEO of U.S. based Exxon Mobil (largest oil company) collected $69.seven million and the common salary of Yankee oil companies was $thirty three million. That discrepancy represents an enormous cultural distinction between the US and Europe.
The comparison with Japan is even additional astonishing. Yank CEOs have been earning about 400 times the typical earnings of their workers in recent years. In different words the CEO earns additional every day than the employee earns during a year. Japanese CEOs earn solely eleven times what their workers earn.
No one who has traveled extensively would argue that European and Japanese CEOs are less competent than American CEOs. The distinction lies not in intelligence or training or expertise; it lies within the ethics of their respective cultures-the balance between individual rights and the common good.
The candidates in this election differ relating to the suitable balance between individualism and therefore the common good. One candidate (McCain) acknowledges the necessity to place "Country First" however then usually begins his sentences with "I" to focus on his personal story as a war hero and maverick politician. The other candidate (Obama) talks very little regarding himself while that specialize in "we tend to", our moment in history, and our common future. Then McCain chooses to partner up with Palin from Alaska--America's last frontier of rugged individualism and self reliance. Palin has the strongest orientation toward individualism of any national candidate in my lifetime-stronger even than Barry Goldwater whom I supported in 1964. She can even gut a moose by herself.
None of these candidates condones the excesses that have become commonplace on Wall Street. However, McCain and Palin will not shed their Republican affiliation and its bias toward excessive individualism, e.g. deregulation of the banking system. They are saddled to the identical cultural curse that is inflicting our monetary system to crumble-an excessive amount of "I" and too very little "WE".
Note for publisher: The research referenced within the article was printed in the Journal of Human Values 5:one (1999)
Author Resource:-
Doris Hill has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Cross Cultural, you can also check out his latest website about:
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