Old fashioned American Values: The REAL solution for America's problems?

Has America gone soft?

Did we forget what it was that made this country and its people great? Has our prosperity blinded us to the things that are REALLY important and left us forever reaching for more, more, more?

The rot in values that is causing America’s decline

Science and math. Science and math. President Barack Obama’s new mantra is science and math. If only America’s students focused on science and math, he told us in his State of the Union address, then we’ll be as innovative as China and will no longer have to farm out the building of wondrous handheld gadgets. The gods of science and math will make our economy blossom.

But missing from the president’s new, post-midterm vision for America is any mention of the rot in values that is causing our decline. The reason we don’t excel in education is not because our schools focus on philosophy and the humanities to the exclusion of science and math, but rather because we are becoming a pack of ignoramuses watching inane TV shows, following the lives of mostly decadent celebrities, and engaging in an endless orgy of consumption. Our problem is not that we read too much Nietzsche and too little astrophysics, but rather that our character is becoming corrupt.

The solution for America is not to raise an army of sterile drones, engineered into productive obedience by a government that emphasizes equations. I have no interest in living in China; communist totalitarianism dare not be our model. Rather, our solution is to reembrace the values that made America great: thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, entrepreneurship, a love of adventure, fearlessness, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, and a belief in spreading freedom and democracy.

Yes, Mr. President. We need better schools and more accountable teachers. But more than anything, we need new values undergirding the schools, the parents and the teachers. So long as we have books out like Amy Chua’s Tiger Mom, which says the only thing that matters is getting your kid into Yale and to play violin at Julliard, we are going to have a nation which, even if it remains wealthy and prosperous, will still be selfish, self-absorbed and narcissistic

Without proper values, we will squander whatever wealth we generate. Without proper values, we will produce world-renowned scientists who don’t know how to stay married, and who have no relationship with their children. Without proper values, one generation will make all the money and the next will waste it.

Yes, America is still the wealthiest nation on Earth, thank God, and yes, I like money as much as the next person. But if life is simply about accumulation, and if this great nation embraces the soulless Chinese society as a model, where wealth is not accompanied by a reverence for human dignity and where a family is allowed to make millions but to have more than one child is a forbidden nuisance, then I say their wealth is a curse, a curse which I reject, and proudly proclaim “in God we trust” and “God bless America!”

The Jerusalem Post


Maybe if America embraces its good old fashioned values from the past, we can re-create what made this country great and pull America out of the slump our greed and shallowness have gotten us into.

Old values, let's see:

White is right.
Black is 2/3.
Woman are nothing.
The world belongs to American corporations and military.


Not sure I get it to be honest.

reply to post by zroth


I see you've been well indoctrinated by your left-wing educators; Everything from the past is worthless and men were worthless brutes before our generation, right.

The article made it loud and clear what values made America great once upon a time:

thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, entrepreneurship, a love of adventure, fearlessness, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, and a belief in spreading freedom and democracy.

A strong work ethic and holding family as the greatest value instead of always blindly rushing toward the latest, newest thing made America great.

Embracing greed and separation from our fellow man has driven this country into the mess its now in. Continuing down the same path will only insure more of the same in the future.

reply to post by FortAnthem


That is not what I am saying at all. I agree the values of the middle class made this nation strong. My point is that you cannot ignore the expense paid, by those deemed less worthy, to afford those families this lifestyle. A lie is a lie no matter how Rockwell the portrait.

America was a kept woman in the100 - 50 years ago. Keep in mind that this period of greatness was claimed after two world war land grabs and a depression that enslaved the population to debt.

I am a third generation citizen and the reality is I cannot ignore the state of the union then or now if I am going to help my children make it in this world.

There is not left or right in my view; there is only right and wrong.

thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, entrepreneurship, a love of adventure, fearlessness, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, and a belief in spreading freedom and democracy.

God is before anything and Jesus told us to lift the veil. Family is job #1 and that means don't throw the elders in old people homes. The monopoly board is all bought up so there is no pioneering to be done. iAgree that iNdolence by the entrepreneurial iPod/iPhone is destructive and the previous generation fell asleep at the wheel which is why God has been removed from society.

The one I find most interesting is the faith-based ethics item. You cannot claim that was present in a period where we stole land, stole people, killed in the name of freedom, etc; These lies are obvious.

America was as good as it was bad in those days. Until we admit what we were we cannot become what we must.

Peace

all of america's top scientists, engineers and physicists have devoted all their talents and energy for the past 70 years on firearms, tanks, missiles, aircraft carriers, biological weapons and nuclear weapons, leaving the rejects of the military industrial complex to work on vaccines, cures, non weaponized computer systems and energy projects.

all that means is that america is 70 years behind the rest of the world in every faucet of science, medicine and math that doesn't involve warfare, including economics.

I have to agree with the poster who put up the real truth of Am's past...

We where sexist, racist and inefficent...

Ill pass on the intolerance and stupidity.. but ill keep the Patton's and mark twain



I am not going to just look back and claim that a default in our values is what has caused this country's woe's... I am not that stupid nor do I accept that as an answer...



We learn from our past and keep those lessons and move forward...

The truth of the matter that not a one of anyone wants to say is this...

This countries problems come from its power brokers making deals...

pure and simple... it is not the 'decay of morals', for what some may see as wrong other may see as ok...

example, look at threads with cops as a subject... its ok to just stop and search the motorized carriage because they look suspicous... moral decay... who sets the morals?

the problem is an engineering problem not a moral one... The power brokers are the issue... power to the people should still ring true instead of the meep it does today...


How are the power brokers part of the problem...

LACK OF LEADERSHIP... go to dc and throw a stone from anywhere you want... I bet you want hit a leader... they are extinct... the species is dead....

reply to post by zroth


I think a lot of the problems the country has today are the result of those who RUN the country rejecting the values of the people they were elected to represent. They not only rejected those values, they have worked for generations to destroy those values in the American people.

If our leaders had run the government according to those old fashioned values, we could have avoided many of the problems our political leaders have gotten us into. Frugality would have prevented the massive over spending and respect for our fellow man would have prevented our wars of oppression throughout the world.


Old fashioned American values aren't what made this country hated throughout the world. It was the political leaders who ignored and fought against those values who destroyed the country and alienated us to the rest of the world.

Proud to be the first to flag this thread.

Those who refuse to acknowledge the effects of declining values on our country, are definitely part of the problem and not the solution. That article explains it about as plainly as possible.

Wow, just when I thought I'd seen it all, a thread that attempts to minimize the benefits of math and science in exchange for good old American vales. :shk: Certainly I'm not refuting the importance of hard work and values. Heck, I reckon I got more dirt under my fingernails than OP. (And a hole or two in my socks) But to promote the premise that Math and Science is not keenly relevant in the modern era is in a word......absurd..

The Op Ed was nothing more than a veiled guise to attack Obama by a foreign entity no less. Agenda much? And to quote linked article:

Thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, a love of adventure, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, a belief in spreading freedom and democracy – where did that all go?

Ummm. It became obsolete when we advanced past covered wagons.

Originally posted by kinda kurious
Wow, just when I thought I'd seen it all, a thread that attempts to minimize the benefits of math and science in exchange for good old American vales...But to promote the premise that Math and Science is not keenly relevant in the modern era is in a word......absurd..

I don't believe anyone is "attempting to minimize the benefits of math and science". The article merely pointed out that values are being ignored, in favor of "math and science". And, it positively did not "promote" the notion that the sciences are irrelevant.

I see it as promoting a balance, to include a return to a values based society. What good does it do to promote math and science, if the students don't possess the work ethic to excel? What good is it to do so, while at the same time telling the students "It's ok that you didn't pass that test. We're going to give you a B, just because you attended class!" ?

I'll tell you what good it is. We're going to have a bunch of surgeons who don't know their appendix from their anus.

It became obsolete when we advanced past covered wagons

Obsolete, indeed. And that is the point of the article.

reply to post by FortAnthem


I do not understand this article. What on earth does the heterosexual religious family have to do with our jobs being shifted to factories in China? What does religion have to do with China's economic growth? The Chinese government is athiest in nature so what? We need more religion to compete with them? huh? Seems to me that private businesses are looking out for their best interests. I do not see where religion or family "values" or "morals" have to do with this? Seems like just another political distraction in my view, the basis of this OP. Nothing towards a solution for the economic state our country is in now. We hear the same "family values" and in religious rants from many politicians and even our previous president, and what has that done for us again? Ah yes, keep the gays out the military and out of marriage. Yep. Real productive to the economy.

The people who tout those values are the ones who never practice what they preach.Yeah,the politicians who yammer about family values in reality are looking to take every last bit of our money.

I think we are fooling ourselves thinking are problems are singular in nature. We are wrought with problems that streak throughout much of society, we eat garbage, we are entertained by garbage, we are more apt to seek distraction and often pursue meaningless endeavors. The entire human race is having to adapt to some very quick changes brought about by technology. Our relationships suffer and I think the core nature of our lives are effected by our new social interaction.

The problem with values is that everyone has a different compass... There lacks the delivery system, I have met
Wonderful pious people, horrible ones too, accepting atheists and intolerant ones too.In the end I think the individual makes the quality all their own.


John Wayne missed Davie Crocket, our culture is blurring, change is burning on

Hopefully we will figure it out one day -

Originally posted by WTFover
I don't believe anyone is "attempting to minimize the benefits of math and science". The article merely pointed out that values are being ignored, in favor of "math and science". And, it positively did not "promote" the notion that the sciences are irrelevant......I see it as promoting a balance, to include a return to a values based society.

Hmmmm. You must have missed this part:

The solution for America is not to raise an army of sterile drones, engineered into productive obedience by a government that emphasizes equations. I have no interest in living in China; communist totalitarianism dare not be our model. Rather, our solution is to reembrace the values that made America great: thrift, hard work, close-knit families, a pioneering spirit, entrepreneurship, a love of adventure, fearlessness, a rejection of indolence, faith-based ethics, a God-centric society, and a belief in spreading freedom and democracy.

See that word Rather?

That implies an either / or scenario, no? It didn't say "in addition to" it said "rather" as in "instead of".

That seems fairly obvious to me. Had the article not had such a harsh tone and offer "inclusion" of author's ideas I might have agreed.

But that' s simply my interpretation. The article was merely an attack on Obama under the veiled guise of promoting values / education in America. Suspicious from someone who obviously has an axe to grind.

ETA: By the way, here is the esteemed author on (cough) Dr. Phil.



Apparently, he is and expert on many things.