Hi Maggie,
Thanks for the excellent questions, each deserving of a dissertation. Considering that together your questions would cumulatively fill a book, please allow me to address them over time.
1. "what is your bullet list of our core American values, or heritage values?" All Americans have a slightly different perspective of our trad…
Thanks for the excellent questions, each deserving of a dissertation. Considering that together your questions would cumulatively fill a book, please allow me to address them over time.
1. "what is your bullet list of our core American values, or heritage values?" All Americans have a slightly different perspective of our traditional values. Still, most of us have a long list of "shared layers" of our NI/ Narrative Identity that make us a homogenized grouping. Our traditional values, though varying in precise language revolve around the language of our founding documents, most especially, our "Declaration of Independence." For example, "life, liberty and pursuit of justice." Variations of all of these. While that over time, our national identity has slowly evolved and become more nuanced, the core values are what can trigger our narrative identities most easily. As an example, pursuit of life and defined within the phrase, "inalienable rights" could mean defending freedom fighters around the world to the relatively extreme, denying abortion regardless of rape or incest. Most importantly, we must not allow politicians to reframe our core values into something they aren't. Here in TX, being patriotic doesn't match our core values. The party in power says that guns, Christianity and the subjugation of minorities is part of the party platform. This includes religion in schools which is in direct conflict with our constitution.
This all may be a bit ambiguous but at the end of the day, we all see life a little different than anyone else, due to countless factors attached to our own unique identity. The short answer is that I'd look at our Declaration of Independence for core American values.
Great questions and thank you. I will get to the others as soon as time allows.
Thank you for the great reply, Paul. I particularly like your emphasis on the Constitution as a key text/foundational American discourse. Using our Constitution as a tool, we can identify a number of political values - separation of church and state, checks and balances on political power, political accountability, limitations on the power of the state, and a strong emphasis on traditional liberal human rights, including equality of citizens (clearly still a work in progress!), and respect for human dignity. If we add in the Declaration of Independence as a key text/foundational discourse, we can identify these recurring themes there as well.
Heather Cox Richardson quoted Joe Biden in her November 2 newsletter, Biden emphasising key values of decency, dignity, liberty, opportunity, justice, and above all, democracy and respect for the democratic process. Again, all traditional 'liberal' (in the longview historical meaning of the term) values. In the historical understanding of liberalism as a political philosophy, there is clearly no conflict with traditional 'conservative' values...I'd say these values are where our political spectrum Venn diagrams have overlapped in the past, and do indeed form the political foundation of our national narratives and American narrative identity. Thank you for helping me think more and better on the concept of American values.
You're quite welcome Maggie. I'm happy that you found the comments thought-provoking.
Our common national values are as you noted, "not in conflict with opposing political belief systems." They are also the key, if narrated properly, to our national resilience against adversarial influence.
Thank you. Today's favorite quote: "Our common national values....are the key, if properly narrated, to our national resilience against adversarial influence."
Thank you, kindly Maggie, and yes, this quote regarding resilience is a concept, that we at Narrative Strategies are trying to get across to US and Allied national security communities. Without a sustained and properly formed, campaign of narration, it will be nearly impossible to obtain a resilient citizenry.
Hi Maggie,
Thanks for the excellent questions, each deserving of a dissertation. Considering that together your questions would cumulatively fill a book, please allow me to address them over time.
1. "what is your bullet list of our core American values, or heritage values?" All Americans have a slightly different perspective of our traditional values. Still, most of us have a long list of "shared layers" of our NI/ Narrative Identity that make us a homogenized grouping. Our traditional values, though varying in precise language revolve around the language of our founding documents, most especially, our "Declaration of Independence." For example, "life, liberty and pursuit of justice." Variations of all of these. While that over time, our national identity has slowly evolved and become more nuanced, the core values are what can trigger our narrative identities most easily. As an example, pursuit of life and defined within the phrase, "inalienable rights" could mean defending freedom fighters around the world to the relatively extreme, denying abortion regardless of rape or incest. Most importantly, we must not allow politicians to reframe our core values into something they aren't. Here in TX, being patriotic doesn't match our core values. The party in power says that guns, Christianity and the subjugation of minorities is part of the party platform. This includes religion in schools which is in direct conflict with our constitution.
This all may be a bit ambiguous but at the end of the day, we all see life a little different than anyone else, due to countless factors attached to our own unique identity. The short answer is that I'd look at our Declaration of Independence for core American values.
Great questions and thank you. I will get to the others as soon as time allows.
Kind regards
Thank you for the great reply, Paul. I particularly like your emphasis on the Constitution as a key text/foundational American discourse. Using our Constitution as a tool, we can identify a number of political values - separation of church and state, checks and balances on political power, political accountability, limitations on the power of the state, and a strong emphasis on traditional liberal human rights, including equality of citizens (clearly still a work in progress!), and respect for human dignity. If we add in the Declaration of Independence as a key text/foundational discourse, we can identify these recurring themes there as well.
Heather Cox Richardson quoted Joe Biden in her November 2 newsletter, Biden emphasising key values of decency, dignity, liberty, opportunity, justice, and above all, democracy and respect for the democratic process. Again, all traditional 'liberal' (in the longview historical meaning of the term) values. In the historical understanding of liberalism as a political philosophy, there is clearly no conflict with traditional 'conservative' values...I'd say these values are where our political spectrum Venn diagrams have overlapped in the past, and do indeed form the political foundation of our national narratives and American narrative identity. Thank you for helping me think more and better on the concept of American values.
You're quite welcome Maggie. I'm happy that you found the comments thought-provoking.
Our common national values are as you noted, "not in conflict with opposing political belief systems." They are also the key, if narrated properly, to our national resilience against adversarial influence.
Cheers and I will keep at the questions.
Paul
Thank you. Today's favorite quote: "Our common national values....are the key, if properly narrated, to our national resilience against adversarial influence."
Thank you, kindly Maggie, and yes, this quote regarding resilience is a concept, that we at Narrative Strategies are trying to get across to US and Allied national security communities. Without a sustained and properly formed, campaign of narration, it will be nearly impossible to obtain a resilient citizenry.
Kindest regards,
Paul