I have grown up in America all my life and it is pretty much all I know. Yes, I have travel outside of the United States but never long enough to really wrap my head around other cultures or experience things other then touristy things. I've been to Europe, Mexico and Spain and although they are amazing places I could tell they were very different from America. I personally love where I live/grew up and most of the values I believe in Althen brought up in his article. The values I that are more prevalent in my life and I believe in the most are equality, achievement, time, hard work and directness.
Equality and hard work are the two main values that I care/believe in the most. Although the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal" this is not true in today's society. Racism, sexism and classism are all still very prevalent in many people's daily lives. "Although they sometimes violate the ideal in their daily lives, particularly in matters of interracial relationships and sometimes relationships among people from different social classes..." (pg. 10) Althen states that although the U.S. thinks they represent equality they in fact don't. America tries to be a country that supports equality but they do not try hard enough because inequality is a huge issue today. As well as equality I also really value hard work, I believe that if someone works their hardest for something they should be rewarded. Althen claims that people judge each other by their types of jobs and types of lifestyles. To earn a high status job or high status lifestyle you will have to work hard for it. Although some people are given this lifestyle most people have to work their tail ends off to be successful. Equality and hard work are things I value very highly and Althen seems to agree with this.
One thing Americans tend to take very seriously is their privacy. I mainly started to notice this when I went to Europe and saw that they aren't very private people. I think privacy is key but only to a certain extent. For example, everyone needs their alone time and somethings you have to keep to yourself but in America we have a lot of privacy. I personally love to be around people and I'm always hanging out with family or friends so privacy is not as big of a belief for me. I do understand though why some people can't live without it.
Althen mentions many values/beliefs that Americans hold and I agree with most of them but that is because I have lived here my whole life. If you were to show these values to a foreigner they will probably not agree with some of them because they were raised in a different culture and society. Every person, country, religion etc. has their own values and beliefs so, everyones life will be different in some way. Although I am from the U.S. I don't necessarily hold all of these values and that's what makes me and everyone else unique individuals.
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