Individualism
Different pond, different fish.
That’s what we can say about values and assumptions for every people in every
culture. Value means principles or standard of behavior[1].
Meanwhile assumptions could be said as things that are accepted as true.[2]
Therefore, values and assumptions belong to a group may be different with
others, including Americans.
One of
dominances values of American is individualism. They have taught to be
individual since they were young. They believe that they should be independent.
They are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies.
They loves individual freedom atmosphere and it has positive and strong
connotation for them. Individualism value, then, also make every American see themselves
as a competitor. At school, for example, they keep this value through games and
contests for children. In American’s life, this value make them maintain their
superiority.
Furthermore,
another important value, as an effect of individualism, for American is
privacy. They think, it is needed for one to be alone. An American have his/her
own boundaries that should not be crossed by others.
On my
opinion, it is right when people are independent. They should not be dictated
by group or others. They should have their own right to choose what to do and
determine his destinies. The value of competitiveness also has positive meaning
when it comes to make someone struggle for getting his goals. Then, about
privacy, of course, sometimes we need to have a time to be alone or private things
that we can share with others.
In other
hands, comparing with our country in which devotes to collectivism, we should
consider that we have another rules from society. We may have individual
freedom but the freedom itself should not broke the values that grow up in our
society.
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