Sample Chapter
from America At Risk
by Daniel Greenberg
What Are America’s Core Values? Why Are They in Danger of Being Undermined?
Sometimes, the core values of a culture evolve over time, through a gradual accumulation of principles that gain wide acceptance. That is how it was with Greek culture, whose central beliefs were formulated over the course of several centuries, beginning in the time of the famous pre-Socratic philosophers, and culminating in the triumvirate of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Those values dominated the Greek and Roman empires, and have embedded themselves in Europe for over two millennia.
That is how it was with what is generally referred to as “science”, which established its basic structure over the course of some two hundred years, through the work of a panoply of brilliant thinkers working individually and in groups. The best known of these are Galileo and Newton, but it took a great many other prominent philosophers to formulate the foundations of this culture and catapult it into a place of honor within established European culture.
Sometimes, however, the core values of a culture come to be expressed in a brief burst of monumental creativity—in what historically can only be considered “the twinkling of an eye”. That is how it was with monotheism, which received its seminal formulation in the Ten Commandments, a document remarkable for its brevity, said to be delivered all at once in the Sinai desert to a group of wandering tribes fleeing slavery in Egypt. Whatever the actual provenance of that set of beliefs, it seems to have appeared as if out of nowhere, and became the heart of the three great monotheistic religions that have spread to every corner of the globe.
And that, more recently, is how it was with American culture, the essence of which was distilled in the Declaration of Independence, that announced to the world an entirely new basis for the organization of a national entity embracing a widely diverse group of citizens seeking to live in a manner never before conceived.
The core values of American culture were stated thus:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.1
The application of these values to the daily reality of American life has evolved over the past two centuries. The 19th century saw the bloodiest war in all of human history unfold here, which ended the shame of human slavery in America that everyone knew, from the outset, stood in sharp contradiction to the core values of our society. The 20th century saw these values given reality for women and for a variety of ethnic groups, a process that took place due to the relentless efforts of many courageous leaders and “ordinary” citizens, in legislative, judicial, executive, and social arenas. Throughout it all, the core values stood as the symbol guiding all their actions.
During the last generation, there has been a slow and steady move away from these core values. For the most part, this distancing from America’s roots has gone unnoticed, partly because it has taken place inadvertently in many instances, partly because it has flown under the radar. This book is meant to raise the consciousness of this country’s citizenry to something that can, if unchecked, relegate to the dustbin of history the great American experiment launched in 1776.
The final chapter describes the essential step that must be taken to restore the position of our core values to their original place, at the center of America’s unique culture.
