Walc Values

Before I began my journey as a WALC student, I never truly analyzed or even thought about the values that run our society. I never had given our community and country, as a whole, much thought. I looked past all the bad things happening in the world and was too consumed in my own personal problems. The lessons taught in all of my WALC classes for the past year and a half has taught me to be more observant about my surroundings and the people. Over the course of years, the values of our society has drastically changed in my opinion due to the many forces and systems that had affected it. In this analysis, I will be focusing on consumerism, individualism, and hard work, the three main values that I believe is currently the values that controls
the way the people lives. The three values have resulted into shaping the American life for its people to be the way that it is today. A society in which people are striving for the best for their own self interest. In the American society, people are so focused in the idea of consumerism that many of us have turned to being very materialistic. The growth of technology has helped the value behind consumerism. Take a look at an average American middle class family. The house is double the size that they would actually need. They have multiple cars that they do not use. We have not only become materialistic in the sense of buying unnecessary things in our lives, but the people in our society are consumed in the idea of making profit in everything that we do.We’ve been so engrossed in the idea of the “American Life” that many of us have become obsessed with the idea of always getting the new trend. The citizens of America tend to buy many unnecessary things that they do not even need, but is rather a want. This kind of value had been taught to us even way before we were born, introducing us to this kind of world as soon as we left the safety of our mother’s womb. Take small children for example, nowadays I see so many children under the age of 10, owning a bunch of tablets, toys, and phones that are that are not necessary at such a young age. Rather than allowing them to be children, playing outside and associating with others, parents nowadays just tend to give in to their children by allowing them to use technology. The idea of consumerism has become a norm, or a way of life for us that we tend to not even think about the poverty that is going on in other countries. The idea of consumerism is not just a problem in our society, it has become an issue globally, in other countries as well. The people living in Countries that are thriving and not considered as a developing country have become engrossed in the normality of always buying and getting the newest product. The force of advertisements and media has had a big role in emphasizing the value of consumerism to the people.
I have learned that through the media, the value of consumerism has definitely changed our views in life. Commercials captures our attention, makes us feel as if we are not good enough for society if we don’t get the newest trend out, that it has become a social norm in our society. It makes us feel as if we’re not good enough being ourselves. Many of us would rather prioritize our wants rather than our needs because it makes us feel good in a way. I have learned in my economic class that we now live in a society in which our wants has become our needs. The people would like to think that their material objects are just the natural benefits that always result from hard work, a reward. This means that they value and collect more material objects than most people would ever dream of owning. It also means they give higher priority to obtaining, maintaining and protecting their material objects than they do in developing a connection within themselves, the people around them and the world that we live
in. Power is one of the main core values that many Americans live by today. Power is very apparent in all society all over the world, but I think that our country is specifically run by the value of power. Power itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but valuing it over anything else is when it turns bad. Power combined with abuse is when it can turn our society as whole into a society with no respect and no equality. It is still very evident how many people in power abuse their position through authority. For example, we have our current President Donald Trump, who is a clear misogynist, show us how he uses power to get what he wants. Since he is technically the president of the United States, he can use his position to sign and allow many corporations to get away with a lot of things. For example, he clearly uses his power to approve many bills and laws that he thinks will “profit” and make the rich even richer. Power can be seen on a daily basis in our lives. Many people wants to someday have the power and be above everyone else. Hence the reason why everyone wants to work vigorously in hopes of someday making it to the top. Basically, having the authority over others gives you the power of doing whatever you want. For example, we had a lesson about power. The movie Thunderheart, showed a clear example of how power plays a role in our daily lives. The government who were in clear control and power over the minorities showed how there wasn’t much that they could have done. They use their power to hide their corruptions against their own people. The idea of individualism is connected to the other two values in our society.
Everyone is doing their own thing to benefit themselves. I truly think that this kind of value is what will bring our country down. However, the upside of individualism is making our country “great” in the eyes of others. Because everyone is out trying to better themselves and make profit at the end, they are what’s keeping our economy running. Individualism has fuelled invention, the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and all the enterprise that has led to cheap necessities and fairly cheap luxuries - decent clothes, affordable housing, abundant food, and the mobility brought by bicycles, cars, trains and planes. While individualism can be good for our society, too much of it can affect
us.
What individualism promotes is that it is ok to simply do whatever it takes to profit in the end, no matter who gets affected by our actions. I have firsthand seen this in my surroundings. Many of the people I have grown up with have valued the idea of individualism that often times, they would do whatever is necessary so that in the end it’ll benefit them. There are so many people that only cares about their own good that they do not think about what their actions can actually do to others. One example is of CEOs of very well known companies. I am not saying all, but there are many that would rather harm the environment and pay its workers less than they deserve just to make even more profit for themselves and the company. Those that are above, or part of the wealthy group of people have normalized the idea of individualism as a part of their value system.
America is run by power, individualism and consumerism. These three values are what’s keeping the people in our country not connected and rather living for themselves. We are so focused in these values that we forget the true meaning of living and being happy with ourselves and our lives. It’s what’s keeping us from being content. These values keeps us on our toes, competing with everyone on a daily basis to survive. If the people of our society could change some of the things they value, then it would be a better country for us all because we would be more connected as a society.