{"id":2371,"date":"2023-03-29T10:11:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T15:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=2371"},"modified":"2023-03-29T10:11:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T15:11:58","slug":"if-americans-dont-believe-in-god-country-or-hard-work-what-do-they-believe-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=2371","title":{"rendered":"If Americans don\u2019t believe in God, country or hard work, what do they believe in?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A new poll finds that love of money has taken the place of values we once revered<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20370%20247'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load wp-image-2372\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130.png 1024w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130-770x514.png 770w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130-293x195.png 293w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130-120x80.png 120w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130-240x160.png 240w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-130-390x260.png 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Unsplash.com)<br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you want the good news or the bad news first? It\u2019s all pretty bad, but let\u2019s get it over with: the share of Americans who say patriotism and religion are \u201cvery important\u201d to them has fallen sharply, as has the number of Americans who value involvement in their community, hard work and having children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These revelations come courtesy of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/americans-pull-back-from-values-that-once-defined-u-s-wsj-norc-poll-finds-df8534cd\">a new&nbsp;<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>-NORC poll,<\/a>&nbsp;complete with a graph depicting our nation\u2019s nosedive. Some nitty-gritty: in 1998, 70 percent of respondents deemed patriotism to be very important; now, that number is 38 percent. Twenty-five years ago, 62 percent said religion was very important; now only 39 percent do. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Americans don\u2019t believe in God or country, what do they believe in? Money, for one thing. The&nbsp;<em>Journal<\/em>&nbsp;reports that the only priority \u201cthat has grown in importance in the past quarter-century is money, which was cited as very important by 43 percent in the new survey, up from 31 percent in 1998.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A country that values money above creator and caring for one another is doomed, right? Not necessarily, or at least not yet.\u00a0<em>Citizens<\/em>\u00a0who value money more than the values that once defined America are doomed. Perhaps not physically (though both\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.stanford.edu\/2020\/11\/13\/deep-faith-beneficial-health\/#:~:text=Research%20has%20repeatedly%20shown%20that,immune%20functions%20and%20reducing%20loneliness.\">religion<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org\/hometown-health\/speaking-of-health\/3-health-benefits-of-volunteering#:~:text=Research%20has%20found%20that%20volunteering,for%20people%2065%20and%20older.\">volunteer activity<\/a>\u00a0are associated with health benefits), but emotionally and spiritually, they\u2019ll be deeply dissatisfied. America\u2019s core values may be fading, but there\u2019s still an ember of influence left that\u2019s worth fanning, as the things that made this country great still have more power to buoy it than the forces pulling it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My father cites the sexual revolution as the beginning of the end of American society, and as he was around for it and I was not, I tend to agree with him. As traditional morals went out the window,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thespectator.com\/book-and-art\/author-full-tom-wolfe\/\">Tom Wolfe\u2019s<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/news\/features\/45938\/\">\u201cMe Decade\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;was born. A few more self-centered generations followed, and now here we are. Civic engagement is at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/utahtaxpayers.org\/civic-engagement-in-america-at-an-all-time-low-a-known-cure-is-available\/\">an all-time low.<\/a>&nbsp;Only 58 percent of people responding to the&nbsp;<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>&nbsp;poll said \u201ctolerance for others\u201d is very important; four years ago, that number stood at 80 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s my impression that a lot of Americans don\u2019t care about their country or their community because they\u2019ve staked no claim in it. The youngest generations have grown up in homogenized comfort, without much to guide their values beyond public school propaganda and TikTok influencers. Their parents, too, were oftentimes reared without religion, an idea of place or obligation to anything but Me. Without a sense of duty to a value system, or the love of true, good, and beautiful things guiding them, why&nbsp;<em>would<\/em>&nbsp;Americans value religion, feel patriotic, or want to work hard and contribute to their communities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its report on the new polling numbers, the&nbsp;<em>Journal<\/em>&nbsp;interviewed Kevin Williams, a thirty-three-year-old black man from Oregon who volunteers and coaches youth sports, among other things. His theory is that \u201cpatriotism is declining as a civic value in tandem with rising individualism, a sense of entitlement among many people and a decline in community involvement, possibly because of people focusing on their own racial or cultural backgrounds rather than what Americans have in common.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Kevin Williams is why I have hope. As much as woke ideology \u2014 the current poison urging people ever more insistently to exalt themselves \u2014 seems unstoppable at times, seeking satisfaction anywhere but in the timeless good things of life is futile. We see proof of this now, as Americans are the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/americans-are-unhappiest-they-ve-been-50-years-poll-finds-n1231153\">unhappiest they\u2019ve been in fifty years<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 and they\u2019re growing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2019\/03\/22\/americans-are-getting-more-miserable-theres-data-prove-it\/\">even more miserable.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems, though, like most people don\u2019t actually want to fight about race or pronouns; another question on the&nbsp;<em>Journal<\/em>&nbsp;poll found that \u201cOverall, 63 percent of people\u2026 said that companies shouldn\u2019t take public stands on social and political issues.\u201d It stands to reason, then, that it\u2019s only a matter of time before the woke hypnosis wears off and a cultural shift takes hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s up to us, the Kevin Williamses of the world, to hurry the shift along. We must lead by example and help the miserable ones see the light: invite your friends to church, join a club or volunteer organization, proudly display an American flag on your porch, talk to your kids about the Constitution, instill in them a selfless spirit, go out of your way to support events and institutions that celebrate what we have in common rather than what divides and destroys, and bug your friends and family to participate, too. They\u2019ll be glad they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Original Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/americans-losing-faith-god-country-work-values\/\">https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/americans-losing-faith-god-country-work-values\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new poll finds that love of money has taken the place of values we once revered Do you want the good news or the bad news first? It\u2019s all pretty bad, but let\u2019s get it over with: the share of Americans who say patriotism and religion are \u201cvery important\u201d to them has fallen sharply, as has the number of Americans who value involvement in their community, hard work and having children. These revelations come courtesy of&nbsp;a new&nbsp;Wall Street Journal-NORC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2373,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371\/revisions\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}