The Wall Street Journal and the nonprofit organization NORC conducted a survey they’ve been doing periodically since the 1990s, on changing American values. The WSJ‘s own article on this featured a very scary-looking chart, showing a dramatic falloff in the number of people willing to rate patriotism, religion, and having children as “very important to them.”
God, family, and country — all falling off together. Well, I would take note of that, given the themes of my work. The chart inspired a spirited discussion among my colleagues. A look into the cross-tabs however, showed that much of the falloff was from “very important” to “somewhat important.” Maybe things aren’t so dramatic as we make them out to be.
And now I see the redoubtable and recently married Abe Greenwald comments on it. He sees the overall results as encouraging:
When asked to rate these values, respondents could choose from “very important,” “somewhat important,” “not that important,” or “not important at all.” If you tally the “very important” and “somewhat important” percentages and compare them to the combined “not that important” and “not important at all” ones, it’s a clear win for tradition and conservative values. On patriotism, it’s 73 percent to 27 percent; on religion, 60 percent to 40 percent; on having children, 65 percent to 33 percent. And on marriage, 70 percent to 28 percent.
That’s a majority of patriotic, religious, family-oriented people. Or at least that’s how they want to represent themselves, which isn’t nothing. Social acceptability can be an important factor in internalizing certain standards.
Is the country less traditional than it was? Clearly. Only a fool expects views and mores to freeze in place. And in a nation founded on individual liberty, resisting the pull of unbridled self-interest is an unending challenge. But there is hope so long as American ideals remain extant in some recognizable form.
I’m less sure. I’m reminded of how I felt looking at the exit polls from Proposition 8 in California in 2010. If marriage is an enduring institution — one of the eternal verities — then its hanging on by the tiniest majority isn’t exactly a comfort.
What if the virtues and societal benefits tied to the practice of religion, patriotism, and family formation accrue only when people consider their value very important?
Think about it this way. Would you feel comfortable buying a house and moving your family into it if a building inspector said, “Yes, there’s evidence of rot. But the foundation still somewhat supports the house. It hasn’t fallen in on everyone’s heads yet, I can say that for sure.”