An artifact of our own self-assessment.

Edouard Lagache (lagache who-is-at violet.berkeley.edu)
Sun, 21 Jan 1996 09:48:09 -0800

Hello everyone,

I just came across the Newsweek article by Robert Samuelson (Jan 8) which
advances the thesis that the American Public has an unduly pessimist view
of the state of our world (actually it is a excerpt from Samuelson's own
new book.)

The thesis seems to revolve around the production of unrealistic
expectations that now aren't being met; however, what I find most curious
is his attempt to argue that things really aren't so bad. Included a
table comparing America at 1945, 1970, and 1995. The actual entries are
less interesting than the categories and the caption: "Progress but not
perfection." The categories are:

Population
Life expectancy
Per capita income
Adults with a high-school diploma
Adults with a college degree.
Households with a telephone(s)
Households with a television(s)
Households with cable TV
Women in the labor force
Annual airline passengers
Poverty rate
Divorce rate (per 1,000 people)
Children born out of wedlock

My questions to the group is: why are these categories appropriate
measures for success or failure of our society? What alternative's could
we come up with? Why where those alternatives not considered?

A related question. Which of those categories would have interpreted as
progress and which would not? Why?

I think this artifact contains lots of pointers to the cultural norms
that we take for granted. Do all cultures think like this? What happens
to these assumptions when we seek to "accommodate" a culture different
from our own?

Edouard

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: Edouard Lagache :
: lagache who-is-at violet.berkeley.edu :
:...................................................................:
: We can not recapture the past any more than we can escape from it :
: Linda Lichter :
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