Individualism with limitations

When discussing at the civilizational level, we will need to look for the main characteristics of the civilization of the United States today. Generally, we can describe the civilization of our people by asking what they teach their students to value. This does not work well in the United States now. It claims that its teaching is value-free. Of course, it is not. For its value, it is simply a contribution to making money. It is easy to see contemporary American civilization as centered on the increasing availability of money.

However, there are distinctively American beliefs that have led to major civilizational changes. American civilization may be the world’s most individualistic. This understanding of humanity， constituted directly by the individuals who make it up, still gets commonly communicated. There is also the conviction that, ideally, every individual should have an equal opportunity. That means, among other things, education should be available to all equally. All the other ways in which great opportunities are much greater for some than for others should be checked as much as possible. We can see that this idea of equal opportunity has played a large role in American society in recent decades.

Americans became aware of two systemic limitations. The most obvious was that in the American South, black students were segregated from white students, and these schools for blacks were much less well-funded. This view that blacks do not observe as much support from society as whites was in sharp contradiction to the idea that all individuals should have equal opportunities. And civilizational idea won over the racist one. That individual blacks should have the same opportunities as the individual whites won out in theory and largely ended this form of legally enforced injustice at all levels. Civilizational norms of individualism and equal opportunities for all individuals won.

Issues of gender are universal. All civilizations must find a way of organizing a society that takes account of the existence of both males and females. But even differentiating between their roles, as almost all societies have done, cuts against the idea of equal opportunities for all human individuals. Somewhat surprisingly, the idea won this battle as well. Rules based on gender are no longer acceptable. No schooling can be denied to a female because of her gender. What’s more, the new civilization holds that all are free to operate sexually as they wish. This carries American individualism to a position that is probably unprecedented in human history.

At the same time individual freedom has been dramatically extended, in some regards, we must realize that the capital system has restricted the freedom of the poor quite dramatically. No longer is the restriction so often based on race or gender, but those for large financial resources are able to deny the poor many opportunities available to the rich. This fact is not denied, but proposals to restrict these consequences of the economic system are not tolerated by the system. The cost of calling for redistribution of wealth is high.

Building a community of nations away from rivalry and enmity

Recently, many Americans have realized that thinking of ourselves as self-contained individuals misleads us. People belong to families and communities and are largely what they are because of the communities of which they are a part. There are many Americans who recognize that our extreme individualism is inadequate. This is a much better understanding in China than in the United States.

Many Americans scholars discuss that communities can greatly enrich Americans, describing how communities work for their members and affect their members. What diversities can they handle? How is harmony maintained? Then, can communities live together in a harmonious way, constituting a community of communities?

But I've suggested, as a possible model in America in the 20^th century, a community of communities of communities and nations. And Europe has been successful in becoming a community of European nations. There are moves of other parts of the world to follow Europe; Latin America could become such a community, and so could the nations of Africa and of East Asia. These communities of nations could develop communities with China, India and the United States in the world community. This would be the United Nations living up to its name, by turning its members away from rivalry and enmity into a community of nations.

If we can give us a global community of nations, the best resources now used by the United States to ensure its continual dominance could go to heal the planet instead.

John B. Cobb, Jr., founding president of the Institute for postmodern development of China (IPDC) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The article excerpts from John B. Cobb, Jr.'s speech delivered in the "Decoding Zhonghua" International Conference on Dialogue among Civilizations in Beijing on January 17.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of DeepChina.