Examples Of America's Cultural Ideals

In America’s cultural ideals, individuals come before anything else; leaving government in second place because “[its] role is to serve the people, as opposed to a system where people are required to serve it” (Patterson, 2015 p.9). For example, in the Declaration of Independence, the unalienable rights are mentioned which are “freedoms that belong to each and every citizen and that cannot lawfully be taken away by government” (Patterson, 2015 p.9). This leads me to America’s key political ideals being liberty, individualism, equality, and self-government. Thomas E. Patterson defines liberty as “the principle that individuals should be free to act and think as they choose” (Patterson, 2015 p.9). For early Americans, political liberty was a natural right that everyone possessed. On the contrary, Europe had a system of absolute government so those who lived there often fled to break free from “religious persecution” and came to America to “look upon religious freedom as part of a broader set of rights, including freedom of speech” (Patterson, 2015 p.9).

Another example can be found in the Preamble to the Constitution which “declares that the U.S government was founded to secure ‘the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.’ ” (Patterson, 2015 p.9). In addition, because of America’s great distance from Europe, early Americans were able to own property if they really wanted due to its vast open territory. These events created a culture of