This has worked well when Americans believed they had a clear future, such as settling the continent in the 19th century or taking a major role in world leadership in the 20th century. It works less well when the future is unclear, as it is at the moment. The values of individualism and democracy are shared more fully among its citizens than any other country in history. Most Americans are proud of our country's history as they understand it, of its values and of the way it has used its power to support those goals in the world. They view the current spread of American music, fashions and television throughout the world as confirmation that what is often called the American way of life is suitable for everyone, everywhere.
Students usually think so, but their parents disagree.
As a teacher, I was aware that if students viewed me as parental on this issue, my audience was lost. A much better tactic, I found, was to join with the students to deconstruct the television program or advertising billboard to discover the values it conveyed. Gender roles were one obvious place to start. In the second part of this exercise, I asked the students to teach me, the foreigner, how the advertising values compared with their own cultural values. Only then can we move on to a discussion of the values themselves.