There is a new feature on The Middle Class Forum, the Social Values Survey. It is one of the Forums and Feedback items. My eventual plans call for administering this to small social groups throughout the country, as well as with the large “social group” represented by the Internet.
My “beta-testers” to date were twenty people who attended a church service where I gave the lay sermon. They completed the survey before the sermon, so that would not be a source of bias. I don’t want to explain the survey too much for those that would like to take it. The Church group generally prioritized communal values over alternatives that our society also considers important. That was not surprising. Given that the history of this church is Congregational, it is not surprising that one of two unanimous selections was that beliefs are better formed by communities than by interest groups. The other unanimous selection was that we learn better by experience than by schools.
The one choice in which responses were pretty evenly split was between whether “Ends justify the means” or “Means justify the ends.” Twenty responses are not much for drawing conclusions, but it is possibly significant that every Republican chose the former, all Democrats but one chose the latter, and unaffiliates were mixed.
Based on the results of this survey the question about happiness depending on profession or property needs modification. There were many “write-ins” citing God or community as the answer to happiness. Once again, this is not surprising given the context of a Church group, but “happiness” should be changed to “economic happiness.”
Tags: Middle Class Culture
