Americans today are divided over two different views of humanity. One group insists that the family, headed by a man and a woman, is the primary unit in society, the family's freedom from state coercion is a primary imperative, and heterosexual love is a sacred experience. The meaning network for this group links human specialness, heterosexuality, Christianity, family, and patriarchy in a coherent and meaningful structure. The second group sees the individual as the primary unit, personal achievement as salvation, sex as a natural, not a sacred, experience, and rationality based on science as the basis for decisions. The meaning network for this group combines the individual, rationality, achievement, sexual pleasure, egalitarianism, and science.
Jerome Kagan, An Argument for Mind, 160
tags: Culture Culture ×