Halfway through his time in office, Jimmy Carter found himself in a tight spot. It was July 1979, amid the peak of the energy crisis, when the struggling President took to national television to give not an address, but a kind of spiritual lecture.
The activist urged Americans to confront and own up to their personal mistakes, which he saw as exacerbating serious public issues.
We’ve become a society that idolizes self-gratification and material possessions,” said Mr. Carter, whose passing took place just yesterday. “Personal identity is now often measured by what someone has, rather than what they contribute. Unfortunately, we’ve found that accumulating possessions doesn’t fill the void we feel in our search for purpose and fulfillment.
As Mr. Carter pointed out, the risks of a society obsessed with getting bigger and better things seemed clear to him, especially considering his own experiences growing up in rural Georgia and living in public housing as a young adult. He hoped that by appealing to our kinder and more compassionate side, he could encourage people to adopt a more prudent approach to life, which he believed was key to resolving some of America’s biggest problems, including environmental decline, reliance on foreign energy, the influence of special interests, and the rise of extreme politics.
For a brief moment, Americans paid attention. Mr. Carter’s approval ratings surged by 11 points within a short time frame.
Liberal supporters ridiculed Carter’s speech – almost immediately labeling it the “malaise speech” – and harshly criticized him, accusing him of unfairly blaming Americans for the problems they hadn’t caused and saying Presidents were supposed to solve them.
Following the speech, subsequent events – including lingering inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis – eroded the goodwill towards the speaker that the voters initially held. He suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan in the next election, 16 months after the speech, at the onset of a decade characterized by an unprecedented culture of materialism.
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Mr. Carter inaccurately assumed that Americans would strive to look inward and outward and provide a response; however, his address failed to convey that we may actually be hesitant to trade possessions and consumption for a more modest lifestyle or acknowledge that accumulating, purchasing, and utilizing more goods may not necessarily bring us greater happiness.
Let’s think about how our children feel as adults after we’ve mostly finished raising and educating them. The University of California, Los Angeles, conducts annual surveys of first-year college students through the Cooperative Institutional Research Program. The percentage of students who said being “very well off financially” was an extremely important goal to them almost doubled between 1967 and 2019. Meanwhile, the number of students who wanted to develop a “meaningful philosophy of life” decreased by roughly half.
Jean Twenge found that materialism grew over time, peaking among 12th graders in the late 80s and early 90s with people born during Generation X, and has remained at those high levels through the millennial generation.
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In casting shadow over a speech known as the “Crisis of Confidence”, it appears that Jimmy Carter’s own flaws played only a minor part. The troubles affecting the American people’s morale cannot be attributed to any one figure; rather, they reflect a broader shift in the nation’s values and economy. However, Mr. Carter’s remarks proved to be fertile ground for his opponents to seize upon and criticize.
Mr. Reagan used Mr. Carter’s appeal for restraint as a benchmark to gauge the current state of the sitting president. “Are you any better off now than you were four years ago?” Mr. Reagan asked. “Is it simpler and cheaper for you to purchase items at stores than it was four years ago?”
He was vicious in his biography of Mr. Carter, “The Politics of Candor were terrible.
Mr. Carter’s sound advice made him a likely target for anyone inclined to criticize him as being overly preachy or scolding.
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Since then, social media has been characterized, among many negative developments, by people boasting about their lifestyles online and advertising algorithms optimized to deliver remarkably relevant advertisements that can be unsettling. It was also the time a person who had a gold-plated skyscraper named after themselves became our president.
There has been a significant call to action for shared financial hardship over the past few decades, which is unprecedented when you compare it to other types of national sacrifices. Unfortunately, in the times when such a test has arisen, we haven’t exactly shown a sterling performance.
Many Americans felt strongly about remaining at home and wearing face masks during the initial, confusing phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, citing concerns about losing their personal freedoms amidst vocal protests.
“Connecting rights with consumer behaviors is a pervasive issue,” stated Dr. Hulme, whose academic work explores both of these subjects. “This notion annoys me greatly,” she further emphasized.
Mr. Kasser viewed the emergence of these issues with a sense of unease, given his research findings that increased materialism is linked to societal instability. The pandemic had a singular effect of putting a spotlight on simmering social issues: rising economic disparities, brutal instances of racism, escalating party divisions in politics, and widespread distrust in the integrity of the electoral process.
“It barely let up,” he said.
We will be forced to face a severe test once more. This time, it could be in the form of a climate-related disaster, one that stems from the same overconsumption that Mr. Carter cautioned against in his speech. He urged Americans to turn down their thermostats in the winter and to reduce their reliance on non-renewable energy by incorporating solar power as a significant source of electricity. Some envisioning 20 percent of the country’s energy coming from solar power by the year 2000 – a milestone we have yet to reach even today, a great many years later.
“I believe there’s significant uncertainty as to whether we have the collective will power to address an issue that poses a grave threat to the health of our planet.”
It’s unlikely that politicians today would deliver a speech as nuanced as President Carter’s address, as it would run counter to the unwritten rule that American exceptionalism should never be doubted – that our solutions to significant national issues always lie in forceful innovation.
It wasn’t always the case, and Mr. Carter realized that. After losing the public’s confidence as their president, he showed a notably humble side by continuing to make appearances abroad as a diplomat while also leading Bible study groups and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity by building homes.
Being a citizen activist after his presidency could be another illustration of the possibility of bringing about positive change,” Professor Mattson stated, “indicating that a person can leave a lasting impact, even if they aren’t president.
It may not have a big impact on its own, but when combined with other changes, it can be a significant step forward.
When considering this issue, I worry about the secondary impacts it could have,” Dr. Hulme stated. “It ultimately comes down to a shift in cultural attitudes that could influence more people to reassess their personal lifestyle choices.
Perhaps adopting a targeted emphasis on investing in a few aspects that bring the most joy, and subsequently reducing, cutting back on those things that have less significance in our lives?
“I’d like to encourage people to change their lifestyle because it could be more enjoyable for them,” Dr. Hulme stated.
eventually, we will be forced to take action. The longer we delay, the more challenging it will become.
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