His countryman, the political scientist Christian Welzel, explores rigorously the human quest for freedoms and historical changes in values in his 2013 book “Freedom Rising: Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation.”
Welzel argues that, as a society progresses, citizens become less concerned with physical needs and shift their values toward what he calls “emancipatory values.” He defines emancipation as the universal human desire for an existence free from domination. That is, freedom becomes more important to us than security. We give more importance to diversity than to uniformity. Creativity wins over discipline. And we much value autonomy over authority, and individuality over conformity.
Some scholars suggest that Brecht’s prioritizing of values is analogous to Abraham Maslow’s well-known hierarchy of needs where physiological needs, such as food and security, take precedent over others such as social or ego needs. Regardless, these emancipatory values of freedom, diversity, creativity, and autonomy, are the values of free societies. Here I will call them liberty values. They contrast with security, uniformity, discipline, and authority. These are the conformist values that makeup the ethics of Marxist-Leninist societies.
Dr. Welzel’s earlier research focused on East German elites from the perspective of democratic sociology. His work provides valuable insights into the changes in values over time, and across cultures that we observe in South Florida. Particularly the value changes in the waves of Cuban migration over six decades. It is a change in Cuban values that distresses the older exile generation.
