A thought about American intangible cultural heritage

UNESCO has a program celebrating intangible cultural heritage. That got me to thinking about my heritage as an American. There are two aspects of the history of the United States that seem to me most worthy of preservation and celebration.

The United States has two centuries of progress in civil rights. The nation started with a government of rich white men, by rich white men, for rich white men; it is now much more a government of the people, by the people and for the people. By the middle of the 20th century Eleanor Roosevelt could lead the United Nations to a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States has not signed all of the Conventions that implement that Declaration. Nevertheless, while some Americans have fought to preserve bigotry and prejudice, increasing numbers of Americans have stood for equality of opportunity for all and respect for all. The U.S. Constitution was written seeking "a more perfect union" and I would honor and foster for the future that cultural heritage that strives for a more perfect society in the recognition and protection of human rights.

The United States, with a small portion of the world population, has produced innovations including the telegraph, the electrical grid and electrical lighting, transistors and chips, computers, and the Internet. It pioneered in the American System of Manufacturing and the assembly line. Indeed, Amazon, eBay and Facebook are recent American innovations. American culture has fostered invention and, perhaps more importantly, the scale up of the use of inventions to benefit huge numbers of people. I would also honor and preserve that cultural heritage that strives for practical approaches to improve the everyday lives of people.

Of course, it is not clear how these cultural traits can be preserved and built upon. Not is it likely that UNESCO will recognize such intangibles as worthy of note, nor would UNESCO recognition help in their preservation. Still, it seems obvious to me that these are more worthy of our concern and attention than a style of food preparation or music.