Civic Duties

Hey There!
Throughout the course of this blog, I have had some posts focused on civic engagement but for this entry, I really wanted to focus on where we get these civic duties from?
This semester, I am taking an Introduction to Contemporary Africa class and often times, we compare American culture with that of some countries in Africa. It has become crystal clear that our customs are completely different from theirs and therefore, our civic engagement vastly differs from theirs as well. In Africa, they have more of a collectivist society so their civic engagement involves helping, not only themselves and their families but also their neighbors. Everyone within society is expected to help others by sharing their crops or watching each other's children free of charge. Here in America, as we all know, society is completely different. But I wonder, where do these differences come from?
From our lectures, I have learned that in Africa their values greatly differ from ours, which might explain why their civic engagement is also different. In Africa, large percentages of the population are amongst the lower class of society. They face extreme poverty and must overcome a daily struggle for food, water and medicine. Since their way of living is different, so are their values and engagement in society. For many Africans, working together to support one another becomes their civic engagement, which is especially reflective of their societal norms and values. They are more concerned with getting their next meal, rather than exercising the right to vote or volunteering with organizations. I think we can safely say the same applies to our customs in America, in regards to our norms being reflective of our civic engagement. Those who are a part of the upper and middle classes tend to donate money to charities or we believe we are being civically engaged by voting for the next President. This greatly reflects the values of our society because we are all about maintaining a class system and often times, we do not take advantage of the opportunity to better our community by becoming involved and helping others.
I'm not exactly sure why this topic crossed my mind but I thought it was interesting. What is your take on where our civic engagement comes from?

Here is a video clip of Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) discussing what civic engagement is and how we can become more civically engaged: