For me to write about our culture, requires that I leave my comfort zone. The soft sciences were never my strong suit.
Trying to define the American culture, in which most of us grew up, in a few words, is no easy task. To be honest, America has always been a patch quilt of many different cultures. And yet, there does seem to be a few common threads that occur to me: the rule of law, a common ethical and moral bond, and religion/church. At least to this humble observer, those are the pillars upon which the American culture was formed. To me, those three components of our culture are interdependent. The democratic principles laid out in our constitution can not long endure without the rule of law. The rule of law can only hold as long as a common respect for the rule of law and that respect is the product of a common set of ethics and morals. Society, in general, learned their ethics and moral values from their churches and synagogues.
America has changed dramatically since the sixties. We all know the reasons. Today or president and many other elected officials show disdain for the rule of law and, thereby, set the bad example for all of our citizens. Our common bond of ethical and moral behavior is disappearing more and more every day. Our churches are less and less relevent in our lives and to some extent our churches have become part of the problem. Many of them today promote socialism. And, many more are afraid to speak out politically. Maggie, at Maggie’s Notebook, wrote a powerful piece on this subject that I highly recommend.
The America I grew up in after WWII was a much different America than the one today’s children are growing up in. For the last two months, I have been receiving e-mails from GOPUSA. I never opened any of them because I don’t need any pep talks to convince me that we need to change the course this country is on. But, yesterday for some reason I did open one. It was an article written by Star Parker. In her article, she develops an analogy between the financial bubbles that we have seen come and then burst with the bubble of support for Obama that still has not burst. She builds a case that the Obama support bubble is still strong due to the changing demographics in America. She presents some data and statistic to back up her argument and then recomends wht Republicans and conservatives can do to influence these demographic groups and, thereby, help to burst the Obama support bubble. That is not what caught my eye. It is the data and statistic which describe in part what has happened to our culture that I find alarming. For example:
Shouldn’t today’s economic facts on the ground be sufficient to puncture the Obama bubble? One part of the answer to this puzzle is the changing demographics of the country. The United States today is a nation that is much less white, much less married, and less traditional than it once was. Each of these trends reflects a rise in constituencies with values supportive of Obama’s worldview — activist government and/or moral relativism.
Less white, less married, and less traditional. She is right, isn’t she?
What was once the exception to the rule in America — not being white, not being married, not having traditional views on family, sex and abortion — is now becoming the rule. And these constituencies are becoming sufficiently large to elect a president.
Reading those words is like a punch in the solar plexus. But, she is right! And, this is how these changes are affecting politics in America:
National Journal released a poll right before the debate showing Obama and Romney dead even nationwide — 47 percent each — among likely voters. The poll shows Obama’s white support at just 38 percent. Obama was elected in 2008 with 43 percent of the white vote. He could be re-elected with even less. In Gallup’s polling of last week, Obama’s approval among white voters stood at 39 percent. He gets 38 percent approval among those who attend church weekly, compared with 55 percent among those who attend church seldom or never. And his approval among married voters is 40 percent, compared with 57 percent among those not married.
I think the following statistics on marriage in 1960 compared to 2010 is very telling about how drastically our culture has changed.
According to data compiled by the Tax Foundation, the large majority of those now filing tax returns in the U.S. are single. In 1960, 65 percent of all tax filers were married and 35 percent single. In 2010, it’s reversed — 61 percent of filers were single and 39 percent married.
This is not the America I grew up in and I doubt it ever can be again. We may be able to slow the trend through elections; but we as a people are not who we use to be. Over the history of mankind, in spite of the fact that more people have died in the name of religion than nearly any other cause, religion has been fundamental to the ethical and moral glue that has held civilizations together andmaking the rule of law possible. As religion or churches continue to become less relevent in people’s lives, what will be the glue that holds future civilizations together?
Well, now you know what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?
Infidel de Manahatta
October 9, 2012
The death knell for America was when our “elite’ started promoting the philosophy of the “gorgeous mosaic” instead of the “melting pot.” Gorgeous mosaic? That’s Europe. Balkanized. Separate. Hostile to other races, classes and creeds. What made America work was the notion of the melting pot.
As for the rule of law, the neighborhood I live in in NYC is predominantly Hispanic, and as they often say, “Rules are for the white man.”
As for marriage? Why get married now? Support a woman? Feminism as made women demand equality in marriage. Well I’m not going to marry a woman to be an equal. I’m going to marry her to provide for her. That’s what men do. And as for getting married to have access to sex, that’s not necessary anymore either. Not with every women in her 20s hopping aboard every alpha cock she can find.
In short. American culture is gone. Never to be resurrected.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
That smelly stuff always seems to run down hill, doesn’t it? The elite are always on top of the hill.
john galt - America's Chronicle
October 9, 2012
Everything you say is true; “we as a people are not who we use to be.”
It is supportive of what Star Parker says, “the changing demographics of the country . . . . Each of these trends reflects a rise in constituencies with values supportive of Obama’s worldview.”
The new groups forming these new demographics are up for grabs still, even though I agree that at present they form the support of “Obama’s bubble”. One of these groups , and perhaps the most important one, are the Hispanics. Republicans, and conservatives as a whole, have handle them pretty badly in the past; but their cultural values are not foreign or conflictive to Anglo-Saxon values, i.e., church, family, work ethic. If we are to survive we have to change the way we approach these new constituencies.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
“The new groups forming these new demographics are up for grabs still, …”
Do you really believe that, John? Or, have they all ready drank too much of the Kool-Aid?
john galt - America's Chronicle
October 9, 2012
I believe that the most important group – the Hspanics – can still be recovered. They are voting 60-68% Democrat, compared to blacks who vote 95% Democrat. Bush got them down to 58%.
Mexico is doing very well economically and now there is more emmigration than immigration – Mexicans are going back to Mexico in higher numbers and fewer of them are coming in.
If we can get the immigration issue out of the front burner, we can woo the Latins in their core values which can identify with coservatives – family, church, respect of authority (that can eventually be translated into law & Order), and the male’s pride as providers.
Right now, conservatives are being very short-sighted. At the end, do we have any other options?
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
No, we have no other options! Your argument is solid.
bunkerville
October 9, 2012
It is the way most successful societies come to their demise. Whether religious or culturally, once shared values are shared no more, the fight begins. Northern Ireland comes to mind. Not a third world country by any means.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
What makes me angry is that in America’s case, it was deliberate.
Cheryl Pass
October 9, 2012
Jim, I tried to email you, but it came back undeliverable. Can you email me, so I’ll have your address again?
Reason I was emailing you….came across a monetary policy article I thought you would like to see. Link to it here: http://www.fredsauermatrix.com/75-American-Taxpayers–Meet-Your-New-Friends-and-Neighbors-the-Greeks.html
On your article here..two things: 1. The Dumbing Down of our American Schools over decades to promote socialism. 2. Millions of illegal immigrants who have no allegiance to our way of life or our system of government as it was founded.
Those two things, plus I would add outsourcing necessary goods, are the death knell of our culture and our ability to survive. Rome redux. Not at all sure we can come back from the brink…the Marxists have been too successful. Sorry to sound glum on the prospects. (where is that Lithium stash I had? Ha ha…)
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
I agree with you, Cheryl. The “progressives” burnt the bridges behind us.
azleader
October 9, 2012
You made this comment that triggered thoughts:
“The America I grew up in after WWII was a much different America than the one today’s children are growing up in.”
America was very different back then for geo-economic reasons. The rest of the industrialized world was largely destroyed in WWII when the U.S. industrial machine was left untouched.
We were the big dog on the block. That shaped our culture back then through increased wealth. It has taken nearly 70 years but the rest of the world has rebuilt and caught up.
Globalization drives the world economy now more so than the U.S. economic engine. Globalization will shape the culture our children will grow up in.
That was struck home to me this morning reading these fascinating Financial Times articles:
(Please pardon the long URLs)
“IMF cuts global growth forecast”
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&ved=0CCIQqQI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F16771cb2-113b-11e2-a637-00144feabdc0.html&ei=zcpzUOqZMYGFyQGU84HAAw&usg=AFQjCNE7lQ10B6HtMjw1k4dhQXefStqaow&sig2=eQyUhE2hUGT4qEDcWqL-bQ
“The dollar’s days as reserve currency are numbered”
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCUQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F005370e2-1137-11e2-8d5f-00144feabdc0.html&ei=fTd0UPqmLI7yigKy44CQDQ&usg=AFQjCNG6w4VCufZ-Ak_f4ldUYbb6wgW4HA&sig2=Uki21zzQ4cR3MOzEs7KuEA
And this IMF report on the World Economic Outlook that came out today:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/02/index.htm
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
An interesting thought, AZ, that economic policies can affect the culture of a society. I will read those articles when I can. Thank you for the links.
5etester
October 9, 2012
Jim,
Of course you’re dead on. I remember writing a post a few years back about the natural demise of societies and got hammered on it for being a “defeatist”. America was supposed to be different. Yet the melting pot went away with the advent of multiculturalism. It had been primarily spreading its equality tenents within America, but now we have Obama who has taken it global. No “shining city on a hill” is possible with multiculturalist ideologues.
I think we have become so burdened with trying to electing a true conservative who will restore the rule of law under the Constitution (and the best we could do is Romney?) that we aren’t aware that we won’t be able to legislate away this inclusion/diverisy/equality movement.
We can count ourselves fortunate that we lived through the best days of America.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
As I said to Bunkerville, what makes me angry is that our culture was intentionally destroyed by the progressive idiots.
We may not have lived through the best of what America was intended to be; but we have lived the best of what America became, That is for sure!
Silverfiddle
October 9, 2012
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
Saddest of all, government policy has driven us to this point.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
I wonder what Mr. Yeats would pen about the next pending war? Thanks, Kurt for linking that poem. I have saved it.
Pat
October 9, 2012
I read the Star Parker article too. Later I was thinking much along the same lines as you are, but with a different twist. If you combine morals and values, what you have is a philosophy, a governing principle of your life. What liberalism does is that it puts victimhood at the heart of the philosophy. People stop seeing, for example, their job as a contract that they entered into to provide a certain value for a certain wage and that by increasing their value they can earn a higher wage, working their way up to whatever lifestyle their dreams and ideas and efforts provide. Instead, we have “the man” holding you down. The boss, or the company, is victimizing you by making you work. The promise of free stuff and redistribution of SOMEONE ELSE’S productivity makes people think work is a sucker’s game.
They (liberals) put the victim philosophy (to the extent that a world view of a pre-adolescent mind can have a philosophy) front and center in everything, from race relations, to relationships between men and women, to your relationship to a job and your own finances… The Democrat motto should be: “You’re being screwed. We can help.” The problem is that their policies help alright… They help to screw people. Look at unemployment for blacks and young people, two groups Dems are always talking about helping, but who are never helped. Obama is “helping” with college tuition… which is rising to astronomical levels because of the easy money to colleges and universities that comes with the government backed loans. So these kids get the money to go to college, and leave college with no job and tremendous debt.
So I submit that it is the victim philosophy that so many buy into that is at the heart of the collapse of the culture. Democrats sell this victimhood at every turn, keeping people A) Helpless, B) Angry, and C) Dependent.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
Wellsaud, Pat. The elites have used multiculturalism and political correctness to divide our people into tribes who all have grievences; i.e., they are victims. A froend wrote a satire today on Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson, like so many of his ilk are professional victims.
Always On Watch
October 9, 2012
Yes, the outlook for the survival of American culture is grim.
I don’t blame race and ethnicity as much as I blame the education system and the media. Furthermore, churches are lukewarm too and, for the most part, have slid down the slope of moral relativism.
I’m glad that I’m as old as I am — and childless. I know that the latter is a terrible thing to say, but that’s my view.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
I feel the same way, AOW. I had the good fortune to live through the best of America and I amm grateful I won’t be around to see it at its worse.
Steve Dennis
October 9, 2012
I don’t know if it is too late or not but I do know if Obama is reelected we can kiss the America of our founders goodbye. There is a chance that America can still be saved although the window is closing, we have to act soon or it will be too late.
Conservatives on Fire
October 9, 2012
You said it perfectly. The window is closing.
maggiesnotebook
October 10, 2012
We will never be the same, but if we can get the US Constitution and our country’s founding truthfully taught in schools, get parents active in what is being taught and get our churches to teach why they have the right to preach, we can maintain our families (except for Black families who diminish their numbers with astonishing numbers of abortions). We need common sense and respect for rule of law. Maybe it’s on the way.
Conservatives on Fire
October 10, 2012
Sadly, those are some big “ifs”, Maggie. But, we have no choice but to keep trying.
maggiesnotebook
October 10, 2012
Jim, thanks so much for the link.
Conservatives on Fire
October 10, 2012
You are very welcome, Maggie. That was a powerful piece you wrote.
lou222
October 10, 2012
I don’t think we care any less for our country than the generation that went thru WWII, but we are not showing it like they did. My parents were born in 1920, went thru the hardships of the war and I think appreciated “life”, my brothers and I grew up in an extended family (not much of that now) that had alot of aunts, uncle, cousins and grandparents around. We knew our place and were kept in that place by concerned relatives. Compare that to today, single parents, dicipline is lacking, schools have no control, progressives calling the shots there and we have a lack of respect showing. What could go wrong? Is it any wonder the world is turning out as it is? I knew better than to act-up, there were consequences for that, where are those consequences today? I grew up with being told that nothing is free in this world you have to work for what you get, but now with all the “free” stuff that is being given away, that no longer holds true. How can we expect there to be up-standing citizens when they don’t have to work for what they get or suffer consequences for their actions if they do wrong? This is a crazy world now and I am not sure that we can turn it around, we will try our damndest, but will it be enough?
Conservatives on Fire
October 10, 2012
I do not believe we can recreate the America we grew up in, but we can do a lot better than what we have now.
nooneofanyimport
October 10, 2012
A very thought-provoking post, CoF. Sadly, I scoff a bit at your memory of American culture: “few common threads that occur to me: the rule of law, a common ethical and moral bond, and religion/church”
I do this b/c I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and the common threads were more like this: the rich hate the homeless, Ronald Reagan wants to start WWIII, “to each his own,” regarding morals, and Christians want to persecute you.
Seriously.
Not surprisingly, I am often pessimistic about our nation’s future. Yet, consider the Japanese pulling out of the brutal war culture which permeated their society prior to and during WWII. The Hungarians sure managed to grow the heck out of their economy after finally throwing off foreign shackles, post-USSR. London got rebuilt after WWII. Germany shook off fascism and rebuilt as well. Et cetera ad nauseum.
We are not who we used to be, true. But thru God, all things are possible. We can rebuild our culture; we can experience an American renaissance.
No guarantees. But it can happen.
cheers!
Lin
Conservatives on Fire
October 11, 2012
Ha! Well, Lin, I probably have about twenty years on you so I remember a different time.
I doubt we can ever recapture the culture of the fifties; but I agree that we can do much better than what we currently have.
Jamie Sarner
October 12, 2012
That the overall economy and politics have power to influence people’s minds is doubtless, though this is a very Marxist view but cannot be dismissed too readily. That seems to be also an author’s assumption about political climate influencing overall state of morals and ethical standards. It is not valid to that easily think that politicians are always to be blamed, though. That over past 50 years a number of single tax filers doubled is not just the problem of politics and economy. To talk about Obama administration alongside these matters can lead to such a conclusion. But things are more complex than thinking that politics is to be blamed for everything and that people’s mindsets can be influenced by any politics and ideology. People themselves should be questioned too not just the political elite supposedly governing people’s thoughts.
Conservatives on Fire
October 12, 2012
Jamie, thank you for your thoughtful comment. I don’t believe I laid the problem at the feet of just the politicians. You opine that the peole themselves should be questioned. That is a reasonable point. But, do you not think that the progressive take over of our education system, the media, and the movie and TV industry has had an increedible impact on people’s opinions? Most peole, sadly, seek to be led instead of thinking for themselves. They will too often go along with what they perceive to be the accepted trend. I stand by what I wrote.