Why is it that anyone cares so much about what is euphemistically called “the culture”?
To the extent I am still able to think about such things (which is debatable after nearly a decade of blogging about them), Mark Steyn got what little remains of my brain cells firing when he said this:
Even if the economy were to fix itself overnight, we’d still face sincere cultural challenges.
Yes, “we” would. Especially those of us who cannot agree on the “we.” As an American, I am not challenging anyone’s culture. I only want to be left alone. I am sick — deadly sick — of conservatives who say that “the culture” is under attack and that we are facing challenges by people who want to “wreck the culture” (these people are often called “Cultural Marxists”). Not so much because there aren’t actual cultural wreckers, but because the argument carries with it the implication that those who disagree with them on social issues are Communists or quasi-Communists, when the reality is that they simply want freedom, and under Communism they would be packed off to the Gulags.
Why accuse people who would be persecuted by Communists of being Communists?
And what is the culture? What is so precious about something that cannot be defined? I grew up (failed to grow up is more like it) in a culture war, and I learned to despise it. I think culture wars are anti-American and belong in places like China and the Soviet Union.
Smoking pot is anti-American? Since when? Having unapproved sex is anti-American? Since when? Darwinian evolution is anti-American? Huh? Why is it that opposing such things isn’t just as anti-American as supporting them? Who the hell are these people who want to tell us what to do and think that opposing them constitutes Communism?
And who are we?
I don’t know, but I suppose these things are worth thinking about before we have a civil war.
I’d hate to be on the wrong side of a “war” when I only want to be left alone.
Comments
6 responses to “Culturally challenged (as usual)”
Amen. hahahahahahaha
Smoking pot is anti-American? Since when? Having unapproved sex is anti-American? Since when? Darwinian evolution is anti-American? Huh? Why is it that opposing such things isn’t just as anti-American as supporting them? Who the hell are these people who want to tell us what to do and think that opposing them constitutes Communism?
Where does Mark Steyn say any of those things? I’ve never seen it and I read him religiously (/sarc) I believe he would agree with your viewpoint, after all are you all about classical values, I am, that’s why I read you daily,
Good Morning,
Bob
[…] a rather huge whole (in a rather large argument I’d rather not have) when I referred to “the culture” as a euphemism last […]
Sorry, I didn’t mean to put words in Mark Steyn’s mouth, as I have been a fan of him for years. My argument was more directed at the Cultural Marxist meme. (Hence the link.)
I recently read that bit.
He’s more talking about gov’t intrusion and a “culture” of dependency.
He’s not so thrilled with anybody using the gov’t to further their own brand of morality.
Whether that morality be from someone’s interpretation of the Bible or from someone’s desire for a “technocracy” where the “intelligentsia” tells us what is right and wrong instead of the “Pious” doing so.
Both are for our own good, of course. We’re just a little too dim to make our own choices.
Definitions of “cultural Marxism” that I have heard usually include a generous portion of nanny-state prohibitions and requirements – what you eat (only what the state decides is good for you THIS week), what car you drive, the kind of toilet you may buy,etc. And never admitting when their wise decisions turn out to be more religious belief than science. Maybe as much as the beliefs of those terrible people who have at least a few thousand years behind their beliefs….