There is a crucial observation in scholar Jennifer Mercieca’s post at The Conversation:
Without a mutually shared understanding of facts, words and values, a culture cannot endure.
It’s possible that at this moment in history there is little that we all understand in the same way, with the same emotional intensity.
But that’s exactly what you’d expect in a country where people spend an enormous amount of their time sitting in their living rooms, maybe with a family member or two, watching television. If they don’t like what they see, they switch channels. Or in an even more solitary mode, sitting behind a monitor reading Facebook, looking at what you wish to see.
The problem is that we can’t switch channels and have a different country.
I’m not seeing this oft-bemoaned loss of shared whatever by the liberal class.
I see that people want a good job, a secure retirement, an education for their children, and the liberty of getting a say in the things that affect their lives.
There was never a time when Americans were united behind a shared definition of “diversity.” “Western values” is largely a creation of Cold War propaganda to emphasize the nobility of us vs. the savageness of them.
What we’re seeing in opinions like this is obliviousness to the class prejudice and social isolation within the Academy, which is one of the reasons I got the hell out after graduate school.
I think it predates that slightly. I think it was a creation of the Brits, used to draw the U. S. into World War II by exaggerating the close relationship between the U. K. and the U. S.
I think the author explains the problem well and you can see it in all sorts of social conflicts from gay marriage to “equal rights.”
Then there is the American “creed,” which is something you’ve posted about before.
Switching channels – to what? Turner Classic Movies; the Hallmark channel; classic, kinder, gentler, more wholesome TV series. This is not a rejection of culture but rather a reclamation of the culture that the au so courant moderns have been doing their damndest to erase.
Sounds like a pretty fair description of me. It would also be nice if people stopped screaming and hurling insults at each other.
That depends on what we consider an insult. Frauds should be called such without hesitation and hypocrisy denounced with fervour.
I’m not sure what that accomplishes other than revving both parties up.
I think you have identified the culprit (mostly). We have always had differences and seen things differently. Rural folks and city folks have always had differences. Rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic, black and white. We just never had the polarity and bitterness, most of the time, like we constantly do now. I would credit that to the rise of the think tanks and media people (TV is part of it) who play to and enhance those differences, often with daily doses of anger and outrage. The thought leaders became the media people and celebrities. As James wrote about a while ago, we lost the highbrow thinkers and gave way near completely to the low brow types.
The low brow stock in trade is to pray on emotion. To engage in conspiracy theory. To make truth immaterial. To make loyalty to the cause preeminent of loyalty to the country. When a low brow leader says “I love America” he/she really means “I love those who think/act/look like I do”. They love one half, about, of the country. They actively promote hating the other half.
Steve
Curious, Steve, would you include among the lowbrows, say, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Robert De Niro, or Maxine Waters?
For one thing, calling out the hypocrite serves the function of stopping them from misrepresenting others.
For another, calling out a fraud means not allowing them to get away with a deliberate lie.
If we won’t defend truth this society isn’t worth saving.
“The low brow stock in trade is to pray on emotion. To engage in conspiracy theory. “
It’s unseemly to call Hillary names.
Gray- Absolutely!
“It’s unseemly to call Hillary names.”
Hillary prey on emotions? That is funny. She was about as cold and unappealing as you get.
Steve