CULTURE WARS

[choir loft]

Somewhere someone wrote that the American culture wars began in the 1980's.

Most regard the 1980's as a formative period during their teenage years during which we enjoyed a flirtation with modern electronics that has yet to wane.

While quite a few of us were playing with our new electronic toys the traditional American culture began to unwind and disintegrate.  Movies treated us to new levels of realistic violence as well as voyages to places beyond our imagination.  TV evangelists began to sell the gospel like cheap soap even as legitimate church leaders lost their ability to make it relevant.  American political parties reflected their new goals - the sale of America to the highest bidder rather than the promotion of the common good for our citizens.  

"On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died."  - Gore Vidal 

Most of us didn't know what national debt meant.  Most of us still don't - despite having to pay the consequences of government mismanagement with dollars that are worth less every year.  Our government creates supports and insists upon inflation as a "new normal" - a criminal act if ever there was one.

Creation of and participation in foreign wars has become an accepted culture of strident American militarism.  Our intelligence community achieved financial independence during the 1980's with the help of then Vice President George H.W. Bush.  Its' first act of sovereignty was executed on November 22, 1963, but its most horriffic crime was witnessed on television by millions on a pretty day in September 2001.

Shall I go on?

America is circling the drain of history.

"Americans have no idea what's happening to them." - Pravda

We have lost the culture wars begun in the 1980's.  America isn't the same country it was back then.  Do you remember those days?

that's me, hollering from the choir loft...

Edited July 7, 2022 by choir loft

[xepiscopal]

My formative years were spent watching the culture wars of the '60s. Our school district did not integrate until I was in junior high, and us kids then were glad to see our friends (with whom we played baseball etc. during the summer) finally getting to go to the same schools year-round. And we watched the culture of drugs arise in the the 60s. I feel like the culture wars began in the '50s and gradually expanded bit by bit until now, as you say, the culture wars for the most part seem to have been lost.

But, I have hope, at least a smidgeon, that the tide may turn and saner minds prevail in future. I doubt that I will see that happen in what little time I have left. But I smile and take solace when I remember that I am not of THIS world--I merely reside in this world during this my journey towards salvation.

In what little time I have left, I enjoy my books. You see, one of the saddest casualties of the culture wars is the book--the kind that has ink on paper. I abhor the so-called "E" book, although the Bible software called "e-Sword" is (I think) a very great thing and is much easier to use (I think) than the Logos software.

Your friend in the Peanut Gallery.