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Polls tell us that most Americans are downbeat on our country. They say that most people think that our country is going in the wrong direction. I suspect what people are really saying is our society and the American culture is going in the wrong direction. Basically we see things like illegal immigration, drug use, lack of civility, break down of our family, terrible schools, a war on the middle class, etc. I could go on and on.
The fault lies in a dumbing down of the American culture. Could a strong political leader help us recover and bring American society and culture back?
Polls tell us that most Americans are downbeat on our country. They say that most people think that our country is going in the wrong direction. I suspect what people are really saying is our society and the American culture is going in the wrong direction. Basically we see things like illegal immigration, drug use, lack of civility, break down of our family, terrible schools, a war on the middle class, etc. I could go on and on.
The fault lies in a dumbing down of the American culture. Could a strong political leader help us recover and bring American society and culture back?
Is a political leader willing to prevent stupidity, but not able?
Then he is not a leader.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh stupidity?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him a leader?
There really isn't an American culture in the sense as there is a Bavarian culture etc. I think America was created as place where people could come to to run away from oppresive regimes from around the world, the pilgrims, etc. America is a haven for those that do not want a gov't that is evident everywhere, one that meddles in your everyday life. America has lost its way because gov't on both sides have forgotten why America was founded. Through numerous and ridiculus taxes, moral laws, nation building, and invasion of privacys, they taken a beautiful haven of freedom, and turned it into what people came here to flee. A leader that can turn us around is some one who recognizes these things, and isn't scared to make an unpopular decision. The trend of this transformation of America started during the New Deal. There is not one single leader that can change back into what we were meant to be. It takes the people electing the right people to congress to begin rolling back our monolithic gov't.
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Originally Posted by questioner2
The fault lies in a dumbing down of the American culture. Could a strong political leader help us recover and bring American society and culture back?
If strong means someone who imposes his own views on everything he/she touches then no.
If strong means someone who develops a consensus opinion using input from every racial/religious/economic/etc./etc./etc. group and then works tirelessly to implement those ideas, maybe.
Looking at history, Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. I have to believe there's much evidence that rise, dominance, fall of cultures is a likely probability. With China and India on the rise at best it's questionable if the US will retain its position in the world.
Just another point: No civilization can last forever, maybe its time we start thinking that the US gov't isn't always going to be there. I do think we've [i]almost[i] reached a point in this country where there is no turning back.
I have a question: Historians looking at the great empires generally nail a turning point, when the empire's ascent turned to descent. Do you think future historians will place America's turning point before or after 2007? If before, what do you think it was?
Just another point: No civilization can last forever, maybe its time we start thinking that the US gov't isn't always going to be there. I do think we've [i]almost[i] reached a point in this country where there is no turning back.
I disagree. Just because we've become disaffected from our government doesn't mean some that everything is going to collapse. I prefer to think of it all as a maturing process. Americans are almost childlike sometimes, in their need for government to be their mommy, daddy, and inspiration. Most other countries advanced beyond this point long ago, and their people enjoy a healthy skepticism when it comes to thier leaders.
Part of the problem is the price we have paid -- and it's steeper than the civil libertarians among us care to admit -- for having instituted a quasi-secular approach to public life. In my view, the formal (and forced) elimination of religion from our national consciousness has turned us (or at least many of us, including most influential organs of communication and opinion) into worshippers of our legal and political system, with the accompanying unhealthy faith in abstract judicial fiat and political leadership that makes priests of our elected leaders and elevates our expectations of them beyond reasonable levels.
When these people fail -- as they must, inevitably -- to provide trancendant leadership of the kind previously found in our shared national ethos and culture, we begin to question our faith in the new statist "religion" that we have created, with its dogma, its shibboleths, and its holy men and women, who end up being exposed for what they are: shabby and opportunistic power-mongers.
But out of the pain of disappointed illusions can come growth, both as individuals and as a collective society. As we might move beyond the partisan fantasies of Democrat and Republican, of right and left and red and blue, and the sterile vacuity of legal solutions to moral dilemmas, we can finally engage in a real test of the incredible diversity, energy and vitality of this collection of three hundred million souls. Personally, I see plenty of reason for hope. Too many people have too much to lose for us to surrender to either pure sensuality or the bloodless strictures of the Lilliputians who currently rule us...
I have a question: Historians looking at the great empires generally nail a turning point, when the empire's ascent turned to descent. Do you think future historians will place America's turning point before or after 2007? If before, what do you think it was?
I think it was before, and I would point to the late 60's. I think there were a lot of very good things that happened during this time, but there have also been some unintended consequences that we now face.
I think the media and popular culture do have an impact on our society in a negative way. For example the way they tend to glamorize the celebrities who have babies even though they are not married, violence on TV, or promote all immigrants as the same legal or illegal, or the promotion of hip hop and gangster rap.
On the other hand if the media is so powerful at promoting the negative in our culture, maybe a strong political leader could inspire a large number of us to improve the American culture.
History is full of stories how strong leaders can have a major affect on a nations culture both to the negative and positive. (Look at the impact Hitler had on Germany) maybe someone in our countries political leadership could have as equally strong impact on our culture and society but in a positive way.
There really isn't an American culture in the sense as there is a Bavarian culture etc. I think America was created as place where people could come to to run away from oppresive regimes from around the world, the pilgrims, etc. America is a haven for those that do not want a gov't that is evident everywhere, one that meddles in your everyday life. America has lost its way because gov't on both sides have forgotten why America was founded. Through numerous and ridiculus taxes, moral laws, nation building, and invasion of privacys, they taken a beautiful haven of freedom, and turned it into what people came here to flee. A leader that can turn us around is some one who recognizes these things, and isn't scared to make an unpopular decision. The trend of this transformation of America started during the New Deal. There is not one single leader that can change back into what we were meant to be. It takes the people electing the right people to congress to begin rolling back our monolithic gov't.
Culture is defined as an integrated system of beliefs, traditions, and customs that govern or influence a person's behavior. Culture is learned, shared by members of a group, and based on the ability to think in terms of symbols. (Thomas/Kelly, Archaeology 4th Edition, pp28)
Culture, taken in it's wide ethnographc sense is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. (Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, founder of modern anthropology--1871)
To state quantitatively that America has no culture shows only that one is not aware of the integral elements which constitute "culture."
America has a cultural identity. Because it cannot be structured within a set value of parameters does not negate its existence. For nearly 300 years, the cultures of people from all over the world have been assimilated and blended, merging into the core values which shape the basic American perspective, unique in that it varies from person to person in a variety of ways, some quite disparate, but still singularly American--generous to those in need, belief in the individual's right to freedom, a basic moral compass which keeps our society from disintegrating into anarchy, no matter our level of dissatisfaction with our leadership--these essential facets of American culture together with the learned behavior of one's social group, still manage to coalesce into a society which has accomplished more than any other 250 year old country on the planet.
That my friend, is American culture.
Whether or not it can be maintained depending upon who is in leadership remains to be seen. I've seen the face of our culture change within my lifetime and while some of the change has been positive, much has been less than beneficial.
As I've posted before, I expect little to nothing from the Federal government. That way, I am seldom disappointed when they deliver just that.
Last edited by Kele; 01-17-2008 at 12:56 PM..
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