Culture war

The culture war (or culture wars) in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal. The "culture war" is sometimes traced to the 1960s and has taken various forms since then.

Origins

The concept of a "culture war" has been in use in English since at least its adoption as a calque (loan translation) to refer to the German Kulturkampf ("cultural struggle" or "struggle between cultures"; literally, "battle of cultures"), the campaign from 1871 to 1878 under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the German Empire against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.^[1] "Culture war" is a calque generalizing the idea of these kinds of struggle.

Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci presented in the 1920s a theory of cultural hegemony to explain the slower advance, compared to many Marxists' expectations, of proletarian revolution in Europe. He stated that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by one class who has a monopoly over the mass media and popular culture, and Gramsci argued for a "culture war" in which anti-capitalist elements seek to gain a dominant voice in the mass media, education, and other mass institutions.^{[citation needed]}

As an American phenomenon, it originated in the 1920s when urban and rural American values came into clear conflict. This followed several decades of immigration to the cities by people considered alien to earlier immigrants. It was also a result of the cultural shifts and modernizing trends of the Roaring 20s, culminating in the presidential campaign of Al Smith.^[2][3]

1980s

In the 1980s the culture war in America was characterized by the conservative climate during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.^[4] Members of the religious right often criticized academics and artists, and their works, in a struggle against what they considered indecent, subversive, and blasphemous.^[4] They often accused their political opponents of undermining tradition, Western civilization^[5] and family values.

1990s

Patrick Buchanan, pictured in 2008.

The expression was introduced again by the 1991 publication of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia. Hunter described what he saw as a dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture.

He argued that on an increasing number of "hot-button" defining issues — abortion, gun politics, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, censorship issues — there existed two definable polarities. Furthermore, not only were there a number of divisive issues, but society had divided along essentially the same lines on these issues, so as to constitute two warring groups, defined primarily not by nominal religion, ethnicity, social class, or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world views.

Hunter characterized this polarity as stemming from opposite impulses, toward what he referred to as Progressivism and Orthodoxy. Others have adopted the dichotomy with varying labels. For example, Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly emphasizes differences between "Secular-Progressives" and "Traditionalists".

In 1990 commentator Pat Buchanan mounted a campaign for the Republican nomination for President of the United States against incumbent George H. W. Bush in 1992. He received a prime time speech slot at the 1992 Republican National Convention, which is sometimes dubbed the "'culture war' speech".^[6]

During his speech, he said: "There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself." [1] In addition to criticizing "environmental extremists" and "radical feminism," he said public morality was a defining issue:

The agenda [Bill] Clinton and [Hillary] Clinton would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat — that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country.^[7]

A month later, Buchanan said that the conflict was about power over society's definition of right and wrong. He named abortion, sexual orientation and popular culture as major fronts – and mentioned other controversies, including clashes over the Confederate Flag, Christmas and taxpayer-funded art. He also said that the negative attention his "culture war" speech received was itself evidence of America’s polarization.^[8]

When Buchanan ran for President in 1996, he promised to fight for the conservative side of the culture war:

I will use the bully pulpit of the Presidency of the United States, to the full extent of my power and ability, to defend American traditions and the values of faith, family, and country, from any and all directions. And, together, we will chase the purveyors of sex and violence back beneath the rocks whence they came.^[9]

2000s

In a 2004 column, Pat Buchanan said the culture war had reignited and that certain groups of Americans no longer inhabited the same moral universe. He gave such examples as same-sex civil unions, the "crudity of the MTV crowd," and the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. He wrote:

Who is in your face here? Who started this? Who is on the offensive? Who is pushing the envelope? The answer is obvious. A radical Left aided by a cultural elite that detests Christianity and finds Christian moral tenets reactionary and repressive is hell-bent on pushing its amoral values and imposing its ideology on our nation. The unwisdom of what the Hollywood and the Left are about should be transparent to all.^[10]

Peter Beinart, best known as a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, argued in a January 2009 column for The Daily Beast that the new election of Barack Obama as President could be the beginning of the end for the American culture war. He wrote:

When it comes to culture, Obama doesn’t have a public agenda; he has a public anti-agenda. He wants to remove culture from the political debate. He wants to cut our three-sided political game back down to two... Barack Obama was more successful than John Kerry in reaching out to moderate white evangelicals in part because he struck them as more authentically Christian. That’s the foundation on which Obama now seeks to build. He seems to think there are large numbers of conservative white Protestants and Catholics who will look beyond culture when they enter the voting booth as long as he and other Democrats don’t ram cultural liberalism down their throats.^[11]

In response, author and writer Rod Dreher stated in a RealClearPolitics column that the rhetoric of a culture war disguises the fact that American society truly is deeply divided on some moral issues, which is not an artificial creation of political parties seeking to drum up support. He wrote that the economic positions of the Democratic Party are generally popular enough that, if it chose to drop polarizing social issues, it would become a majority party in ongoing control. He describes the culture war as "inevitable."^[12] Columnist Ross Douthat, then with The Atlantic, wrote that he had "a lot to agree with" Beinart, but he stated that what Obama and his supporters seem to be doing is "winning" the culture wars for their side rather than coming to some kind of compromise.^[13]

In a February 2009 column in The New York Times, William Saletan stated that a holistic mix of left-wing and right-wing ideas would come out of the culture war. He wrote, "morality has to be practical, and that practicality requires morals." He concluded that conservatives should embrace family planning as a way to reduce abortion and government assistance while liberals should embrace personal responsibility, which means that unprotected sex is criticized "bluntly." He also advocated same sex marriage as a way to lead LGBT Americans to an "ethic of mutual support and sacrifice" involving stricter personal responsibility.^[14]

2010s

Culture Wars in Canada

The culture war (or culture wars) in Canadian usage is a metaphor used to describe the current polarization between the different values of Canadians. This can be framed to describe West versus East, rural versus urban or traditional values versus progressive secularism. "Culture war" is a relatively new phrase in Canadian political commentary. However it can still be used to describe historical events within Canada, such as the Rebellions of 1837, Western Alienation, Quebec separatism, and any Aboriginal conflicts in Canada. The term is more relevant to current events such as the Caledonia conflict with Natives and the increasing amount of hostility between Conservative Canadians and Liberal Canadians. Its usage has increased considerably in the recent year due to prorogation rallies, abortion and the gun registry.

See also

• Liberalism
• Liberal Party of Canada
• Thomas Paine in The American Crisis
• Paleoconservatism
• Neoconservatism
• Pat Buchanan
• Christmas controversy
• Red state vs. blue state divide
• History wars in Australia
• Christofascism

Battleground issues in the "culture wars"

Abortion / Reproductive rights Age of consent Animal Rights Creation-evolution controversy Legal drinking age Family values Corporal punishment Child discipline, most notably spanking Feminism Gun politics Homosexuality, Gay rights, and Gay marriage California Proposition 8 (2008) Identity politics

Law and order Media bias in the U.S. Moral absolutism vs. Moral relativism Multiculturalism Permissive society Political correctness Prostitution Race, Racism, and Xenophobia

Recreational drug use Right to die movement and euthanasia Secularism and Secularization Separation of church and state Sexual revolution Sexual education and abstinence only Stem-cell research Transhumanism

References

1. ^ Martin Spahn, "Kulturkampf", The Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8, Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
2. ^ Seminar on the Culture Wars of the 1920s
3. ^ "Culture Wars: How 2004" Article by E.J. Dionne
4. ^ ^{a b} Culture Wars, 1980s The Arts. Gale Cengage, 1996. eNotes.com. 2006. 2 Mar, 2010
5. ^ Ross Benjamin Hostile Obituary for Derrida, The Nation, November 24, 2004
6. ^ "Not since Pat Buchanan's famous "culture war" speech in 1992 has a major speaker at a national political convention spoken so hatefully, at such length, about the opposition."
   "Dogs of War". New. 2004-09-02. Archived from the original on 2005-03-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20050308043424/http://www.newdonkey.com/2004/09/dogs-of-war.html. Retrieved 2006-08-29. 
7. ^ Buchanan, Patrick (1992-08-17). "1992 Republican National Convention Speech". Archived from the original on 2007-10-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20071018035401/http://www.buchanan.org/pa-92-0817-rnc.html. Retrieved 2007-11-03. 
8. ^ The Cultural War for the Soul of America - by Pat Buchanan - Articles, Essays and Speeches - T H E I N T E R N E T B R I G A D E - Official Web Site
9. ^ Announcement Speech by Patrick J
10. ^ Pat Buchanan (March 8, 2004). "The Aggressors in the Culture Wars". theamericancause.org. http://www.theamericancause.org/patculturewars.htm. Retrieved January 26, 2009. 
11. ^ Peter Beinart (January 26, 2009). "The End of the Culture Wars". The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-26/the-end-of-the-culture-wars/. Retrieved January 5, 2010. 
12. ^ Rod Dreher (February 16, 2009). "Obama Won't End the Culture Wars". RealClearPolitics. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/02/obama_wont_end_the_culture_war.html. Retrieved January 5, 2010. 
13. ^ Ross Douthat (January 28, 2009). "Ending or Winning?". The Atlantic. http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/ending_or_winning.php. Retrieved January 5, 2010. 
14. ^ William Saletan (February 21, 2009). "This Is the Way the Culture Wars End". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22saletan.html. Retrieved January 5, 2010. 

Further reading

• Buchanan, Patrick J., The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2002 ISBN 0-312-30259-2
• Fiorina, Morris P., with Samuel J. Abrams and Jeremy C. Pope, Culture War?: The Myth of a Polarized America, London: Longman, 2004 ISBN 0-321-27640-X
• Gerald Graff. Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education (1992)
• Hunter, James Davison, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, New York: Basic Books, 1992 ISBN 0-465-01534-4
• Jay, Gregory S., American Literature and the Culture Wars, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8014-3393-2 ISBN 978-0801433931
• Jensen, Richard. "The Culture Wars, 1965-1995: A Historian's Map" Journal of Social History 29 (Oct 1995) 17-37.
• Jones, E. Michael, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity As Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior, Ft. Collins, CO: Ignatius Press, 1993 ISBN 0-89870-447-2
• Strauss, William & Howe, Neil , The Fourth Turning, An American Prophecy: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous With Destiny, 1998, Broadway Books, New York
• Thomson, Irene Tavis., Culture Wars and Enduring American Dilemmas , Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-472-07088-6
• Webb, Adam K., Beyond the Global Culture War, Routledge, Jan 2006 ISBN 0-415-95313-8
• Zimmerman, Jonathan, Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools, Harvard University Press, 2002 ISBN 0-674-01860-5

External links

United States

• Pat Buchanan, 1992 Republican National Convention keynote, speech dated August 17, 1992.
• Pat Buchanan, The Cultural War for the Soul of America, speech dated September 14, 1992.
• Pat Buchanan, The Aggressors in the Culture Wars, column dated March 8, 2004.
• Focus on the Family, A Look at the Sexual Revolution in the United States

Australia

• The Hon John Howard MP, Prime Minister of Australia, Speech: A sense of balance: The Australian Achievement in 2006, Address to the National Press Club, 25 January 2006