Tuesday, June 28, 2016

 

An American Culture? Revision II




(Originally published in January, 2012, now with substantial new material.)


Multiple Cultures and Factions Prevail.
Our culture is sliced up into many pieces or factions; so much so that the common elements are very few. Consider the following slices and dices among many:

Rich man/ Poor man

Democrat/Republican
Democrat/Conservative


Democrat/Progressive


Liberal/Conservative


Liberal/Progressive



Republican/Conservative


Republican/Progressive



Democratic/Libertarian



Republican/Libertarian


Radical Right/Radical Left


Educated/Uneducated

White collar/Blue collar


Religion I/Religion II/Etc.

Religious/Non-religious

Christian/Atheist



Christian/Non-Christian

Truth Teller/Habitual Liar

Patriot/Non-patriot

Elite/Non-elite

Givers/Takers

Ethical/Unethical

Moral/Immoral

Cultural snob/Cultural boor

Pro-America/Anti-America

Intelligent/Unintelligent

Strong/Weak

Military Experience/No Military Experience

Pride in Birth Area 1/Pride in Area 2,3...n

Ordinary Citizen/Politician

Ordinary Citizen/Congressman

Leader/Follower

Statist/Federalist

Federated Republican/Collectivist, or Humanist, or Socialist or Communist (who adopted the term "Progressive" to disguise their affiliation. Hillary is a self-proclaimed Progressive Democrat!)

Management/Workers

Business Man/Others

Citizen Today/Citizen Earlier/Citizen Tomorrow

Lawyer/Citizen


Fluent in English/Not Fluent in English


Born American/Immigrant/Illegal Immigrant


And all shades in between.



It is little wonder that we continuously have serious conflicts, clashes in beliefs, and ultimately nasty invective between opposing views, particularly when beliefs run so strongly, often challenging deeply held religious, emotional, inherited or reasoned beliefs! Many times the opposition uses unfair tactics to shut the citizen up and denigrate him, hoping to send him away.



We are a multicultural hodge-podge living our separate very uniquely human lives, and many, many different lifestyles, but held together socially by at least seven or so very strong beliefs and common goals: The value of strength in numbers; the rule of law; the joys of our freedoms; the best place to raise our children; the opportunities for betterment, a compelling work ethic, and in the love of this country. (There are more reasons, of course…)

All of our diverse cultural components contribute to a peculiar synthesis one might call an “American Culture,” but if examined closely, it quickly dissolves into some or even all of its constituent or factional parts, and even harkens back to quite different historical origins and allegiances. I suppose that if there must be such factions,
it is a real blessing to have so many factions that they tend to cancel each other out.



How many discussions or arguments between two people have been completely biased by their opposing factional belief systems?



The remarkable thing is that this democratic and federated republic form of national government, with its written Constitution as the Law of the Land, has successfully held together for nearly 240 years, despite many sweeping differences along the way. The differences have persisted to this day and have again become a serious divisive force in the nation.

It is time for those who believe in America, its Constitution, its common laws and its founding principles to stand up and fight for them!












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