Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

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/ Elite Citizen

Ordinary Citizen/Politician

Ordinary Citizen/Congressman

Ordinary Citizen/ Entrepreneur 

Leader/Follower

Statist/Federalist

Federated Republican/Collectivist, or Humanist, or Socialist or Communist (who adopted the term "Progressive" to disguise their affiliation, which is becoming more and more obvious every day!)

Management/Workers

Business Man/Others

Citizen Today/Citizen Past/Citizen Tomorrow

Lawyer/Citizen

Fluent in English/Not Fluent in English

Born American/Immigrant/Illegal Immigrant

Upstanding Citizen/Criminal

And all shades in between, with many gradations and combinations!

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 eight or so very strong beliefs and common goals:

The value of strength in numbers;

the rule of law;

the joys of our freedoms;

The economic system;

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 their opinions and strengths tend to cancel each other out!

How many discussions or arguments between two people have been completely biased by their opposing factional belief systems, preventing any mutual understandings? For that matter, do we know all of the factions and ideologies our adversaries hold close? Most likely not!

The remarkable thing is that this federated, democratic, republican 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 ideological 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!

# posted by Mannning @ 5:22 PM