Posted on 06/21/2016 10:04:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
In all the talk about income inequality, a more important kind tends to be forgotten: cultural inequality.
But it's finally dawning on some of our luminaries that the cultural deficit in our society can be as detrimental, if not more so, than the material one. There's only one way for us all to be equal in terms of income, and that's for us all to be equally poor. And there's only one way for all of us to be equal culturally, and that's for all of us to be equally ignorant. When that old truth finally occurs to our commentariat, the result is reassuring.
When even David Brooks of the estimable New York Times notices the problem, real progress is being made. Whatever he's been drinking, he needs to take another swig. The first seems to have opened his eyes. To quote from one of his more recent -- and better -- columns:
"It's not only money and better policy that are missing in these circles; it's norms. The health of society is primarily determined by the habits and virtues of its citizens. In many parts of America there are no minimally agreed upon standards for what it means to be a father. There are no basic codes woven into daily life, which people can observe unconsciously and follow automatically."
This loss of social capital didn't happen overnight and isn't likely to be corrected by tomorrow morning. When there's no longer such a thing as normative behavior, then anything goes. But we're not supposed to notice. For that would be -- sin of sins -- judgmental. How dare we call ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen, and no-count folks no count, or trash trash!
To quote David Brooks, all these norms disappeared in "a plague of non-judgmentalism, which refused to assert that one way of behaving was better than another," especially if it was. Just as some cultures, like those whose values include a respect for learning and a desire for justice, are better than others. But are we allowed to say such things any more, especially on our Ivy League campuses?
We should have learned from John Paul II, whom some of us think of as John Paul the Great, that culture can be the decisive force in history, and that at the center of the cultural is cult, that is, religion. It's all-important, transcendent, putting everything else in the shade thanks to its bright and blazing light. It was Stalin who asked with the cynicism of a born tyrant, "The pope! How many divisions has he got?" Now we know -- many more than all the armies of all the tyrants in only transient history. For it is ideas, good or bad, that matter -- not brute force.
John Maynard Keynes was an economist rather than a theologian. But he understood that ideas, "both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."
All men are created equal, to quote the Declaration of Independence, but that doesn't mean we should all strive for cultural equality any more than we should all want to remain equally poor -- or equally uncultured.
Would suggest to the writer, who makes many good points, that Keynes was more sociopath than economist--though certainly no theologian. (Economics Of A Sociopath.)
Culture follows biology; i.e. intelligence and impulse control are the basics upon which all else is built.
Yes we have become so politically correct and non judgmental that we have seen social norms erode.
The baby mama culture, the gang culture, the drug stoner culture, have become prominent, in part, because of so many of us not wanting to be judgmental or speak out against them..
And this affects government policy and entitlement programs too.
For example, there was a time in this country, when a girl who got pregnant without a husband, couldn’t just go down and get on welfare because of having a baby. But new policies were enacted which were non judgmental about her pregnancy and would allow her governmental benefits.
The mainstreaming of homosexuality and the gay culture is also due to so many of us wanting to be non judgmental, and due to the entertainment industry pushing same.
I’m sure others can think of other examples of this concept.
The seedbed of ideas out of which America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution arose produced a culture and "crop" of freedom, opportunity, creativity, productivity, innovation, improvement, and plenty which was unheard of in previous centuries.
It was John Adams who said: "The foundation of every government is some principle or passion in the minds of the people." Clearly, the Founders' passion was liberty, and in order to secure that liberty, they sought out and incorporated into the United States Constitution those ideas and principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
The French historian, Guizot, once asked James Russell Lowell, "How long will the American republic endure?" Lowell replied: "As long as the IDEAS of the men who founded it continue dominant"
It can and will succeed IF the motivating "principle or passion in the minds of the people" is LIBERTY, and if that passion causes them to exert the determination and will to complete the needed restoration of the IDEAS upon which the great American experiment was based.
Some cultures are objectively superior to others. The standard of value is the relation of man to physical reality. This means his ability to live the life of a rational being. This means his ability to gain real goods like knowledge, health, wealth, good relationships, and rational virtues and good character,
Not news.
The link between cultural inequality and cultural literacy was explained in detail ---- in 1987.
And cultural literacy and cultural inequality are inseparably inversely linked.
The irony is that if someone in the U.S. is culturally handicapped, they would be equally handicapped in Africa or Meh-hee-ko
Is that Jon Mecham sitting next to him?
Have no idea. Do not recognize either man by name.
John Maynard Keynes was a homosexual (totally irrational and removed from reality and hated God’s Design of the Universe/humans).
He had orgies and supplied little boys for the old men-—and bragged about where to find the pretty little boys and where in 3rd world countries they could even castrate and kill little boys for a dollar in their sodomite (satanic) orgies.
These sodomites knew they had to “kill God” (Christianity) to make their “Love” respectable again and control the Minds of little children (though skooling)-—like it is in muslim nations with harems of boys which are normal in islam (Good)—along with raping the boys and young males in mosques, like it was in Sparta (ancient Greece and Roman times when sex meant nothing and removed from creation (God’s Laws) and there was no morality tied to sex acts.
Some cultures are better than other cultures——and the ONLY one which created the Age of Reason and the US Constitution, the most just, equal and rule of law (higher power than man).....is Christian Worldview.
It is the ONLY theology that created Free Will (choice) and Individualism (thinking outside the box—for oneself—Self-Reliance/Freedom).
All other ideolgoies/theologies are slave/socialized—irrational “faiths” removed from the Laws of Nature and Natural’s God. Any Law which promotes Vice and irrational, evil behaviors in children are “null and void” according to Justice John Marshall (and Nuremberg Trials).
The pagan, satanic religion is the only one allowed and promoted in our public schools, (to erase logic and reason (Christianity.Natural Law) and they are normalizing the ethics of islam and pagans/satanists.
Brooks is the house cuckservative at the NYT, and Jon Meachem used to be with Newsweak.
I have a friend who thinks Brooks is basically Conservative; but I suspect if that were so, he would not be connected with the Times, unless to sell advertising to businesses.
But this piece is fairly bland--and while not really Conservative, is thought provoking.
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