I am reading Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin’s new book Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution. The chapter that I found most important was one entitled “The Cultural Pathway to Liberty.” In previous chapters, the authors discuss how popular culture in the United States has “devolved from celebrating American values to largely vilifying them.”
They discuss how the Tea Party movement can make a difference in our culture now. The first lesson? “First, we must engage our culture rather than abandon it to those who aim to tear it down.” Individual actions matter, the authors say and supporting books and works of those filmmakers and authors who embrace liberty and have positive views of America are important. Many people (like myself) like non-fiction but Meckler and Martin say that it is also important to read fiction as well. Here, Andrew Klavan’s books come to mind.
Organizations are also important for libertarian and conservatives to embrace, and they mention Bill Whittle, PJTV and others who are actively pursuing those millions of Americans who want something different than the typical liberal fare. “We don’t have access to the Hollywood studio system. But we do have access to millions of patriotic Americans.” These millions can’t sit on the sideline.
Good points, I believe that culture changes politics, not the other way around. If we want to change politics, we must try to change the culture around us, one step at a time.
Only when the younger generations truly value real personal liberty and real freedom from government excess will there be any hope of changing the culture. As it is, a greater value is placed upon what one can get for free while at the same time avoiding personal responsibility as we cultivate 20-somethings and 30-somethings into semi-adult versions of teenagers.
Immediate gratification trumps delayed gratification most of the time.
Only when those of youger generations begin to value the freedom to make their own decisions while at the same time accepting responsibility for their own lives (instead of looking to government) will such a cultural shift occur.
The only way to make that happen is for said younger generations to derive greater satisfaction in exercising their freedom than they get by skating by in life under the care of a nanny state. They have to actually, instinctively, value their freedom enough to eschew government taking care of them (along with all of the strings government ‘help’ attaches).
So, how do we get the younger generation to value their freedom and absorb the advantages of delayed gratification? There has to be something in that approach to life that will strike a chord within their thought processes and cause them to make different decisions.
Self sufficiency, impulse control, and delaying having your fun today so you can have a better life in the future obviously works – but it is apparently not obvious enough for far too many……
I had a significant moment with my kids when my oldest was in middle school. All three were there, but oldest had been posed question in class about how we should all “do more” to control guns. Even though we are not gun owners, I understand why we have a 2nd Amendment, and proceeded to explain why to my somewhat amazed children, because they had rarely seen such passion from me, which is probably why it made a pretty good impression on them. I also waxed rantingly about how we should be electing legislators on platforms of rolling back laws rather than adding to them. This was all about 20 years ago. They seem to have turned out alright.
Politics does indeed change culture if it’s institutionalized into law or tolerated as a norm. People largely figure the Congressional Black Caucus or La Raza or websites like The Root or TheGrio aren’t capable of hate speech simply because they’re mainstream.
In fact mainstream groups like the YWCA and Southern Poverty Law Center institutionalize racism and a double standard the seeps into the culture by reporting or attacking hate crimes by state but without ever mentioning the black flash mobs that attacked white folks by race this past summer. You think a 7 yr old who grows up with affirmative action is going to consider it wrong when it’s the law of the land? You think Muslims attack gays in the middle east because their Islam’s individuality trumps politicized laws and rules against being gay? Take the politics away and people largely think this stuff over as individuals. This is the whole point of freedom being enshrined in institutions. Take away law and there is little doubt we’d have live gladiator games on TV.
Yes, culture drives politics. In fact, our contemporary entitlement culture is the strongest force obstructing the return to Constitutional government.
In an ironic inversion, federal skullduggery from the Wilson Administration onward created those incentives, nurtured them, and encouraged us to submit to them, to the point where about half of our citizens believe they get more from government than they’re compelled to put in. Incentives toward selfishness, laziness, and lack of virtue, once established, are exceedingly hard to countervail. Attempts to undo the policies and programs that corrupted us are almost always thwarted by the Public Choice / special-interest dynamic.
Cultural revolutions are even rarer than political ones. There’s at least a possibility, owing to developments such as the TEA Party and contretemps such as Obama’s contraceptives-and-abortifacients war with the Catholic Church, that people might awaken to the dismal state we’re in. Problem is, confessing your corruption, even to yourself, is among the hardest things anyone ever attempts. Ask any Catholic.
I agree in principle that obviously we should be supporting ‘alternative’ authors, filmmakers, and media. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that this strategy in and of itself will have the impact we seek on American culture.
It’s only when our battle strategies include taking on the school systems, the colleges, and the so-called mainstream media, will we even begin to see a positive shift in our culture. We ignore these institutional battle grounds at our peril.