So this is that "part 2" of the whole cultural narratives thing, but this time it's approaching the topic more broadly than just being about work. In Chandler's book, he also talked a lot about dueling narratives, like how different states have different conceptions of history. If you go to school in California, you might learn of say, the 1619 project, which does discuss some concepts of how America isn't truly "great", and how in the past it was horrifying to a lot of people. Yes yes, it is a bit "woke", and I tend to find myself mildly irritated at the prominence of such narratives since the goal is primarily to push sectarian "social justice" oriented narratives that don't create true justice for all, but simply seem to litigate grievances between mainstream white America, and other racial and cultural groups. Meanwhile, the right takes offense to these narratives, and they insist on teaching these grand mythologies that I touched on in the previous chapter, promoting this narrative of "America" with a literal religious zeal.
And...the right seems to really aggressive approach the education angle. They really focus on the whole taking over the school boards, and the K-12 system on the local level, with universities primarily being the only bastions of liberal or left wing politics. But why is this? Because again, for the right, everything is a culture war. it's a battle between competing ideologies and conceptions of seeing the world. And the right sees things from the perspective if "if you shape the youth, you shape the future." After all, the youth are the next generation of Americans. If you can indoctrinate people into your ideals from a young age, most won't leave. Heck, keep in mind what I experienced with Christian school and understanding the times. it's why the right fights so hard against universities and undermines their credibility and authoritativeness...which has had wide ranging cultural impacts leading to the denial of some issues even existing like climate change, the threats pandemics face, etc. They've gone down this anti science anti intellectualism rabbit hole, literally to "own the libs." To fight them culturally. While the left relies on the cultural power of these institutions and the trustworthiness of them, the right tries to tear all of that asunder, literally taking the role of satan in their own worldview to poke holes, to cast doubt in mainstream narratives, and to lead people astray. Keep in mind, in my perspective, it is the right that is satan, the silver tongued devil who knows how to frame things and tell half truths to lead people astray. And after 40 years of this, we're seeing the results within MAGA. We're seeing this deeply anti intellectual, authoritarian fundamentalist Christian, and fascist movement that has this weird mythological idea of America being great in the distant past in its head, and it really does push the same cultural BS regarding work i discussed in the previous article. Hell, it's not just work. It's going back to the past in general. it's rolling back womens' rights, racial protections for minorities, LGBT+ rights on the social front. On the economic front its romanticizing the gilded age and literally wanting to go back to 1870-1913 as a standard for society. On the foreign policy front, it's bringing back rank hard power driven imperialism including land grabs and simply threatening everyone else. These guys built up an entire worldview condemning any and all advancements made to society through the 20th century, or the first two decades of the 21st. They wanna go back to when women were in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant, men worked 100 hours a week without complaining or served on the front lines of some glorious war of conquest, minorities "knew their place" under Jim Crow, and all of this LGBT stuff was so stigmatized that in the minds of these people, it never existed. Really, these guys are insane. And their worldview is actually more insane than even I realized. Like, fundamentalist christianity a la noebel is bad enough. But the GOP has gotten worse since then and have regressed into literal longing for a return to the 19th century, and all of its social ills. Because their culture, their narratives, tell them that that's when America was great and everything sicne was a mistake.
And as long as they control the educational system, they can brainwash the people into their way of thinking. Heck, that's why they rebelled so hard against SCOTUS decisions from the 1960s that removed religion from schools. Religion is a source of their power. With a secular, liberal education, Americans were moving away from their nonsense, and it scared them. Since they are evangelical with their views, and authoritarian in enforcing them, as they see it, the left declared war on them back in the 1960s and they've been fighting a culture war ever since. Even as the left basically doesn't fight it.
And that's the thing. The left...doesnt understand how crazy the right is. They keep trying to meet them half way, which drives themselves further right. The only narratives they pushed back on are the "woke" crap, and even then that stuff is deeply unpopular, even with progressives like myself who see it as sectarian and kind of a "side issue" rather than what should unite the country.
The left does need a cohesive counter narrative to fight the right. It does need its own uniting ethos and counter principles, and wokeism isn't it. That's as divisive as it gets. It's as alienating to wide swaths of americans as it gets. It does little for them, and it demonizes half the country unnecessarily, simply based on their race, gender, etc. It tells them that they need to constantly be sorry for the past, which just makes these guys more prideful. I keep saying it, but wokeism is giving way to fascism in reality. Because fascism is the right wing response to wokeism. Excessive national pride, belief that america was great in the past but no longer is, and believing these weird narratives and mythologies that are more function than fact. And sadly, most americans will go for that over this divisive narrative the left is telling.
Now, one might argue that I'm still "woke" here, since I talk a lot about women and minorities and LGBT+ here. Well, I dont feel like I cant mention them. The past did suck for those groups, and i dont wanna go back to the past. The difference is, I don't make wokeism my entire ideology and theory of everything. It is kind of a side dish. My main course is humanism and human centered capitalism.
I believe the left needs to embody the principles of the new deal economically, and the principles of modernity socially, if it wishes to succeed. But it needs to do it in a way that resonates. The left shouldnt just concede the culture war. It needs its own culture to fight the right's crazy vision with.
BUT...and this is the difference. I'm a bit of a "modernist." I believe in "modernity." Woke people are "postmodernists". They think modernity isnt good enough as its still rooted in racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and a cisgender straight white male bias. And that's the difference.
Again, remember the whole "progressive, conservative, regressive" thing with politics. Culturally, I'm actually a conservative of modernity. I want to maintain the cultural changes that we've made, without going significantly further, and mostly do tweaks from here. I dont see all "progress" as good and for me, "woke" politics is actually kind of alienating and regressive. But conservatives, as we call them, ARE truly regressive. Again, you dont say you romanticize the 1870-1913 era while still being even conservative. No. That's full on regression.
And thats the difference. So as such, I support maintaining a relative defensive status quo on culture, and maybe push for more inclusivity and progress as it fits within a modernist libertarian ethos, but I'm pretty much the incrementalism guy on that front.
my big progressive shifts are on economics, where I actually do want to tear down this entire conservative mythology of hard work and "this is what america is" and to promote a secular humanist vision of the economy. I want to maintain the progress of the 20th and 21st centuries mostly and build on them, but I'm not really radical outside of my economic views. And quite frankly, i'm only perceived as radical on economics because I have to push back against so much entrenched culture that it's ridiculous. And that's where we come all the way back around to work in the previous article. We DO need to slay all of these conservative holy cows, and build a more modern ethos based on reason, evidence, and skepticism of widely held narratives.
And yeah, I think I'll end there. I just discussed two heads of the same hydra, and I really see little use in continuing further right now. I just wanted to get some thoughts out while they were fresh.
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