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Mar. 25, 2006 It’s what everybody is thinking about these days. Talking heads say they’ve never seen such division. So what is this Culture War? What is all this noise really about? Simply stated the Culture War is an attempt to answer the question; “What do we do with the needy and the stupid?” Everybody falls in on one side or the other or in some ways both. Philosophically the two real choices are; do we just come together as a society and through government largesse make sure all the needy and stupid are taken care of, or do we force the needy and stupid to work, jump through hoops, seek charity, and deal with their families. From this basic quandary we get “the division”. On the perimeters of this argument we have all number of groups who are working to gain advantage while the treaty negotiations are underway. This is really why “war” is such an apt term for this philosophical clash. The vultures always seek to profit from it. The fact is that neither philosophical argument really works. The “Left” argument gets really ugly when we try to determine how much largesse and for what, and how do we afford this largesse as a society? The “Right” argument fails when the needy and stupid start dying in the streets, and they will, after all they are needy and stupid. What has to be acknowledged is that these two philosophies have to work in balance. I can see no other solution. It is inherent that we help the needy and the stupid, but not so much that they aren’t forced to jump through hoops and deal with their families. The “Right’ has to understand that we need some institutional involvement. The “Left” needs to understand that we actually do more harm if the needy and stupid aren’t forced to jump through some hoops. We should all be able to agree on this basic premise. As to the groups, “vultures”, who are leveraging for advantage through this debate, they serve a noble purpose of forcing all of us to consider the details as nasty or as ridiculous as they may be. So to the purists I as ask, “Can you agree to this basic premise?” Can you see the practicality of framing the argument on the concept of balance? I just don’t see that there is any other workable option. What I’m proposing does have the downside of resulting in a never ending battle to define balance. That of course means that the Culture War will never really end. Frankly, it shouldn’t ever end; it’s what keeps us growing, keeps us fighting toward our destiny. The upside is at least we are clear about what we are fighting over. ------------ Email John Eyler: john@johneyler.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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