As someone with an undergraduate minor degree in Sociology, I feel as qualified as any “blogger’ to pontificate on the subject of American Culture and its prognosis of being on ‘Life Support.’
Sociology deals in facts such as geographic, demographic and psychographic data: superficial statistics ‘cooked’ into information that can translate into some meaningful “knowledge” for those who are trained to interpret such information. This is primarily an endeavor that requires the “physical” and “intellectual” aspects of our being. America has seemingly become enamored with this facet of our collective existence over the last century or so. The media continually feasts on such one-dimensional ‘news’ reporting/editorializing about ALL things people and events.
Without being too derogatory, these evaluations are fairly ‘shallow’ in that they only detail the “who, what, when and where” of the experiences. To me, the real ‘gold’ of assessment is in the “how?” and the “why?” That is precisely the difference I see in the term “Culture” versus that of “Sociology.” Social Sciences play an important role in our lives and contribute much to a basic understanding we have of ourselves and our groups. As I see it, we have become overwhelmed with the mega aspects of our meta society at the expense of what made America great–a never-before and unique “Culture.”
I am seeing The United States at the ‘intersection’ of Society Avenue and Culture Boulevard. The choice we make whether turning at this ‘crossroad’ or continuing ‘straight’ will have implications and ramifications beyond our ability to comprehend at this time. Culture deals with the composite “meaning” of what it is to be an American. It is an activity that comprises both the “spiritual” and “emotional” components of our being and therefore is more about the ‘truths’ that we collectively believe. The heart and the soul are certainly more crucial to our practical daily living than the academics of studies and experiments.
With Sociology, we have ‘collections’ of elements like age, gender, race, religion, income, education, etcetera. These are much like the ‘visible’ ingredients in a pot of chili: one can see the meat, the beans, the tomatoes and the onions. Culture is the individual ‘value’ for every person who belongs to any given organization. It is much more difficult to articulate and like “love” or “beauty,” and is very much in “the eye of the beholder.”
Like the “liquid” portion of the chili, once mixed it is almost impossible to identify let alone ‘separate’ the salt, pepper or other spices. Since I think America is more like a ‘blended’ chili (or stew) rather than a “melting pot,” it is the mixing of the ‘spices’ (people’s spirit) of those intangible ingredients in the ‘liquid’ that makes ALL the difference and can NOT be easily extracted. Otherwise, why would anyone ever bother to have a chili “cook off” competition where all entries have the same basic ingredients save for the “mixing” proportions?
Just as there are different preferred chilis (contest winners), there are differently preferred “team cultures;” “school cultures:’ “religious cultures;” “business cultures:” and of course “governmental cultures.” (local/state/regional/national/continental/planetary?). While hard to define using our limitations of ‘words,’ much like “pornography,” we KNOW it when we SEE it! Although, Culture is more of ‘spiritual feeling’ than a “seeing.”
Trying to re-discover/get back to our ‘successful’ and ‘original’ United States Culture is what Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement is all about. He has more of a Business approach to the movement while my ‘take’ is more Academic, but we are primarily saying the same thing. Whether we want to “get back to basics” or “don’t fix what is NOT broken,” the problem is that we have lost our ‘way’ from what made our Culture unique and oh-so-special. Most often, true Leaders have a “vision” for the future and provide ‘directions’ for the Followers to get where they ‘need’ to go. In this case, MAGA is more of a “Back-to-the-Future” vision since WE have been there before but have just miscalculated our bearings.
I fully realize that, by definition “progressives” believe that anything PRIOR is “regress” and antithetical to the ONLY direction movement should happen. The difference is that the secret to our “success” before, now and in the future is anchored in the foundation of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and other seminal written documents. Forward “Progress” can be fully accommodated by the provision for unlimited Amendments.
It might be easier and neater to “throw out the baby with the bathwater,” but we all might be wiser to let the “baby” continue to grow into adulthood while providing all the help, support and guidance along its natural (God-given) journey. It is like when a newly-hired head coach fires the entire staff rather than evaluate each assistant individually to decide who should go and who should stay? This all-or-nothing approach reflects more on the insecurity and incompetence of the manager who values fear-based loyalty over longitudinal contributions.
While the United States Culture is by no means perfect, with plenty of room improvement, it is most certainly worth ‘saving.’ The first step in improving is always “acceptance” of ‘WHO’ we are and ‘WHERE’ we actually are? I contend that Sociology can tell us the statistical details of various ‘waves’ of immigrants but only our Cultural reality can tell us if anyone’s “spirit” is willing to fit in to our dynamic Society?
I can certainly find ‘faults’ in which to criticize our Culture but that is more of a Destructive rather than a Constructive exercise. Others (jealous?) have viewed America as being brutally competitive; conspicuously consumptive; wasteful of natural resources; overly litigious; unrefined; arrogant; bullying and in a term, a Capitalistic modus operandi. I guess “guilty as charged” BUT our place in history (God’s plan?) is for America to provide a “Land of Opportunity” in which people without a ‘silver spoon’ birthright have a CHANCE, not a GUARANTEE for upward mobility. Like any game of “chance,” the odds are with the ‘house,’ NOT the ‘player.’ The odds are simply better in the US than anywhere else just like the odds are better in Blackjack than in Roulette. One has to be able to “know how to play the game,” however, lest they be relegated to ONLY the (no skill) slot machines (worst odds of all). So, if one does not like the USA odds, simply find a better place; just like moving on to a different ‘casino’ down on the ‘strip.’
Let me be clear, I am not saying that America is the ONLY place to live or even the BEST place to live. Just like there is not only one team to ‘root’ for or only one school to get a good education. Why live in Kansas City and root against the Chiefs or go to Harvard and root for Yale, however? When in ‘Rome’ do what the Romans do or move. Do not get a dog and then be mad because you have to walk it, and it won’t ‘meow’ for you. There are a lot of really great countries in the world, and they have their own Cultures as well, nice and good Cultures, just NOT our Culture. Our Culture (Biblical?) is one which teaches one how to fish, does not give (entitlement charity unless one is truly in ‘need’) one any fish. So, “FISH or cut bait!” There are always societal ‘problems’ that are handled by people’s free will choices.
In an attempt to be ‘too’ great and ‘more’ powerful than maybe we should, (going in the same direction), we can still make that ‘turn’ at that intersection (Culture/Sociology). It might be time for our genuine Leaders to RE-Focus on those priorities which made us APPROPRIATELY “great and powerful” in the first place. While we have been keeping ‘score’ using “materialism” for points, we have forgotten about things like: “It’s HOW you play the game.”(NOT winning at all costs). Things like honor, integrity, dignity, character and principles of truth have taken a ‘backseat’ in our thoughts, words and deeds. These qualities are much more long-lasting than ‘things’ and therein was the ‘secret’ (not the Seacrest) to our once great Culture. Just as many ‘addictive’ types have to hit “rock bottom” before a full realization of the seriousness of said addiction, I believe America is pretty close to that point and the reason for my bereavement. Not hopeless or without faith, however.
So, how does a ‘deathbed’ condition turn into a resuscitation? Certainly not by making funereal arrangements like the progressive left tries to do. How about Leaders in all facets of society stop “managing” Sociological factors and start “role modeling” the Cultural components of behavioral that we want/expect?
NOTE: THE NEXT BLOG ENTITILED “THE HELL CURVE” WILL GIVE MORE SPECIFIC DETAILS ON SUCH ASPECTS. LOOK FOR IT!