The second part of the second-to-last sentence is the key one..."devoted to our best traditions". There is no longer basic agreement on what those "best traditions" are, largely because there is no longer basic agreement on the meaning of "freedom" and on how equality should be pursued.
It's clear in retrospect, that the upheavals of the Sixties paved the way for the chasm we see today. Those with what Thomas Sowell has called "the unconstrained vision" declared, then, that America was irredeemably flawed because it wasn't living up to its stated ideals...and over the ensuing five and a half decades, people holding that vision came to dominant academia, K through 12 education, social activism, the Democratic Party, almost every outlet of cultural transmission, and finally Big Tech and the business world.
The problem is, most Americans DON'T subscribe to this vision...either because they merely see the world differently, or because their more modest day to day concerns preclude them from consuming themselves with "how to change the world", according to the commonly understood meaning of that phrase.
The Democratic Party and the American Left, in their drive to enshrine the ideals of the Sixties permanently, have long since ensconced themselves in their own worldview cocoon, and sought in ways big and small to disparage, demonize, and destroy people who are in the way, who they deem inferior, and who they subjectively decide engage in "wrongthink". "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
As someone who produces a podcast about The Fourth Turning, I confront the possibility every day that my content could be removed from YouTube in the blink of an eye, simply because ideas associated with Steve Bannon's name are seen as wrongthink by the people who sit behind desks and in corner offices in Silicon Valley. As a Millennial who has changed political stripes since his 20s, I have the advantage of (A) knowing where the social idealism of the Sixties actually led, (B) understanding that the worldview of "woke" so dominant in people my age and younger didn't come about by accident, and (C) seeing how my generation's decided un-penchant for introspection could provide the margin of difference in taking America to a point where ideological disagreements on any issue are no longer tolerated.
There is plenty of blame and criticism to go around on both sides of the divide. But if the 2020s end up going as badly as I fear they might, the breakup of the country won't come on account of the trucker in Texas, the farmer in Iowa, the insurance salesman in Ohio, or the podcaster in New England who voted for Trump. What's more, it won't be because of the indefensible actions by the rioters on January 6th. It will be because the cosmic justice-seeking crusade by the powers that be on the Left has already taken America to a point of no return.
Paul Zimmy Finn said...
The second part of the second-to-last sentence is the key one..."devoted to our best traditions". There is no longer basic agreement on what those "best traditions" are, largely because there is no longer basic agreement on the meaning of "freedom" and on how equality should be pursued.
It's clear in retrospect, that the upheavals of the Sixties paved the way for the chasm we see today. Those with what Thomas Sowell has called "the unconstrained vision" declared, then, that America was irredeemably flawed because it wasn't living up to its stated ideals...and over the ensuing five and a half decades, people holding that vision came to dominant academia, K through 12 education, social activism, the Democratic Party, almost every outlet of cultural transmission, and finally Big Tech and the business world.
The problem is, most Americans DON'T subscribe to this vision...either because they merely see the world differently, or because their more modest day to day concerns preclude them from consuming themselves with "how to change the world", according to the commonly understood meaning of that phrase.
The Democratic Party and the American Left, in their drive to enshrine the ideals of the Sixties permanently, have long since ensconced themselves in their own worldview cocoon, and sought in ways big and small to disparage, demonize, and destroy people who are in the way, who they deem inferior, and who they subjectively decide engage in "wrongthink". "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
As someone who produces a podcast about The Fourth Turning, I confront the possibility every day that my content could be removed from YouTube in the blink of an eye, simply because ideas associated with Steve Bannon's name are seen as wrongthink by the people who sit behind desks and in corner offices in Silicon Valley. As a Millennial who has changed political stripes since his 20s, I have the advantage of (A) knowing where the social idealism of the Sixties actually led, (B) understanding that the worldview of "woke" so dominant in people my age and younger didn't come about by accident, and (C) seeing how my generation's decided un-penchant for introspection could provide the margin of difference in taking America to a point where ideological disagreements on any issue are no longer tolerated.
There is plenty of blame and criticism to go around on both sides of the divide. But if the 2020s end up going as badly as I fear they might, the breakup of the country won't come on account of the trucker in Texas, the farmer in Iowa, the insurance salesman in Ohio, or the podcaster in New England who voted for Trump. What's more, it won't be because of the indefensible actions by the rioters on January 6th. It will be because the cosmic justice-seeking crusade by the powers that be on the Left has already taken America to a point of no return.
LOVE THAT SHIT!