It was more about those, you know, Negroes. Once you start listen to Negro music, who knows what other bad habits you’ll pick up from them. Music: The ultimate gateway drug! And look what we got-- sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. :eek:
“The Culture War” is another fake war, like “The War On Terror” or “The War On Drugs.” There’s also the “Clash of Civilizations”–a huge surprise to those who slept through history class & missed more than a thousand years of interaction (violent & NOT violent) between Islam & what’s laughingly called “Western Civilization.”
The famous “War on Christmas” is only one front in The Culture War. Last month, the harpies at Concerned Women for America fired the opening salvo in this season’s campaign to “Save Merry Christmas.” (Doesn’t the War on Christmas seem to begin earlier every year?)
The Wiki article gives some intellectual background to the concept but points out that Pat Buchanan’s speech at the 1992 Republican Convention really put the “War” into public discourse.
Other posters have mentioned various conflicts that divided the USA in the last century. Things change & people struggle with change–the country still survives. But–if there’s a War–it can be won! Then the Saved will be Raptured into Heaven & we heathens (agnostics, Muslims, Catholics, etc.) will have to keep struggling.
I refuse to let Pat Buchanan, Bill O’Reilly or Tim LaHaye define reality. And even some Americans with old-fashioned morals may realize that voting the straight Republican ticket is not the Godly thing to do. We’ll see in November.
Read up, then, on the “rise of the Juvenile Delinquent” in the 1950’s- the hysteria associated with the idea of teenagers run amok and lawless, as fostered by movies such as “Rebel Without A Cause”, and which led to political campaigns and pressure groups to ban comic books and anything else seen as ‘leading children astray’.
The culture wars were going on full blast in the 1950’s; it’s just that, like in current Iraq, one side was completely outnumbered and outgunned and had to resort to guerilla tactics and underground movements to stay alive. By the '60’s, they were powerful enough to stand up publicly.
From the National Lampoon classic, “First Blowjob,” by Doug Kenney:
I don’t know if I see this being part of the cuture war. The fear that teenagers would go bad has probably been around as long as teenagers themselves. The motto of L.A. High School as long ago as the 1930s was (paraphrasing) “Mastery of Self–Joy in Service–Obedience to Law: These Constitute Life”.
I see a true culture ware more as a debate between opposing factions of adults, in that neither side has a status-based justification for shouting the other down. In other words, pro-lifers can’t say to pro-choicers, “you’re just a bunch of kids who don’t know what’s what, so shut your mouth.”
Be happy that there is a “culture war” and not a “this is how the culture is, like it or get out”.
I’m curious. Do most perceptions of there being a so-called culture war come from what they see in the news or from their interactions with actual people?
My personal experience is that the people on the far left or far right tend to be a vocal minority with the rest falling somewhere in the middle. The media portrays the whole Red/Blue state thing as if each state has a firm majority one way or the other as if the stage was being set for some climactic battle.
In reality, most Americans fall into different degrees of not giving a shit.
That would be Big Mama Thornton. Some will claim that Elvis ripped off black music, which is a little harsh; after all, all musicians derive their work in part from previous artists. Ultimately, he did them a service: by becoming popular he encouraged the more adventurous to branch out into other artists’ work, including blacks. Thornton’s case is a perfect example: her career was already in decline when Elvis made “Hound Dog” a hit, but his work gave a resurgence to her career; reportedly, she made a good living singing “Hound Dog” on the chitlin circuit. The point here is that while Elvis got press that blacks couldn’t get, he helped bring a greater sense of legitimacy to the genre. Savvy artists knew how to make that pay.
Are you saying there are only two sides? What about us religious liberals and those secular conservatives? :dubious:
The religious liberals are very, very quiet, which means that politically they might as well not exist. The secular conservatives OTOH, apear to find the religious right too good a tool to oppose them, although I have my doubts as to who is really using who.
I feel the same.
Lord, how I despise that wretched generation.
Generationalist bigot. 
Both have been marginalized. Tough shit.