Seminar paper on subject American culture and civilization

Theme: The conflict between traditional and liberal worldviews in American studies

Manufactured by: Darko Markovski

Menthor: M-r Marija Kukubajska

June, 2011

Content :

1. The Culture wars..3 2. Origins.3 3. American 1980s culture wars4 4. American 1990s culture wars4 5. American 1990s culture wars....5 6. American 2000s culture wars.6 9. Regional culture wars......8 10.References.9

1. The Culture wars

The culture war (or culture wars) in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal. The "culture war" is sometimes traced to the 1960s and has taken various forms since then.

2. Origins The concept of a "culture war" has been in use in English since at least its adoption as a (loan translation) to refer to the German Kulturkampf ("cultural struggle" or "struggle between cultures"; literally, "battle of cultures"), the campaign from 1871 to 1878 under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the German Empire against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. "Culture war" is a calque generalizing the idea of these kinds of struggle. Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci presented in the 1920s a theory of cultural hegemony to explain the slower advance, compared to many Marxists' expectations, of proletarian revolution in Europe. This stated that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by one class that has a monopoly over the mass media and popular culture, and Gramsci argued for a "culture war" in which anti-capitalist elements seek to gain a dominant voice in mass media, education, and other mass institutions.

As an American phenomenon, its origin was in the 1920s when urban and rural American values came into clear conflict. This followed several decades of immigration to the cities by elements considered alien by the earlier immigrants and was a result of the cultural shifts and modernizing trends of the Roaring 20s, culminating in the presidential campaign of Al Smith.

3.American 1980s culture wars

The American 1980s culture wars were characterized by the conservative climate during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. Members of the religious right often criticized academics and artists, and their works, in a fight against what they considered indecent, subversive, and blasphemous. They often accused their political opponents of undermining traditaion, Western civilization nd family values.

4.American 1990s culture wars . The expression was introduced again by the 1991 publication of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia. In it, Hunter described what he saw as a dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture. He argued that on an increasing number of "hot-button" defining issues abortion, gun politics,separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, censorship issues there had come to be two definable polarities. Furthermore, it was not just that there were a number of divisive issues, but that society had divided along essentially the same lines on each of

these issues, so as to constitute two warring groups, defined primarily not by nominal religion, ethnicity, social class, or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world views. Hunter characterised this polarity as stemming from opposite impulses, toward what he refers to as Progressivism and Orthodoxy. The dichotomy has been adopted with varying labels, including, for example, by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly who emphasizes differences between "SecularProgressives" and "Traditionalists". In 1990 commentator Pat Buchanan mounted a campaign for the Republican nomination for President of the United States against incumbent George H. W. Bush in 1992. He received a prime time speech slot at the 1992 Republican National Convention, which is sometimes dubbed the "'culture war' speech". During his speech, he said: "There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself." In addition to criticizing "environmental extremists" and "radical feminism," he said public morality was a defining issue: The agenda Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton would impose on America abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country. A month later, Buchanan elaborated that this conflict was about power over society's definition of right and wrong. He named abortion, sexual orientation and popular culture as major fronts and mentioned other controversies, including clashes over the Confederate Flag, Christmas and taxpayer-funded art. He also said that the negative attention his talk of a culture war received was itself evidence of Americas polarization. 5

When Buchanan ran for President in 1996, he promised to fight for the conservative side of the culture war: I will use the bully pulit of the Presidency of the United States, to the full extent of my power and ability, to defend American traditions and the values of faith, family, and country, from any and all directions. And, together, we will chase the purveyors of sex and violence back beneath the rocks whence they came.

5.American 2000s culture wars

In a 2004 column, Pat Buchanan said the culture war had reignited and that Americans no longer inhabited the same moral universe. He gave such examples as same-sex civil unions, the "crudity of the MTV crowd," and the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. He wrote: Who is in your face here? Who started this? Who is on the offensive? Who is pushing the envelope? The answer is obvious. A radical Left aided by a cultural elite that detests Christianity and finds Christian moral tenets reactionary and repressive is hell-bent on pushing its amoral values and imposing its ideology on our nation. The unwisdom of what the Hollywood and the Left are about should be transparent to all . Peter Beinart, best known as a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, argued in a January 2009 column for The Daily Beast that the new election of Barack Obama as President could be the beginning of the end for American culture war. He wrote:

When it comes to culture, Obama doesnt have a public agenda; he has a public anti-agenda. He wants to remove culture from the political debate. He wants to cut our three-sided political game back down to two... Barack Obama was more successful than John Kerry in reaching out to moderate white evangelicals in part because he struck them as more authentically Christian. Thats the foundation on which Obama now seeks to build. He seems to think there are large numbers of conservative white Protestants and Catholics who will look beyond culture when they enter the voting booth as long as he and other Democrats dont ram cultural liberalism down their throats. In response, author and writer Rod Dreher stated in a Real Clear Politics column that the rhetoric of a culture war disguises the fact that American society truly is deeply divided on some moral issues, which is not an artificial creation of political parties seeking to drum up support. He wrote that the economic positions of the Democratic Party are generally popular enough that, if it chose to drop polarizing social issues, it would become a majority party in ongoing control. He describes the culture war as "inevitable." Columnist Ross Douthat, then with The Atlantic, wrote that he had "a lot to agree with" Beinart, but he stated that what Obama and his supporters seem to be doing is "winning" the culture wars for their side rather than coming to some kind of compromise. In a February 2009 column in The New York Times, William Saletan stated that a holistic mix of left-wing and right-wing would come out of the culture wars. He wrote, "morality has to be practical, and that practicality requires morals." He concluded that conservatives should embrace family planning as a way to reduce abortion and government assistance while liberals should embrace personal responsibility, which means that unprotected sex is criticized "bluntly." He also advocated same sex marriage as a way to lead LGBT Americans to an "ethic of mutual support and sacrifice" involving stricter personal responsibility.

6.Regional culture wars

The culture war (or culture wars) in Canadian usage is a metaphor used to describe the current polarization between the different values of Canadians. This can be framed to describe West versus East, rural versus urban or traditional values versus progressive secularism. The "culture war" is a relatively new phrase to enter within Canadian political commentary. However it can still be used to describe historical events within Canada, such as the Rebellions of 1837, Western Alienation, Quebec separatism, and any Aboriginal conflicts in Canada. The term is more so relevant to current events such as the Caledonia conflict with Natives and the increasing amount of hostility between Conservative Canadians and Liberal Canadians. The culture war expression is relatively new to Canadian political commentary, but its usage has sparked considerably in the recent year due to prorogation rallies, abortion and the gun registry.

7.References :
*** *** *** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war http://www.theamericancause.org/patculturewars.htm http://www.google.com/