Tag Archives: Culture
“We Americans have never been all that comfortable with patriarchy in the strict sense of the word…”
“One way or another, the Frankfurt School mode of criticism—its skeptical ardor, its relentless scouring of mundane surfaces—has spread far…”
“From the start, American culture was notably resistant to the claims of parental authority and the imperatives of adulthood”
“…in doing away with patriarchal authority, we have also, perhaps unwittingly, killed off all the grown-ups”
“Culture appears more monolithic than ever…. Technology conspires with populism to create an ideologically vacant dictatorship of likes”
“Weird Al has been cool for so long because pop makes everybody feel uncool; that he is the only one to admit it has made him a pop star”
“The old hierarchy of high and low has become a sham: pop is the ruling party”
A Simple Political Divide
…the real division in the nation: between those who want to have a culture war and those who don’t. At election time, political candidates need simultaneously to “rally the base”, which includes a heavy quotient of culture warriors, and to “appeal to the center”, meaning the majority (often left of center on economic issues), which sees health care, education, jobs, taxes, and national security as central concerns trumping gay marriage or abortion. The result is a strained, dysfunctional, and often dishonest political dialogue based on symbolic utterances. Hot-button questions that rally particular sectors of the electorate – and draw listeners and viewers to confrontational radio and television programs – preempt serious discussion of what ails American culture and society.
E.J. Dionne Jr., Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith & Politics After the Religious Right (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008), 50.