E Pluribus Unum

E Pluribus Unum

I would like to advance a thought on a subject that perhaps we haven’t given much purchase to as we look at what going on in our world today and try to make sense of it all. If we step back and try to list all of the things, from our perspective, that has been going wrong and identify all of the current and potential problems that our country has to face, the list would be as varied in number and subject as there are people making up the lists. This would be so because we all bring a different perspective to the table when we advance an opinion about what constitutes a right or wrong, or, what is a problem or not a problem. Having said all of that, it becomes obvious that personal perspective (e.g., a teenager view versus a senior citizen’s view) is the bottom-up method of constructing a society perspective about what is right or wrong, and, what is a problem or not a problem. For example: a Muslim society, Christian society, Secular society and a Spiritual society would each look and behave differently because each society is a composite of all the people that make-up those societies and each society in general would be reflective of the beliefs and values of the people in common. If you again step back, and look at what has just been said, I think we all would agree that what we are discussing here is the culture of a given society. The subject of culture is the subject I alluded to in the beginning of this discussion. For the record, let’s give Webster’s definition of the most pertinent meaning of culture from an Anthropology perspective, to wit: the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of humans beginnings and transmitted from one generation to another. It has always been an opinion of mine that culture is the single most important factor when trying to understand what is happening and why it is happening to us. Bearing in mind, of course, that culture is never static. Culture is dynamic and is always changing because it is made up of continuously changing people. I believe that culture is the only way of understanding what is going on in our society because most of what goes on is simply reflective of what our changing culture now believes and values. For example, rampant greed is understandable if the culture has changed from a spiritual society governed by beliefs in a higher order morality about honesty, fairness, truthfulness, etc., into a secular culture that is now governed by the notion that materialistic things are more important than spiritual things and therefore society has come to believe that “Greed is Good.” So condemning greed as the culprit that is ruining our country offers no way of correcting the offense of greed because greed is only a symptom of what a changing culture has spawned. The only way that greed can be brought to bay is a culture change from a Secular society that believes materialistic things are paramount into some different kind of society that comes to believe that materialistic things are not paramount and therefore, “Greed is Bad.” If we are to correct what we think is wrong and is a problem for our society then we must first understand what caused our culture to change in the first place. I will advance, for your consideration, four events I believe caused the greatest changes in our society that has in turn changed our culture and spawned so many of what many of our citizens think are our troubles and problems of today. Bear in mind that all of the citizens might not think that that our culture has changed for the worst, because after all, this is our new culture and this culture reflects the new values and beliefs of the majority. I believe the pace of change quickened in our culture as a result of the great depression and is the first of four great events that changed our culture the most. The great depression was the event that caused people to vow that they would never again deprive their families of the materialistic necessities of life and so began that transformation into a more materialistic society. The second great event that occurred was World War II. World War II facilitated the actual liberation of women by unshackling females from home and family and thereby into equal and full citizens. The actual equality of women that WWII facilitated began the transformation into a more liberal society. The third great event was the creation of civil rights by inclusion of civil rights into the Constitution. The civil rights codified into law and practice transformed guaranteed society rights into guaranteed individual rights and thus began the transformation of a homogeneous society into an individual and special interest society. The fourth, and I think the event of utmost importance, was society’s acceptance of the notion of diversity rather than the guiding principal of E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). This event completed the transformation from a homogeneous and “melting pot” society that allowed for a unified culture into a discontinuous society with no unified culture at all. The notion of diversity has promoted the acceptance of subcultures (drug culture, race culture, science culture, this culture and that culture and has resulted in no viable culture at all. The point being that some of the things that facilitated the making of a great country, like basic honesty, truthfulness and fairness were products of a unified culture and these cultural traits made business easy and profitable, human relations civil, and in general, made for a just and fair society without the necessity of endless laws and courts to enforce what was willing enabled by the force of culture. Finally, the current fractured culture we now have will continue to change as events dictate and the troubles and problems attendant to our current situation will remain unresolved because they are a product of our culture. However, there are a large number of people, particularly the young, who believe in the culture we now have and nothing short of a great event will change things in a meaningful way regardless of how some of the citizens think. But never ever forget, it is now and forever, The Culture.