What Kind of U.S. Culture?
by Judith Richie
Issue 102 - February 27, 2008

S.T. Karnick, in "What Kind of US Culture?" Issue 101, Feb. 13, 2008, has raised some interesting questions (and answers) regarding U.S. Culture.

He begins with, "It is a truism that the right has been losing the culture for the past few decades." He concludes with, "The pursuit of a culture of liberty is the critical first step in reclaiming the American culture." Any conservative would be hard put to contend with his opening or conclusion. However, there appear to be some "ladder links" missing within his discussion, probably by logical "accidents" of both commission and omission.

He states, "What kind of culture we should want is actually an important question that has yet to be answered satisfactorily." I'd say a definition of "sanity" has never been put forth either, yet most of us know what we mean by it and choose to endeavor to remain sane. Similarly by "a conservative culture," what most of us want is a sane culture, where the liberties of none are legally privileged to impose upon the liberties of any. That is what was meant by "liberty and justice for all under the law," as well as "a government of law and not of men." Our Preamble to our Constitution states the legal purposes and responsibilities of our Federal government.

Were it working to provide "a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," there would be no need to discuss or question what sort of culture American people should want. American culture would take care of itself, as it did prior to leftist subterfuge posturing as "law!" And yes, there must be censorship in the public market, for the liberty of all to live in a common decency culture supersedes the privilege of the few who love to publicly thumb their noses at majority pursuit of happiness sensibilities.

I further contend that those capable of reading and understanding our Constitution know precisely what sort of culture we want, one which cannot possibly flourish under leftist "antinomianism" to use his term, generously called "leadership," which controls our legislatures, justice system, commerce, taxation, so called "education," plus government sponsored national and international charity, neither of which was ever intended to be a part of our Federal government's "culture." This includes, as well, imposing on us a vast international migration of visiting hordes (who stay unaccounted for), and who have no idea nor interest in "American culture, or government" beyond how to work the system to gain something for nothing on the backs of a slave-rendered US population.

Mr. Karnick defines culture as "a place." He apparently fails to note that culture is both a noun and a verb. To "culture," says Webster's, is to "produce, develop, improve," all once a very large part of the American culture (and economy) before leftist control. Culture is also "emotions, interests, manners, taste," all of which under Federally controlled education have fairly well "gone with the wind." Finally, culture is "ideas, customs, skills, arts, of a given people in a given period of time." Given leftist "social diversity engineering," and migrant swamping, creating mini-cultures, and cultures against cultures, who can say what any of the above are in terms of "American culture" today? Thus, it seems that under leftist control, American culture per se is either underground, or a thing of the past, and in order to be nurtured it's going to take a whole lot of soul searching and "cross pick up and carrying" by a great many value based Americans, many of whom are immigrants who did not come to America expecting to find themselves living in Asian or Mexican culture.

Furthermore, "value" brings up one more little bone to pick with Mr. Karnick's thoughts on culture: A "value" is not "an idea." Borrowing from Ayn Rand's definition, as good as any, "A value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep." Thus a value is not a passive thing, not an ideal in the mind, but something one is actively engaged in pursuit of achieving, and willing, if necessary, to fight to achieve. Our Founding Fathers understood this! The values of modern America seem to be largely materialistic, as promoted by mainstream Media, Press, and Hollywood. Further, we've become a drug culture, illegal and legal drugs, a "fix it Doc" culture, which is a sign of a sick culture, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. This is predictable in a anarchist, leftist society, which fails to educate or promote anything more important than abortion and contraception; encouraging promiscuity throughout all communication avenues including public education, grades 1-12, and onward to university level, plus failing to assure that crime doesn't pay.

Today we have government anarchy at all levels, with little dictatorial mayors creating city states reminiscent of ancient Greece; little dictatorial governors, and too many dictatorial presidents and congresses, all subjectively writing law antithetical to the American culture, not to mention little dictatorial judges writing law from the bench.

A government which understands, respects, and honors, the value of liberty, and again is willing to fight and lead the fight for it, is essential before we can hope to regain a culture of liberty. I sometimes wonder in how many languages the words "liberty" and "justice" even exist as concepts. This nation was born under them, once signifying the singularly most significant aspects of the American culture.

Judith Richie, Mountain Grove, MO