Culture Wars

Culture Wars

What absurdities will we next see in this inexorable movement away from some semblance of sanity, toward a topsy-turvy world based on such newspeak mores as “social justice”, “political correctness”, “gender diversity”, “#metoo awareness”, “masculine toxicity”, and on and on.

Now I’m an old curmudgeon who has lived a long time and seen many past social trends.  That doesn’t mean that I’m stuck in the past or in any way partial to it, or that I can’t think rationally.

But frankly these last 20 years of millennial liberal and leftist thinking has defied all reason and common sense.  The overall result is to drive the democrat party, always in the past the sturdy blue collar opposition to corporate over-reaches, to become an aristocratic elite, dictating what is good for “the great unwashed”.

This cultural trend has resulted in a world-wide surge of populism and typically right wing backlash against the “social justice” elitists. Ready examples are Brexit, Trump’s election in the U.S., European right wing parties such as UKIP in Britain, AfD in Germany, Lega Nord in Italy and many others.

So we have the leftist social justice movements, based originally on humanitarian concerns, but overtaken by elitist, in your face, “we know better”, thinking on the one hand, and a reactionary, populist, almost Fascist opposition on the other hand, with social media fueling both with memes and pithy derogations.

Treading the cultural waters these days is somewhat problematic, particularly for someone born and raised in the rough and tumble society of rural Massachusetts, Boston and New York City in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s.  Back then we knew that all people were equal and were to be treated that way, regardless of color or ethnic background or sexual orientation.  We did not believe that certain groups required special privileges because some past harm had been done to them by a prior society.  We believed that men who abused women, in any way, should be prosecuted. We were not confused about two sexes, or which bathroom to use.  We would never question that marriage was for one man and one woman. 

Now all of the most nonsensical things relating to social justice and political correctness that I enumerated are  being rammed down our throats by the cultural elitists and political activists, legislated by increasingly leftist democrats in congress and upheld by the courts (typically the Ninth Circuit).

One can argue that the line for common sense and decency is being held by republicans and conservatives in our congress and SCOTUS, but if this were only a political movement.  The movement is cultural, secular, anti-religious.  It has overtaken most of our universities and entertainment and urban thinking.  All we can do is continue to stress pragmatic, common sense, American values in our own cultural interactions.

We laugh and joke and create memes about how naïve and air-headed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has come across in some of her recent postures and statements.  But beyond the “bless her hearts” and condescension looms a deadly serious point of fact – Ocasio-Cortez, and many of her millennial cohorts don’t seem to have a clue as to the historical failure of socialism-communism-Marxism-collectivism-statism, and their offshoots.  They seem to be blissfully unaware that the “socialism” brand has never worked anywhere, at any time, and has, in fact resulted in unspeakable suffering and death wherever it has been attempted.

Venezuela is the most recent example of the degradation of the richest country in South America a quarter century ago to people eating from garbage cans for sustenance right now because of unchecked “socialism”.  One can easily reference the suffering and loss of lives caused by socialism/communism in Europe, Asia, the Soviet Union and China in the 20^th century.

Some will say, “what about Nordic socialism that seems to work so well”?  Ask a Dane or Swede or Norwegian if they are socialist, and they will laugh you out of their highly capitalist countries.  They have had 70% taxes and cradle to grave care for their hard-working and homogenous populations, but they are strongly capitalist, rather than socialist.

There is a real danger that we can truly be afflicted by the socialist curse, particularly when old Marxists like Bernie Sanders take up the cause, and since many leftist beliefs concerning identity politics, globalism, income equality dovetail so neatly with the socialist agenda.

Just when you think you’ve seen everything in our Washington, D.C. circus, along comes the current crop of green (sic) congressional social justice, socialist democrat warriors, ostensibly led by (all of 29 years old),  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known by the initialism, AOC.

She is a social media phenomenon, as I’m sure anyone’s millennial granddaughter who was suddenly elected to congress, who had thumbs, and a voice, and who was somewhat photogenic, would be.  Already, one of her accomplishments is to teach some of those congressional septuagenarians the intricacies of Twitter and Instagram.

Congresspersons are law makers, and most of its members have law degrees.  AOC’s BA degree from Boston University is in economics, and she is ever so proud of it, going around asking  “ I wonder how many other members of congress have degrees in economics like I do?”

Her pronouncements on proposed government programs and budgets makes one wonder how much attention she was paying in those college economics classes.  Among other things, she does not seem to know where the commas and decimals go in large numbers.

But that’s not all.  AOC has been steeped in the rhetoric and dialogue, not only of leftist “social justice” and “political correctness”, but also of “democratic socialism”, the current incarnation of Marxist thought.  So what comes out of her stream of consciousness is a continuing diatribe of high blown social programs that (at least currently), have no chance of either political or economic (sic) success.

AOC's response to any kind of criticism of her far out ideas is to play the "woman" card or the "person of color" card.  She is unashamedly bigoted, and tries to reverse that bigotry.

When she first made the national scene by beating Joe Crowley in the New York 14th congressional district primary, the reaction to her inane TV pronouncements were “what an idiot”, or, in Texas, “well bless her soul”.  It was evident though, that this person and what she represented politically could be extremely toxic, and I wrote as much on social media back then.

This has been borne out as the 116th congress convened.  AOC has become a touchstone and  icon for the movement of the democrat party toward the extreme left and toward Marxist “democratic socialism”.  Her vocalisms and social media activity emphasize her role as the “darling of the extreme left”.  Her antics in the halls and corridors of congress, “seeking Pelosi”, “where’s Mitch?” have kept her in the news.  She seems to have taken a lesson from another charismatic New Yorker who sits just up the road, and also knows how to use his thumbs.

Ray Gruszecki

Jan 15, 2019