MB Civic

Culture War ll ~ The Money Scene
by Brad Parker
When Obama declared the Culture War over and the battles of the 60’s a thing of the past he was dead wrong. He knows that now. He is just a little too young to know where they came from and thus where they are going.

The beats and the squares, the hips and the straights, these were the two sides that finally exploded against each other in 1968. The catalyst? Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, Voting Rights and most importantly Vietnam and the Corporate dominance of society ~ the Military Industrial complex.

The “last chance” for the White Right passed by in the 50’s. When I was kid back then we actually did go to the ice cream parlor to hang out with our friends. I came from the small town America that was overwhelmed by the urbanization wave. In search of better jobs and college education, we ended up in the suburbs with the majority of America. That was where the Culture War began. The sterile world of our parents, brimming with every possible prejudice and banality, Mad Men on steroids, alienated a critical mass of the boomers. Then came Rock and Roll, Soul and FM radio, underground newspapers, love-ins, festivals, communes, long hair and you know the rest.

Those of us who chose the Future became the natural enemy of those who stayed behind in the Past or those who only wanted to get to the Country Club and all that money, like Bill Clinton. The fear of “others” is natural in the conservatives of both parties. Multi-Culti with social freedom and business regulation is the end of their imagined small town life. No more war machine is the end of white dominance. They are correct in all of that.

I am so pleased that I was born when I was so that I could know the Pre and Post World War ll America and participate in the Great Upheavals of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The best part has been meeting all of you. There’s a lot more to do together and with any luck Obama has experienced the world as it is and not his dream state that he came in with. Who knows, maybe he will do something important the second time around and even better ~ maybe we will too!

further…

B rad

~ This is a comment on an article sent to me by my friend Joye Swan. It is by Jonathan Chait. It is entitled: “2012 or Never” and discusses the Republican political stratagies of the last few decades and their social and cultural underpinnings. It is based on their real fears of losing political and cultural dominance to minorities. It is an excellent read. You can find it here: http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/gop-primary-chait-2012-3/