Yes, Virginia, There Is A Culture War
By Margaret Snyder (08/29/04)
Lately I’ve noticed that when pundits on the left refer to the culture war they put it in quotes or they say “the so-called culture war”. This is because, as the aggressor in the culture war, the left, trying to wipe out western civilization, can best achieve its goal by saying, “Culture war? What culture war?” Here is one tiny example of the reality of the culture war.
A national syndicated radio medical-advice show host recently reported on the findings of a study on the effectiveness of group therapy in treating depression. The most interesting finding of the study, he said, was that group therapy was found to be effective for women, but not for men.
I don’t know about you, but I did not find that to be a shocker. What did shock me was the conclusion the talk show host drew from this finding. Before I divulge what that was, I would ask you to consider the finding, assume its validity, and decide what should be the next step, given that depressed women benefit from group therapy and depressed men do not.
Would you conclude that
A) we should seek other ways to treat depression in men
or
B) we should teach men to share their feelings more?
Depending on your answer, I’ll bet I can guess your political leaning and your opinion on a whole host of apparently unrelated issues. (This ability to divine a person’s thoughts from one opinion is not a gift of mine, but something I have learned from Thomas Sowell’s book “Conflict of Visions.”)
If you chose A, you are conservative. You chose that answer because you believe human nature doesn’t change. You think people are pretty much the way they have always been. Ideas and attitudes may come and go, but human nature doesn’t change. You also believe that there are innate differences between the sexes that cannot be changed. Perhaps you had sons and found that even if you didn’t buy them toy guns, they turned ANY household object into a gun. You probably hold conservative opinions on most issues, because conservative opinions are grounded in this vision of human nature.
If you chose B, as the talk show host did, you are liberal. You believe that human nature is always evolving and improving. Also, you tend to believe that the differences between the sexes are mostly cultural, a product of our upbringing. Well, an effort has been underway for a generation to make men more like women. (I recommend “The War Against Boys” by Christina Hoff Sommers.) On the surface, it would appear to have been a successful effort, judging by the cultural values we see positively portrayed in the movies, on TV, in textbooks and among the educated elite, who have learned to display the politically correct attitudes and beliefs. The fact that men are still not susceptible to group therapy, however, would suggest that the change is, indeed, only superficial.
It is curious that this particular radio personality regularly describes himself as “non-partisan” and declares that he is merely on the side of “common sense”. And so he is if your vision of the world includes the idea that human nature can be altered. Conservatives believe that this vision is a (dangerous) fantasy.
These differences of opinion are repeated in matters large and small in every aspect of our social and political life. They derive from conflicting views of the human condition and they are an example of what the culture war is about. These conflicting views are what this election is about and why we are more divided than we have been perhaps since the election of 1864.
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