Beyond the Culture War

Episode 3 Show Notes: Beyond the Culture War

Episode Description: In this episode, we go beyond the culture war to examine disturbing trends within our society. From politics and the news media to entertainment and technology, we are witnessing a cultural transformation negatively affecting all aspects of our society. Professor Giordano explores this rapid change and provides a warning that all listeners must hear.

The big story of the week is President Trump’s reelection rally. I provide 2020 election analysis in future episodes once there is more clarity. I want to make three observations:

As far as the rally goes, Trump supporters are fired up. Also, people should take notice of the crowd size and enthusiasm. The only Democrat that could even compare with getting supporters to their rally is Bernie Sanders. Does anyone envision Joe Biden speaking before 20,000 enthusiastic supporters?
Media and pundits are spending an enormous amount of time focusing their coverage on the polls. Polls are irrelevant this far out, and they should not waste people’s time with nonsense. There are much more important stories to cover that they completely ignore.
The tension with Iran is increasing as Iran reportedly shot down a U.S. Drone. I’ll provide more analysis as the situation continues to flush out.

The Culture War

Throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s, a movement arose to remove any aspect of religion out of our society. From the banning of Merry Christmas to the attempt to remove Under God from the Pledge of Allegiance, fringe zealots attempted an all-out assault on our society.

Thankfully, the movement began to die out. While we do have a separation of church and state, people need to realize this is not enshrined in our Constitution. Our Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” Simply put, the United States cannot endorse any one particular religion over another, and they cannot create a state-sponsored religion. It does not say that religious beliefs do not influence our politics or policies.

Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian philosophies were the basis for the creation of the United States. To say that religion does not and should not play a role in the system is naïve. Also, these philosophies help us to understand human nature. Aristotle noted a few important aspects of human behavior that our founding fathers understood well.

Intellect– The means by which we know things.
Will– The means by which we make choices.

As human beings, we are capable of noble attributes such as love, compassion, empathy, sympathy. We are also capable with negative attributes such as greed, jealousy, envy. This understanding of human behavior is why our Founding Fathers entrusted us with great powers, and at the same time, they institutionalized safeguards within the system.

Examining how we got here

While many of us believed the movement was fizzling out, I began to notice a troubling trend in society. Just take a moment and think about how we treat one another? Think to yourself; are our relationships with others stronger today or weaker? Has community involvement increased or decreased? Do people show more respect for one another or less? Are we happier today than we were 15-20 years ago?

Unfortunately, when we probe these questions and look at our society as a whole, we begin to see something went horribly wrong along the way. Examples:

Major depression is on the rise across all demographics (NBC News/Blue Cross Blue Shield)
The dramatic increase in suicides (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention)
A major increase in drug addiction (S. Department of Health & Human Service)
A steady increase in Active Shooter Incidents (Federal Bureau of Investigations)
An increase in attacks on teachers (American Psychological Association)
A rise in law enforcement officers Line-of-Duty deaths (Federal Bureau of Investigations)
Abuse of retail and other service sector employees is increasing (Loss Prevention Magazine) Oddly, the U.S. does not track customer abuse statistics. However, the U.K. does, and the increase is staggering. Examples
- Black Friday Videos
- We’ve all been behind a customer on the checkout line who is berating an employee for rejecting a coupon that expired six months ago
A debate has begun about partial-birth abortions and infanticide, something both Democrats and Republicans both rejected just several years ago. (Des Moines Registrar)

Our cultural is changing. The lack of regard for human life and lack of respect for one another is clear. With all the evidence, it appears that the negative attributes of human beings are beginning to dominate.

Just look at how we treat each other in everyday life.
Go to the comment section on any news article & by the third comment people are calling each other the vilest of things.

Why is this occurring?

This is causing damage to our relationships and our society as a whole. We need to explore what has brought us to this point.

Changes to the family unit
- One-third of children living in a single parent household (Pew Research)
- 40% of children now being born out of wedlock (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention)
- Increase in both parents working in two-parent households (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Changes to the idea of parenting
- Started with the hippy generation
- Many raised in strict households and so they were going to raise their kids in a different way
- Many parents in today’s world prefer to be their kid’s friend as opposed to the parent. They want their children to think they are cool
- Began putting children on pedestals
- Want to live life through their child

Changes within societal norms
- A constant need to reinforce self-esteem
  - Everyone gets a trophy mentality rather than teach kids about winning and losing (Psychology Today)
  - Attempt to shield children from anything/anyone bad
  - A push to end grades in schools (NY Times)

The customer is always right
- Created a system where bad behavior is rewarded
- If you scream and yell, ultimately you get what you want
- Corporations in the search for more profit, hold the customer over the treatment of their employees

A culture dominated by materialism
- In the U.S. we define success with how much stuff we have
- Creates an environment where people are never satisfied and always competing to have more

Technology
- This has had one of the most far-reaching implications than anything else

- When new technologies emerged, the idea was this would bring us closer together, make our lives easier, and allow us to gain endless knowledge
  - The exact opposite has happened

- Human beings are flawed. Therefore, anything we touch or create is flawed as well.
  - Cars = accidents/DWI/death
  - Nuclear power clean and efficient = Nuclear bombs that can wipe out millions
  - The Internet gives us the ability to learn about anything = Use it for clicks, likes, useless videos, pornography, and gambling

- While certain aspects have been positive (i.e., seek support from people with similar problems, learn about topics, rapid communication, bill pay, etc.), the technology has:
  - Increased our work when we should be spending more time with our families

- - Made us grow further apart in our relationships as we are more distracted than ever before, and no longer have human-human contact
    - Spend more time on our devices than with actual humans
    - Contact is more human-machine-human
    - When communicating through machines, we lose a piece of humanity. We begin to lose the good characteristics of empathy and compassion
    - Say things we would never say to someone’s face
    - Cyberbullying is a 24/7 cycle (National Education Association)
    - If we factor in 8hrs. of sleeping, we are up for 16 hours a day, and the average user spends 4.5 hours on their device and checks it 77 times throughout the day (Chicago Tribune)
    - More isolated than ever before
    - The technology was supposed to connect us and bring us closer together, but now we are strangers living amongst each other

- - Social Media makes us bitter and resentful
    - The more social media is used, the more depressed one gets (American Medical Association)
    - We perceive everyone having better lives than us even though nothing is real (i.e., explain pictures)
    - Tech and likes act as dopamine (Harvard University)

- - Upcoming generations who have more schooling than any previous generation know less than those from previous generations and only spend 38 minutes a day reading (Kaiser Family Foundation)
    - Even when we read, we are distracted
    - We no longer retain information as we used to (University of Michigan)

The current trend needs to reverse course; otherwise, the problems will continually get worse.

There is little government can do because the government cannot regulate parenting, screen time, being nice to others, etc.
We must get more engaged in our community, and start to change our cultures within our own spheres that we can influence

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