Good morning John, after re-reading your post it reminded me of a book I read years ago entitled "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenence", the author spent four chapters trying to come to a definition of what "quality" meant.
Since, as you've so eloquently put, definitions become a stumbling block, you'll just have to accept mine in regard to culture. :)
Culture is the shared mental image of a group of people. It incorporates their experiences, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, ideals and is the ultimate product of their history and identity. Culture acts as a default decision making system when you lack one individually.
Culture is like a blanket which surrounds and protects a society. When members of a society attempt to change a culture, it's like a strand of fiber being pulled from the blanket loosening the fabric. You never know where the effect will end. Law, is subservient to culture. When the mores shift, the laws inevitably shift along with them.
The generation that built America declared American independence based on self-evident truths. Yet, for all of their accomplishments, they could not guarantee the success of our nation. Sure, they designed laws which would encourage good habits of government. But, as Emile Durkheim once said. "Where mores are sufficient laws are unnecessary, where mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable".
What has endured is the culture they created. It has provided the blanket and given us the mores to follow the laws as set forth in the constitution, and the vision as set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
I don't believe a nation could survive if its citizens stopped believing its culture was worth saving. "We hold these truths to be self-evident" is not a morally relative position. NEA members who published that curriculum believe in a philosophy of moral relativism and thus reject distinctions between good and evil.
After September 11th, it is hard to deny that there is evil in the world, and that there is good.
If the United States continues to believe that its culture is not only different from, but better than a radical Islamic culture, we will remain strong during this time of conflict. But if we ever come to believe that we are too enlightened ever to risk our safety in something as primitive as war, then all the most sophisticated weapons in the world will not save us.
We should be proud of our unique culture, and the NEA should not hesitate to teach how we differ from a radical Islamic one on 9/11. |
