How do you take your coffee? Black? Cream no sugar? Cream and sugar? Or maybe you aren't a coffee drinker at all? Ok... How about eggs? Over easy? Scrambled? Hard boiled? Prefer omelets? Sunny side up? OK... maybe you don't like eggs. How do you like your steak cooked? Anywhere between still mooing and as charred as the dark, scorched sides of Mt. Doom? Did you know that culture (in relation to morality) shares a lot of similarities between how you cook your food and philosophical values? Well allow me to enlighten you. Everyone knows that individuals who eat their steak still dripping blood is pure evil (sarcasm, maybe), but that's besides the point... The same way you mix creamer in your coffee, season your eggs, or cook your steak, it all gives a different texture and taste and reflects the things you put into it. Culture works the same way.
Let me give you something to chew on (no pun intended). Culture is the Consequence of a Collective Credence in a Complete Constitution. I give permission to quote me on that. In other words culture reflects the collective morality in society. Why is this important? If we understand what culture is and how it changes, it can give those who want to be influential a powerful weapon to push back in the culture war.
There is no doubt we are in a culture war presently. This is reflected mostly in the political world but it has seeped into other areas as well which is to be expected. There is a common saying that politics is down stream of culture. This is very true. The opposite is also true (culture is down stream of politics). It all depends on where the power or momentum resides. If the influence is in the government, culture will change based on policy. If the power resides with a strong social movement it is going to reflect through politics due to social pressure . This is how revolutions are started. Either way, there is one thing that drives them all: the credence in which these movements devote themselves to.
We see this in many cultures today. For example middle eastern countries have cultures that reflect their moral beliefs which is also reflected in governmental policies as well as social issues. Latin American culture is largely influenced by Catholicism introduced during Spain's colonization of the central and south American continents. These continents had previously been home to tribal cultures such as the Incan, Mayan and Aztec civilizations which more or less disappeared due to Spanish conquest.
There are multiple biblical/historical examples of both politics changing culture and culture changing politics. For instance, many times when civilizations would conquer other nations they would force them to adopt the conquering nations culture. Biblically, top down culture change came when Babylon conquered Israel. To a degree the Babylonians allowed the Israelites to keep their customs and assimilate, but as we know Daniel (one of God's prophets captured during Babylonian conquest along with many others) had their names changed to reflect Babylonian culture and later on were forced to worship whatever the King commanded under penalty of death. Another Biblical example is when King Josiah purged the nation of Judah of Canaanite idols, even killing the priests who performed child sacrifices to Moloch. Thus policy affecting culture. King Solomon's foreign policy was reflected through his wives when he allowed them to worship their gods in places he himself had built for that purpose, meshing pagan idol worship with what was supposed to be a Theocracy (the nation answering to God directly). This changed because of the mixing of cultures pulling the Israelites away from the very God to Whom King Josiah attempted to pull them.
Change from the bottom up would be best pictured Biblically in Paul's trip to Ephesus when he preached and many turned from worshiping Greek gods, even burning their idols. This affected the merchants who sold idols to the degree that they started a riot in protest to Paul's preaching. Local prefects had to interfere and tell the merchants to solve it civilly in court. We feel the consequences of many bottom up cultural changes today which most influentially came from the American and French Revolutions when Feudalism was challenged by Liberal Democracy. The overthrow of a Monarchy and the founding of a Republic had a large influence on Europe and the western world, all the way through from the end of the Georgian era to the Victorian era that birthed the Industrial revolution.
In our own recent history if we can go back to the 1960s the Counterculture here in America was the driving force behind the many sociocultural changes including the Sexual Revolution which begat shifts in behavior and beliefs about traditional marriage, monogamy, roles of the man and woman inside heterosexual relationships, legalization of abortion, homosexuality and extra-marital sex. All of which were largely stigmatized previous to these sociocultural turns. Simultaneously during this period, China was going through a sociocultural uprising as well. The Cultural Revolution initiated by Mao Zedong. The culture of China itself was attacked when the Red Guards targeted what they called "The Four Olds" (old customs, culture, habits and ideas). The main mission of the movement was to target capitalism and replace it with communism, instilling revolutionary ideas into the younger generation.
Current culture is no different where in the western countries are being undermined by the Left-wing philosophy of Hedonism placing pleasure on a pedestal to be the ultimate pursuit and mission of one's self-drive. Progressives seem to be completely devoted to self-love, self pleasure and self-worship which in turn has affected art, philosophy, literature, entertainment, music and politics: all pillars on which a civilization is built. Our culture which was heavily reliant on Biblical moral values is now the antithesis of this agenda, sparking a cultural revolution in its own right. Similarly, this worship of pleasure as the highest achievement, is the same philosophy the Church of Satan (founded during the Counterculture of the 1960s) adheres to.
Cultural strategies cannot be ignored if the preservation of these values is the mission for conservatives. Fighting culture with culture has proved to be effective in history. Specifically in the United States we have the ability to fight back in both politics and culture. Tools not afforded to most social groups across the modern political world. So how do we fight back with culture and why is it so important that a moral culture be maintained? If you are conservative you undoubtedly have a basic understanding of what is right and wrong. At the very least you understand there are issues, if gone unaddressed, that create social, economical and political problems down the road for any society.
Politics can only enforce issues to the degree of which the law allows. So what about moral issues that aren't necessarily represented by law or policy? These are the issues that exist between culture and politics that still fall on the spectrum of right and wrong otherwise known as ethics. Over time ethics can degenerate depending on the moral temperature of a society. Stigma for instance is socially attached to actions considered to be unethical (where the law does not have the power to reach) creating a barrier in which society can protect or preserve its values without having the ability to prosecute through a court of law.
For example, transgenderism and cross-dressing, a highly debated topic in the current sphere of politics, was very stigmatized forty, thirty or even twenty years ago and still is in conservative circles. Individuals who claimed to be atheist or agnostic three decades ago would have still considered these things to be socially unacceptable, much less putting this propaganda in front of children. Thus, stigma existing as the barrier between culture and politics. That barrier in our current cultural atmosphere I would argue no longer exists. Do people still believe its wrong and speak out against it? Not nearly to the degree that I am satisfied, but yes there are individuals that are speaking out and shaming this behavior. That does not mean the stigma still exists. If the stigma still existed these sexual deviants would still be in the shadows rightfully fearing the shame with which society would stamp them. However, now they have been emboldened by the inaction of the libertarian philosophy of "Live and let live" to the point now where we have professors in colleges speaking out publicly that pedophilia is a sexual orientation and should be tolerated. If preserving culture is our mission, then I say, the best defense is a good offense.
Understanding the cultural tools that we have at our disposal will give us the knowledge to wield these tools as powerful weapons if we wish to preserve our values collectively in an ever-changing moral landscape. It is especially challenging to attempt even basic communication with the enemy in this culture war because it seems (even though we speak the same grammatical language) we speak entirely different philosophical languages. Though the left has even changed words in the dictionary to fit their agenda, they seem to have completely different definitions to words in general. For instance, fascism, racism, communism, socialism, violence, hatred and love, all mean different things depending on whether you are talking to a liberal or a conservative. Inconceivable? Often times I will listen to prominent progressive figures and hear Inigo Montoya's words of wisdom: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
There is however one language that is universal and that is art. Art comes in many forms, from architecture, music and literature, to painted canvases and the film industry. Art represents the moral, philosophical and social values of a civilization. Art transcends written language and opens a window into the soul of a society allowing one to understand a group of people without ever having the knowledge of the meaning behind speech or lines written on paper. Civilizations were using art to communicate long before ink formed symbols on parchment. From cave paintings to hieroglyphs, art was the way societies recorded their history, expressed their beliefs and worshiped their gods. That is why, I believe, art is where we should be fighting the battle for our culture, because there is no misunderstanding what art can communicate.
To understand art is also to understand beauty. Some great philosophers have attempted to understand beauty and what it means (in my opinion) to no avail. Often philosophers will pretend to understand it when they label beauty as subjective, basically taking the position that it can't be defined. For example, just to quote a few great philosophers; Shakespeare wrote - “Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye…", Benjamin Franklin wrote “Beauty, like supreme dominion/Is but supported by opinion,” Plato is credited for saying “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. Socrates himself admitted that beauty was hard to define and relative when compared to other things considered to be beautiful.
I would however beg to differ to say that there is something very objective about beauty and it can be defined when following a certain set of rules. For instance, nature itself is objectively beautiful. God made creation to be beautiful and in our pride, man has defiled it with the curse of death. However even death can be beautiful just by representation of contrast. There are many art pieces depicting Christ on the cross which taken at face value could represent the ugliness of torture, humiliation and death; However, taken with deeper meaning it really represents the beauty of redemption and the love that Christ had for us to sacrifice Himself to pay for our sins granting mankind the gift of eternal life. When looking at beauty through the lens of morality, it most certainly proves that the understanding of beauty is universal.
There was a study done by a researcher for The UQ School of Psychology that found people attribute morality to beautiful animals, humans, landscapes and buildings. This is undoubtedly because humans correlate the virtue of purity with beauty. I would argue that this is evidence of a moral lens ingrained within us at our conception and endowed to us by our Creator. The ability to distinguish ugliness from beauty is inherently the ability to distinguish good from evil. To a degree, I can concur with beauty all depending on your point of view. If your point of view is to look at the world as if it revolves around self, then of course your discernment of beauty is going to be twisted, because that of which you focus is that which you reflect. Mankind is inherently evil and sinful and if you focus inward, your perception of beauty will be evil as well. This is partly referenced to in Isaiah 5:20-21 where there is a clear correlation between perception of ones self-view of good and evil. The prophet gives a warning in this scripture to those who call good evil and evil good and in verse 21 warns them about viewing themselves as being wise in their own eyes. The perception of good and evil as well as ugliness and beauty all depends on the lens of the heart.
There was recently an outspoken conservative that claimed "the higher the building, the more liberal the voter" and he attempted to explain the reason behind it saying (and I am paraphrasing) that if people lived closer to the ground it would remind them of the work that goes into maintaining the land, as if this inherently makes people more conservative. While he is correct on the assessment that voters tend to be more liberal in big cities, I beg to differ on his reasoning. The height of the building has no affect on a person's political or moral outlook and to make that argument as fact, is, in my opinion, ludicrous. There are plenty of political arguments and explanations of why voters tend to lean left in big cities and it all revolves around the regulations that come with living in densely populated areas. More interaction with the populace inevitably means more state intervention which through policy tends to correlate with the modern democratic party. However, I believe there is another reason and it has everything to do with architecture, not height.
Think about it. If architecture is art, beauty is represented through art, and beauty is objectively moral, I would take another look at how our buildings are being designed in our modern culture. Most modern buildings I would not say are flat out ugly, though there are exceptions, however they tend to be more sleek, boring and without texture. Buildings used to have meaning with a great deal of thought and care behind every design. Now they are harsh, impersonal, and business like which distracts from the importance of the art in the architecture to begin with.
This is also true of abstract art that is baseless and meaningless even if the artists claim some deep philosophical meaning, the art itself cannot be interpreted therefore confusing the observer and God is not the author of confusion. Art always has to have definition, or else it is purposeless and reminds us of how lost we are without a higher destiny.
Music is perhaps one of the most influential tools in culture because it causes emotional and spiritual atmospheric change on an individual level. I can address music on a broader scale later in a different article, but I wanted to make mention of one genre in particular. Contemporary Christian music seems to have a common theme of repetitive, shallow, undefined phrases that don't have any meaning. What happens when art has no meaning? It causes us to look at self and obsess over emotional experiences rather than objective logic. Thus we become lost in the darkness of our own heart which inherently has no light of truth. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?". Remember the lens of the heart will affect our perception.
In the political world, for conservatives, this is how we should be sharpening our swords for battle. Fighting back with moral literature, art, entertainment, music and design. Lets reflect our values through supporting organizations that create moral content and are on the front lines fighting this war for the soul of our nation because if God be for us, who can be against us.
