The Real Culture War Is About More Than Pop Culture

by Dr. Gerard Emershaw

The Culture War is again being oversimplified as a binary struggle between conservatives and progressives. Alyssa Rosenberg’s recent piece in The Washington Post posits that the latest culture war is being waged between social conservatives “anxious that culture was changing too fast” and progressives who believe culture is not changing fast enough. This oversimplification of the Culture War has its roots in the academic work of Professor James Davidson Hunter, whose 1992 book Culture Wars: the Struggle to Define America presented the Culture War as a battle between orthodoxy and progressivism. He defines orthodoxy as the worldview by which there is “commitment on the part of its adherents to an external, definable, and transcendent authority.” This objective and transcendent authority “defines, at least in the abstract, a consistent, unchangeable measure of value, purpose, goodness, and identity, both personal and collective.” This objective and transcendent authority also “tells us what is good, what is true, how we should live, and who we are.” He defines progressivism as the worldview in which “moral authority tends to be defined by the spirit of the modern age, a spirit of rationalism and subjectivism.” Politically, he says, “it nearly goes without saying that those who embrace the orthodox impulse are almost always cultural conservatives, while those who embrace progressivist moral assumptions tend toward a liberal or libertarian social agenda.” Patrick J. Buchanan brought Professor Hunter’s idea from the halls of academia into American living rooms when he declared in a speech at the 1992 Republican Convention that America was engaged in a “religious war” between Christians and what he later termed as “a radical Left aided by a cultural elite that detests Christianity.” Buchanan’s idea was further popularized by Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly who defines the Culture War as a struggled between “traditionalists” and “secular-progressives.”

According to Rosenberg, Buchanan, and O’Reilly, the Culture War began during the 1980s. However, as I demonstrate in my new book The Real Culture War: Individualism vs. Collectivism & How Bill O’Reilly Got It All Wrong, the truth is that the Real Culture War is an ancient and ongoing sociopolitical battle between individualism and collectivism. Individualism is the view that the basic metaphysical unit of social analysis is the individual. Individualism states that human beings have intrinsic value and possess the natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Collectivism is the view that the basic metaphysical unit of social analysis is the collective—society. Human beings are seen as ultimately having value only as part of the collective.

The earliest battles in America’s Culture War were waged by Puritanical collectivists who sought to force their austere and unforgiving Christian fundamentalism upon Massachusetts Colonists. The Culture War later exploded in the American Revolution, which led to the individualist American Colonists overthrowing the collectivist order of the British Crown that had been egregiously violating their natural rights. The Culture War continued following the Revolution as Jeffersonian Individualists—who believed in limited government—squared off against Hamiltonian Collectivists—who viewed the State as paramount. While individualism often prevailed during the 19th century, racist collectivists were able to deny blacks and American Indians their natural rights and institute practices which enslaved blacks and attempted to ethnically cleanse American Indians.

The 20th century was the century of the rise of modern collectivism. As communism, fascism, and democratic socialism were rising across Europe, the United States spawned its own distinctively American forms of collectivism. Progressivism transformed the federal government from a limited protector of natural rights into a Leviathan which acted as both loving mother and disciplinarian father. Americans were collectivized into the role of children with the government playing the paternal role. Despite slavery having ended with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, racist collectivism—often with the aid of progressives—continued in the United States during the 20th century in the form of Jim Crow laws, collectivist government practices aimed at the American Indians including the Reservation system, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the enlargement of the welfare state, and the War on Drugs. Late in the 20th century—at the point where most Culture War theorists erroneously believe the struggle ultimately began—more forms of collectivism entered the fray. These included the Christian religionism of the Religious Right, neoconservatism, and environmentalism.

Today, the Real Culture War is a matter of individualists—who believe in individual rights and the Constitutional rule of law—being under attack by various groups of collectivists from all over the political spectrum. This has always been and remains an urgent struggle that is often a matter of life and death. It goes far beyond pop culture considerations. Economic collapse, totalitarianism, slavery, wars, and attempted genocide are the very real scourges that result from collectivism. There is much more at stake than Murphy Brown’s fictional out of wedlock child, Madonna’s albums, Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction,” superhero movies, or Lena Dunham cable sitcoms.

While the Real Culture War goes far beyond pop culture, it is true that the cultural struggle between individualism and collectivism is reflected in pop culture. Rosenberg astutely cites neoconservative pop culture in the form of “24,” “Homeland,” and Zero Dark Thirty. The nationalism, militarism, Islamophobia, and torture fetishism of neoconservative collectivism are all on full display in these works of pop culture. Militaristic ideas are further presented in a nearly propagandist fashion in films such as Act of Valor and Lone Survivor. The ideas of progressive collectivism have long been presented favorably in pop culture from the anti-capitalist Statist Utopianism of the original “Star Trek” to the anti-business “ripped from the headlines” rhetoric of “Law & Order” to the leftist state worship of “The West Wing.” Among the most dogmatic current examples of progressivist pop culture are the anti-capitalist and anti-gun rights “Newsroom” and “Law and Order: SVU,” which routinely vilifies business people, Christians, members of the Patriot movement, and all other manner of conservatives while cheerleading for the police. On the side of individualism, libertarian television shows such as “South Park”—which bashes the absurdity of all forms of collectivism—and films such as The Hunger Games adaptations infuse pop culture with ideas concerning the dignity and rights of individuals.

Rosenberg enthusiastically claims that technological advances that have led to a multitude of delivery platforms for television shows, movies, etc. mean: “The present culture war is the rare conflict in which almost everyone has a chance to win.” This is because audiences of all political persuasions are able to consume entertainment that is consistent with their beliefs. Peter Suderman of Reason agrees with Rosenberg. He points out that the proliferation of pop culture pieces that fall all over the political spectrum leads to a vibrant free market where consumers have a wide array of choices. He also celebrates that such debate on these important issues can freely take place without government interference.

Pop Culture is important in a free society as an artistic expression of the natural right to free speech. However, when it comes to individualism and collectivism and the Real Culture War itself, works of pop culture are mere reflections of or arguments for very important public policies which have very serious consequences. A movie or television show that champions war, torture, or the violation of Constitutional rights in the name of “the greater good” is one thing, but actual war, torture, and Constitutional violations are a different matter entirely. It is far too easy for academics, journalists, activists, and artists to lose sight of the fact that the Real Culture War affects the life, liberty, and property of living, breathing human beings. Failure to see this important distinction between fantasy and reality is to make the opposite error of the one that Vice President Quayle famously made in attacking sitcom character Murphy Brown as if she were a living person. If only war, torture, and Constitutional violations only appeared in movies and TV shows.

(For a much more detailed discussion of Individualism, Collectivism, and the Real Culture War, read my new book The Real Culture War: Individualism vs. Collectivism & How Bill O’Reilly Got It All Wrong. Available now on Amazon in both print and Kindle.)