Is America going to be okay? The short answer to that question is maybe. The longer answer requires an analysis of our culture, our traditions, and our values, and the effect on this national triad by modernity and post-modern thought. Regardless of the perspective or vantage point taken, American culture, traditions, and values have shifted almost 180 degrees. Our world has been turned upside down.
Western Civilization Is Being Discarded
For the most part, we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. By this, I mean we are in the process of discarding over two thousand years of wisdom and tradition. I find it hard to believe or accept that the wisdom of Western Civilization dating back to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle was totally incorrect and suspect. However, that seems to be the position that a very vocal minority in America has trumpeted from the rooftops. Moreover, they will not countenance any challenge or opposition to that viewpoint.
Western Civilization is not the only tradition that is being disrupted. We have only to look to the People’s Republic of China to see a repudiation by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tze, and the wisdom of other Chinese sages.
The Chinese were remarkable in their understanding of human nature and several of the Chinese dynasties contributed much to refined living, civil society, and meritocratic governance over thousands of years. We forget that China of old contributed the compass, gunpowder, and the printing press, among other inventions, to Western countries. Will the historical culture of China survive the CCP’s stranglehold of a great nation? I do not think so. Such centralized power is awful to observe in its inhumane policies and actions, and difficult to overturn without conflict.
America Was An Remarkable Experiment In Self-Rule
America was a remarkable experiment in self-rule, the rule of law, personal freedom, and other important values. Now even the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are being ridiculed and denigrated. But the real danger I see is that two or three generations of younger citizens have not been taught or given an understanding of the Founding of America as a constitutional republic. I submit that if we forget our past, then I am not sure we will have a future that I would gladly welcome.
America’s Cancel Culture Is Comparable To China’s Cultural Revolution
Today, we see the so-called Cancel Culture which reminds me of the Cultural Revolution that Mao Zedong initiated in China that lasted ten years from 1966 to 1976. There the radicals were intent on destroying the four olds: old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. That ten-year program was destructive beyond belief and the memories of those years still cast a shadow today.
A Call To Action
America is in a time of crisis. Can the damage be contained and reversed? Perhaps, but it will take two generations at least. We must not stand idly by. Now is the time for action at the grass-roots level and at the national level.
