The Culture War
As a poet, a mystic, a romantic, and a revolutionary, I sometimes have a flair for the dramatic. Like a moth drawn to the flame, I often find myself yearning for some grand adventure to keep life interesting. These adventures take many forms: transcendent experiences of the natural world; ecstatic experiences shared with friends and lovers; encountering unknown people and places; championing the causes of freedom and justice and ecological integrity.
Really, though, at the end of the day, I'm a simple soul with simple desires, and not as much wanderlust as it seems. Give me a good roof over my head, good food in my belly, good fields and forests to work and play in, a good lover (or lovers!) to talk and cuddle and make love with, and I'll be a happy camper. Give me all of these things in a warm community environment, and I'll be like a hobbit in the Shire, with little cause or desire to go seeking adventure elsewhere.
But alas, Gentle Reader, I have no Shire to retire to. And thus, my heart falls back on the old longing for epic adventures to grant me my sense of a place in the world.
Sadly, the world is all too happy to oblige.
As I find my health and spirits improving, my attention is returning more and more to my place in the world. Who am I? How can I lead a good life among my fellow humans, and what role can I play to serve the common good of my community and the living Earth?
I wish that there were some simple answer to this. But the world is not a simple place -- and sadly, the world is facing some complex problems that threaten to put an end not only to our hopes for a better society, but also the continued existence of life as we know it.
That may sound like an exaggeration. But please, hear me out.
The sad reality is that we're in the midst of a multilateral culture war. Throughout known history, humanity has always been at war with itself, and various factions and empires have always fought for the hearts and minds of the masses. But given the past century or two of technological advances, booming population, and growing global interdependence, we may very well be the first generation of human beings who literally have the power to unite the entire planet under a "New World Order" unlike anything that has ever existed before.
This late in the game, there's no point in trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Our social, economic, political, psychological, spiritual, and ecological lives have become so intertwined that "globalization" is already mostly in effect. The only question remaining is what enduring principles and/or institutions, if any, will govern the form and essence of this newfound global unification.
And so, humanity's unfortunate tradition of "Weltanschauungskrieg" -- or "Worldview Warfare" -- has advanced to a whole new level. This time, given our mixed blessing of enormous creative and destructive power, the fate of an entire world is at stake.
As far as I can tell, there are at least three major players in the current struggle for the hearts and minds of the people of the world. Since I live in the U.S., and since the U.S. is such a powerful force in the world right now, I'll focus on how these three cultural factions operate here in U.S. society.
These broad alliances are difficult to define at times, but for the sake of argument, I'll refer to them as the Dominionists, the Secular Humanists, and the Economic Elites.
The Dominionists are the ones who really got me thinking about Worldview Warfare. They openly embrace the concept of a Culture War. They believe that their God is the only and only God; that Jesus Christ is the savior of all humanity; that God has commanded them to live a socially conservative lifestyle; and that God has commanded them to claim dominion over the public sphere so that the world will belong to Jesus upon his immanent return.
These people played a major role in bringing Bush to power. These are also the people who are for the most part winning in their war against gay marriage and threatening to make advances in their war against any degree of reproductive choice for women. They have quite openly and quite literally declared war on Secular Humanism and anything resembling it, and they have the backing of a good number of wealthy social conservatives plus a large base of poorer "grassroots" social conservatives.
The Secular Humanists are the group who I most identify with. Personally, I'm not secular at all; in fact, I'm a Wiccan Priest. But I do believe that public institutions should adopt principles and practices somewhat along the lines of secular humanist thinking. Therefore, I consider myself an ally of this movement.
The Secular Humanists believe in critical rational and empirical thinking; individual rights and the pursuit of personal and social fulfillment; embracing this life rather than anything that may or may not exist before or after it; ethical systems that are intended to improve the human condition; and the idea that the human condition can, in fact, be improved by individual and group choices.
These are the people who fight for human rights, social justice, environmental justice, and the separation of Church and State rather than their union.
Last, but certainly not least, we have the Economic Elites. This is the numerically smallest movement, but arguably the most politically powerful due to their vast amounts of privately held wealth and positions of economic and political authority.
Some of them, perhaps even a majority of them, fancy themselves to be the entrepreneurial engineers of a bright new future for the rest of humanity. These men (and most ARE men) seek to create a New World Order in which a small number of intelligent, educated, monied elites set social and economic policy for the otherwise bumbling masses.
Of course, in order to make an omelette, you've got to break a few eggs. Or perhaps a few thousand. Or perhaps a few MILLION. But in the end, the important thing is that you've created a New World Order, right? And if you happen to get filthy rich along the way... well, that's just your burden to bear.
If this were all a fanciful work of fiction, I'm sure I'd find it quite entertaining to watch these three factions duke it out in their respective quests for empire. Sadly, though, this is not a work of fiction -- and the lives at stake are real.
If we don't act now -- and quickly -- our collective inaction may result in the death and suffering of millions in our name. Perhaps worst of all, the fabric of life as we know it may be torn asunder by the ravages of climate change, peak oil, deforestation, pollution, and perpetual war. It's hard to wrap our tiny monkey-sized minds around the fact that our actions may eventually result in the death of most megaflora and megafauna on this planet... but at the rate we're going, it's a realistic possibility.
So, what do we do?
Personally, I'd like to wash my hands of the whole ugly mess. I'd like to forget about any thoughts of "epic adventure" and run away to hide somewhere far away from all of it.
But there's really nowhere to hide, is there? And even if there were, could I ever be happy there knowing that I had done nothing in the face of such madness?
Given the possible consequences of inaction, I feel drawn to do SOMETHING. Here's what I've come up with so far.
As I see it, the key to success here is for each of us to take creative, direct, productive actions which serve to advance both our personal empowerment and the advancement of our worldview. In this way, our success as individuals and communities becomes mingled with the success of principles and practices that we believe will make the world a better place. Over time, our greater successes will allow us to form a more specific and comprehensive group strategy for creating ever-greater amounts of freedom and social cooperation and ecological health and integrity.
When I think of the problem in broad, impersonal, external terms of warring worldviews, heartless elites, billions of lives beings shuffled about like so many pawns on a chessboard, it all seems to overwhelming. But when I think of it in specific, personal, internal terms of actions I can take to improve my lot in life while also advancing a good cause, it all becomes clear. That frenzied restlessness transforms into an urgent laser-like focus, and I do what I can to change the world.
Of course, it's extremely unlikely that the actions of any one lone individual will decide the fate of the entire culture war. But through our combined efforts, we have the power to change the course of history for the better.
Ever since I lost my job in April, I've been searching for ways to transform this time in my life from a crisis into an opportunity. After a month or two of job-searching and soul-searching, it's finally starting to take shape.
It's going to take time and effort, but it's starting to look like I may in fact be able to make a living while serving my community and my planet. I can teach environmental and spiritual workshops; I can do web design for a renewable energy company; I can work on getting more of my writing published and establishing myself in Southern Illinois and beyond as an author and public speaker. All of these projects can earn me some amount of income, and all of these projects can in their own small way advance the cause of social justice and ecological health.
The long-term details aren't clear yet, but this is a good start. If I can pull this off, I'll have made the quantum leap from the life of a wage slave to a life of self-employment. Even if this leaves me in the poor house for a while, it could be the start of many new adventures in social and ecological advocacy and activism.
So, that's what I plan on doing. How about you? If you've read this far, we probably share at least some values in common and have some common goals that we can work towards together. Therefore, I'd be happy to hear how your adventure is going, and what your plans are for the future.
Together, we can make the world a better place.
