The declaration that the Culture Wars are over and won by the Lunatics, is, I think, true, at least in América del Norte. Reality has lost and is in full retreat.
(Realists acknowledge and abide reality, even its hurtful parts. A Lunatic is one who had abandoned reality for fantasy; i.e. the insane.)
Harvard (the main Lunatic base) professor Mark Tushnet made the official announcement about the end of the Culture Wars in the article “Abandoning Defensive Crouch Liberal Constitutionalism“.
Since the Culture Wars was a cold war, it is difficult to peg exact dates. It’s not like the Lunatics marched on sacred Reality ground and planted their flag. No surrender document was signed. So, as in all cold wars, some event must needs stand in as a close. Tushnet suggests that this was in these once United States the death of Antonin Scalia. Alternates exist, of course.
Before details, what of the defeated Reality troops? Many will convert, judging correctly (more or less) that this is economically wise. Others will attempt guerrilla actions, which will provide minor entertainment. Aged warriors will gather and talk of the Old Days when the word obscene still retained its old meaning. A few will seek and perhaps even find Exit.
Reality itself can never be vanquished, obviously, and indeed many structures are still Reality strongholds. But there’s no guarantee Reality will regain its former dominance, and I expect most isolated encampments will wither and fall.
Tushnet is a worshiper of the Supreme Court, taking the “supreme” literally. It’s his belief that whatever the Supremes say goes, as long as what they say aligns with the Lunatic position. Now that Scalia’s dead, Tsuhnet would have the Supremes overturn such cases as Bakke, for every Lunatic loves Affirmative Action.
As far as the surrender terms, Tushnet says this:
[T]he question now is how to deal with the losers in the culture wars. That’s mostly a question of tactics. My own judgment is that taking a hard line (“You lost, live with it”) is better than trying to accommodate the losers, who — remember — defended, and are defending, positions that liberals regard as having no normative pull at all. Trying to be nice to the losers didn’t work well after the Civil War, nor after Brown. (And taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945.) I should note that LGBT activists in particular seem to have settled on the hard-line approach, while some liberal academics defend more accommodating approaches. When specific battles in the culture wars were being fought, it might have made sense to try to be accommodating after a local victory, because other related fights were going on, and a hard line might have stiffened the opposition in those fights. But the war’s over, and we won.
Realists are equivalent to defeated Nazis and Hirohitoists, and should be treated as such. Well, and they probably will be, too. Most (I mean more) Realists will be purged; those who are useful and willing to cooperate (paging Herr Doktor Professor von Braun) will have their Realist pasts hushed up. The rest will be offered to keep their mouths shut.
We mustn’t hold Tushnet’s glee against him. It’s natural to celebrate after a victory, especially one as monumental as this, though there is the unfortunate tendency to go too far. Which he has. Remember, now, Tushnet is a credentialed Lunatic stationed at the Lunatic Pentagon—its Cathedral, as it were—and is therefore a figure of some authority. His public pronouncements, as he should know, give a strong indication of the kind of man he is (what men say in private among other men is different).
One of the major points in his victory speech, set in italics, is “fu[dge] Anthony Kennedy.” I alter the word, this being a Realist family blog. (And I warn the reader the blog filter will not allow any comments that include the genuine article.) The actual word is sure and certain proof that the Lunatic general staff is in no mood to give quarter.
Tushnet realized he went too far, and so returned later to “clarify” that, while he still meant what he said, he wish he wouldn’t have been caught saying it so bluntly. He said about the minor flap his words caused:
I can’t help thinking, though, that the outraged reaction is just an indication that — to extend one of the historical examples I used — like the Japanese soldiers who were stranded on islands in the Pacific and didn’t know the war was over, so too many people on their side haven’t yet come to terms with the fact that they lost the culture wars.
I think he’s right.
His final statement is interesting:
“Of course all bets are off if Donald Trump becomes President. But if he does, constitutional doctrine is going to be the least of our worries.”
I think he may overestimate the impact of a Trump presidency on the Culture War – but perhaps we can at least hope for CWII with a different outcome. I can’t help but wonder whether Tushnet’s glee marks the apex of the SJW takeover of the culture.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/13/report-obama-administration-to-tell-public-schools-to-let-transgender-students-use-bathrooms-their-choice.html
… and locker room/showers
There is a range of “lunatics”. Not everyone fully abandons reality nor is fully insane. I assume you are labeling lunatics as those who embrace the insanity with extreme gusto.
Come on, the war was lost long before Scalia died.
Interesting. If winners defeat liberals, it’s mean to shove that down their throats. Other way around, it’s a-okay. I think this proves liberals are bullies.
Problem with the entire theory—realists are armed and don’t believe in a “war of words”. It won’t be pretty. Even if realists won’t take up arms, Nature will and she’s a….well, you know what she is. It never ends well for the deniers of reality. It may seem so for a bit, but reality never really vanishes and the consequences of denying it are very, very harsh in the end. The glee now shown by the reality deniers will turn to angst as reality devours them. Remember, the goal here is to remove enough reality to have all the power over people, after which the meanest, most evil person left takes over and kills everyone that backed him just in case they have visions of power. The followers (reality deniers) are the first to go.
John B(): Of course Obama’s darlings don’t go to public school, do they?
Fukoyama also thought that history was over. Look at how that turned out.
The leviathan they’ve created has, of late, been turning on itself. It will continue to do so as reality is still lurking.
The main advantage that Reality has is that it’s true…
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
….
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
The gods of the copybook headings will have their sacrifices.
Luis: The title says this is the end of the culture wars, not the end of history. Technically, it’s not the end of the culture wars, it’s just the suppression of reality in favor of fantasy. It’s self-correcting. Culture wars will continue until history ends. Probably a better appeasement title would be “Fantasy Wins this Round in the Culture Wars”. What we call history is over when the last person dies.
(As far as Briggs style of writing, you might want to check out what “hyperbole” means….)
its Cathedral,
No appostrophe. Lunatic enemies.
“Herbert Stein’s Law:”
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
If the Lunatics really win–and have their way–it will only be until the inevitable day of reckoning as unchecked fiscal largess needed to sustain welfare & related programs is unavoidably self-limiting. Might take some time & things might get messy, but a reckoning is assured. Some rationality, maybe not as much as some desire, will inevitably prevail.
Christianity used to be like a herd vaccination. The more Christians, the more influence they had in the public sphere, and guided the culture, or at least moderated what was deemed “acceptable.” Of course we are all sinners, etc., but the public acceptance/acknowledgement of what was right and wrong was the grease that made everything (more or less) work. Now the herd has been given a new formula for the vaccination, and there will be no end to the strange things that will not upset them. (Conversely, it seems that the prison population will only be enlarging, and that is another conversation that needs to be had with regard to community norms.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sign-up-to-pose-nude-at-the-republican-national-convention_us_5734bb67e4b08f96c1826b18?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
And they are so proud of this possible “achievement”. On the other hand, maybe if we send out Trump nude……
I think we can safely say (with history for an indicator) that the World is ordered so that we (collectively) get what we (collectively) deserve as a “natural” course.
A morally and philosophically degenerate (corrupted Virtue and Truth) society will be a feast for beasts, and brutes, and demons.
However, that there is a purpose for Creation, we will ultimately (individually) get what we (individually) deserve regardless of how the World in its perversity deals with us.
Regarding the bathroom access aspect of the culture wars, does the hypocrisy go unnoticed or is it of no concern? The reasoning is like this: ‘these actions are done so that those who aren’t cared for will feel more comfortable, so what if these actions make those we don’t care for feel more uncomfortable’. (With the first part referring to transgender and the second part to the conservative, religious, or any one else made uncomfortable)
The culture wars will never be over. There will be no Brave New World. All social animals have some sorts of social conflicts. I’m not of the opinion that those conflicts are the source of all cultural phenomenon, but rather phenomenon themselves that should all the same be considered as something that will be with humanity for the foreseeable future.
The Culture War, as laid out by Pat Buchanan some years ago, was pretty much standard right wing boilerplate applied to the times. The country had moved to the right starting in the 70’s, and by the 1990’s the GOP was the majority national party, the South and West expanded dramatically, and by the 2000’s we had a federal GOP one-party state, and were perhaps the most right wing country in the Western World.
Of course, that was a disaster. The country is swinging back left now, so my advice would be to get used to it, and to maybe learn a little from it for a change.
JMJ
JMJ: The left does not have culture. They have chaos. I suppose one could call chaos culture under the Left’s “words have no real meaning” campaign.
As for never being a Brave New World, your soma dose seems about right, so stick with it. It does seem to be coloring your memory of history precisely the way the Left wants to. Good job.
We learned from the change that the Left is a bunch of spoiled, angry, power-hungary, humanity-hating people intent on destroying society. We have indeed learned.
You are correct that culture wars are never over—cultures (and lack thereof) are always at odds.
J Tillman: It is of no consequence to the Left (those loving people JMJ idolizes). As was pointed out the other day on the radio, the Left has screamed about a rape culture on college campuses and now are demanding men be let into women’s bathrooms. Colleges fear conservative speakers and have apparently gone so far as to say “Words kill”, yet they care ZERO about women who were raped or may be raped by letting men into women’s bathrooms. Actually, they don’t care about rape victims at all anymore. It’s not important because it’s not what they want NOW. Liberals live in the moment. What happened yesterday makes no difference, unless you can use it as creative history to push what you want now for the Left. It is all about now and what is important in the moment. There’s no caring, no concern, nothing. It’s angry and hate-filled. Yes, people do notice, except the koolaid drinkers. They just don’t do anything to stop it. (Except a few brave souls who told Obama where he could put his suggestion about sharing bathrooms. Note that Obama’s darling is not in public school, so why would he care?)
I would note that a report of a woman going into a man’s restroom at a truck stop resulted in a clearing out of the restroom by the men. I think it might be fun to send in women every 5 minutes or so and see how long men can hold it waiting for “their” bathroom back. 🙂
If the above title were true, which of course it isn’t and JMJ and Luis are right, then hopeless losers can stop and think, those of faith, who are truly concerned about the spread of secularism might like or hate reading this because It’s true.
When I said,
“Hearts and minds need tiny tools” This is what I meant.
Pointing a boney finger or screaming ‘sinner go to church!’ isn’t a help.
google:
“Dear Church, here’s why people are really leaving you.”
Joy: Took to #5, but the “you can’t judge us” came up loud and clear. What the essay wants is a Barney church, which is NOT the point of religion. No where in the Bible was a practicing prostitute or thief a disciple. The church was not out to be popular, nor was it a “come as you are and we won’t say you’re wrong in what you do” organization. One of the churches I knew of called one of their members “our unwed mother”. She was apparently a source of pride—an unrepentant sinner. That’s why churches are irrelevant. They are not churches, but rather social groups. At least some have the decency to honestly say that. Pretending to be a church and then having members who are rewarding for breaking the rules and loving their sins is ridiculous. Churches are about morality and rules. Yes, they should care for the poor and help those in need. That does not include tolerating sin and adding everyone to the fold.
When you buy into the PC agenda you have to deny reality. The PC live in fantasy land.
There is a culture war the Left is losing: The abortion rate has gone down over the past quarter century. By mid-century it should be near zero. It may be time to abandon defensive-crouch conservatism on this issue.
It might be possible to discredit other left-wing issues by associating them with abortion.
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Cheer up, guys.
Like all lunatics, the Left are dependent on realists for their survival. Right now the State is used as a tool to force realists to support lunatics. But that is expensive, unproductive & unsustainable, either by choice (#Trump2016) or necessity (Great Depression 2.0).
How ascendant can the Leftist elites be when the USGOV no longer trains, imports, feeds & employs its minions & allies?
When the FedGov no longer allocates money & interest for Victims Studies Ph.D.s, EBT, affirmative action enforcement & anti-normal social engineering, lunatics will have to deal with reality on its own terms at last.
Fen’s Law:
“The Left believes none of the things they lecture the rest of us about.”
That doesn’t just apply to some things. It applies to the Left across the board.
And here’s your econ lesson of the day …and week, month, year, etc:
1. Government is force?
2. Good ideas do not have to be forced on others
?3. Bad ideas should not be forced on others
?4. Liberty is necessary for the difference between good ideas and bad ideas to be revealed
You could pay $100K for an Econ education and never learn those 4 points. And number 4 is a basic truth all by itself.
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