The Next Culture War

New York Times ^ | September 29, 2009 | David Brooks

[La Lydia]

Centuries ago, historians came up with a classic theory to explain the rise and decline of nations. The theory was that great nations start out tough-minded and energetic. Toughness and energy lead to wealth and power. Wealth and power lead to affluence and luxury. Affluence and luxury lead to decadence, corruption and decline...

Yet despite its amazing wealth, the United States has generally remained immune to this cycle...That’s because despite the country’s notorious materialism, there has always been a countervailing stream of sound economic values. The early settlers believed in Calvinist restraint. The pioneers volunteered for brutal hardship during their treks out west. Waves of immigrant parents worked hard and practiced self-denial so their children could succeed. Government was limited and did not protect people from the consequences of their actions, thus enforcing discipline and restraint...

Over the past few years, however, there clearly has been an erosion in the country’s financial values. This erosion has happened at a time when the country’s cultural monitors were busy with other things...They were arguing about sex and the separation of church and state, oblivious to the large erosion of economic values happening under their feet...

[La Lydia]

He says if there is to be a movement to restore economic values, Its goal will be to make the U.S. again a producer economy. I agree with that, but not necessarily with his other conclusions.

[dirtboy]

Over the past few years, however, there clearly has been an erosion in the country’s financial values. This erosion has happened at a time when the country’s cultural monitors were busy with other things...They were arguing about sex and the separation of church and state, oblivious to the large erosion of economic values happening under their feet...

Ah, so it all becomes clear - the financial meltdown is all the fault of those dreaded social conservatives.

Words fail me.

[GonzoGOP]

United States has generally remained immune to this cycle

Not at all. The cycle historically takes about 200 years. We are just taking a little longer in the collapse phase because Reagen turn it back and buy us another two decades. Obama is Carter's second term.

[La Lydia]

That is not exactly what he said. I had to snip it. But this is instructive:

States around the country began sponsoring lotteries: government-approved gambling that extracts its largest toll from the poor. Executives and hedge fund managers began bragging about compensation packages that would have been considered shameful a few decades before. Chain restaurants went into supersize mode, offering gigantic portions that would have been considered socially unacceptable to an earlier generation.

[ClearCase_guy]

New York Times? David Brooks?

The chance of this article having any redeeming value approaches zero.

[La Lydia]

When economic values did erode, the ruling establishment tried to restore balance. After the Gilded Age, Theodore Roosevelt (who ventured west to counteract the softness of his upbringing) led a crackdown on financial self-indulgence. The Protestant establishment had many failings, but it was not decadent. The old WASPs were notoriously cheap, sent their children to Spartan boarding schools, and insisted on financial sobriety.

[La Lydia]

My sincere advice to you is not to read it then.

[hecht]

we no longer are “king of the Road”, but rather” king of the shnorrers”

[Clemenza]

We were, in many ways, better off when we had the WASP elite.

[dirtboy]

However, Brooks still misses the larger, key points. Socons railed against abortion on demand, promiscuity, family breakup and other social factors. All of those are close cousins to what Brooks mentioned in the paragraph you posted. Yet he implies the social conservative ‘monitors’ were too busy paying attention to one set of issues and didn’t pay enough attention to the others. But they are all part of the same iceberg - basically, self-absorbed lifestyles, in which the promoters and practioners of which could care less about the wreckage they strew about society.

[dirtboy]

We were, in many ways, better off when we had the WASP elite.

The WASP elite became a large part of the problem in the end.

[ClearCase_guy]

Theodore Roosevelt (who ventured west to counteract the softness of his upbringing) led a crackdown on financial self-indulgence.

Ah yes. They called it Progressivism and it involved massive government interference in the marketplace. Trust Busting. Income Tax. Good stuff I'm sure. Our present day Progressives are pushing for more of it. Lots more. Too much financial self-indulgence by the productive class, don't ya know.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

It can only exist until the voters discover that they can
vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the
candidates promising the most benefits from the public
treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses
over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average of the world’s great civilizations before they
decline has been 200 years.

These nations have progressed in this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
from faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to Complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back again to bondage.

Attributed to
Alexander Fraser Tyler, Cycle of Democracy (1770)

[Clemenza]

The WASP elite became a large part of the problem in the end.

By capitulating to the barbarians after WWII and by embracing the barbarian culture themselves.

The old WASPs were confident, strong, organized, and had a cultural stake in this country that the arrivistes never had and never will.

[BertWheeler]

Unions and the political left are the driving forces ruining the U.S. as a producer nation. Let’s not forget that technology itself makes it possible for one man to do the work of seven so there is less need for “workers”.

The focus of the future should be in the direction of the enterprenurial spirit. Create more, build more and the workers will be ready and willing.

However, unless Unions and non-Republican political strategies are outlawed, the U.S. can never return to being a nation of savers and planners and workers.

[Nathan Zachary]

Brooks takes great pains to mention everything that he can think of to blame the USA’s decline on except the two things that are actually causing it, the decline of Christian Morality, and out of control big government socialism, which is taxing and regulating business and industry out of the country to pay for the ever increasing costs of social programs and cost of government growth.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Not at all. The cycle historically takes about 200 years. We are just taking a little longer in the collapse phase because Reagen turn it back and buy us another two decades. Obama is Carter's second term."

In our case it will take closer to 300 years. As individual longevity increases, generations lengthen. Kids born today and raised by conservative parents with conservative values will still be around for our nation's tricentennial, by which time, if we continue on our present course, our Republic will have been supplanted by an elitist socialist oligarchy.

[dirtboy]

They called it Progressivism and it involved massive government interference in the marketplace.

If you study what existed right before that, there was massive governmental interference in the marketplace by monied interests. TR just turned that against them.

Modern government has become constant battle between such opposing forces - witness the massive government bailouts that went to corporate interests over the last year or so.

[Sherman Logan]

Attributed (inaccurately) to
Alexander Fraser Tyler, Cycle of Democracy (1770)

[Nathan Zachary]

Oh, so brooks blames the government for dangling bait in front of poor people, who of course have no self control at all and therefore aren't responsible for anything they do, like buying lotto tickets and ordering Chinese food.

And large compensation packages of wall street execs cause poor people to order even more chinese food, and buy even more lotto tickets, which just drives the whole economy downwards even further...

Honestly, how this kind of garbage makes it into print is truly amazing. This should be held up by environmental kooks everywhere as a colossal waste of valuable resources, which causes needless deaths of trees which eventually fills landfills.