Calling all Culture Warriors

Continental Congress of Art ^ | 1/16/02 | Antoninus

[Antoninus]

On January 10, 1963, Democrat congressman A. S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida read, with unanimous consent, a list of 'Current Communist Goals' into the Congressional record. This prescient list, taken from a book called "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen, has been posted on Free Republic several times.

Perhaps what's most shocking about this list are the cultural items. Goals that would have been considered absurdities 40 years ago are today eerily real. To review a few of the points on the list:

• 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

• 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

• 23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

• 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

• 31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture."...

• 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture....

Now, supposedly communism was dealt a political death-blow in the late 1980's. However, as we all know, the progeny of the original far-left culture warriors have created new bastions within our very own educational, media, entertainment, and cultural institutions. Our political attempts to disconnect these individuals from the government teat have been, on the whole, failures. In the face of these reverses, many social conservative commentators have thrown in the towel, declaring the culture war lost or unwinnable.

I disagree. In order to fight and win a culture war, your side must be able to present a viable alternative. The 'counter-culture' of the 1960s is a classic example of this strategy. With rare exceptions, conservatives, traditionalists, Americanists, and republicans (small R), were not able to respond to this counter-cultural tidal-wave effectively. Thus, the 'counter-culture' of the 1960s has become the dominant culture today. While individual writers or artists of a traditional bent may occasionally rise up and be recognized, they are now at the mercy of the anti-American, anti-family, anti-tradition, anti-religion dominant culture that rules the media, the publishing industry, Hollywood, and the art scene.

But with the advent of the Internet, we now have a way to circumvent completely the apparatus of the cultural elites. A single individual with an idea now has the capacity to reach most of the country and indeed the world with his or her message. As we all know, Free Republic has demonstrated this capability to an amazing degree. This single site and its army of Freepers has the ability to shape debate, cow or encourage the media and petty local officials, and influence elections.

Believing that more needs to be done on the cultural front, myself and Claud, two Freepers of long standing, have set up a website called:

The Continental Congress of Art

Our hope is that this site will "build interest in the vast artistic and literary treasure trove of American civilization, as well as serve as a hub for new ideas and endeavors, with the common goal being the advancement of literature and fine art in the United States of America." In short, we hope to turn the site into a network and free showcase for like-minded artists and writers, and play a part, however small, in a cultural reawakening in America.

Similar to the original Continental Congress of 1774, we are hoping to attract 'delegates' from across the country. As this effort is very much in its infancy, we have posted to date only four individuals on our delegates page (most of whom are associated in some way with our publishing program), representing three northeastern states. We are eager to add delegates from other states and regions and based on the popularity of the 'Free Republic Poet Laureate' threads, we know there are many Freeper writers and artists out there. If you think you've got what it takes to become a delegate, we encourage you to visit the site and give it a shot.

Even if you're not a writer or artist, you might be interested in visiting the site just to check out our links to America's Heritage, our Guide to Literary Form, or the photos of America scattered throughout the site taken by Claud and yours truly.

[maestro]

Your# 19)You forgot a few: Homosexualism=Nihilism=Radical Environmentalism

Correct!
Thanks

[Antoninus]

FYI bump!

[Antoninus]

Ping!

[Jen]

Ping! This may interest you.

[Antoninus]

Culture war bump!

[Snow Bunny]

Thanks, "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen is an excellent book !

Thank you for the ping and thread.

[Antoninus]

Here's a small private initiative to help fight the culture war...

[Antoninus]

Culture war bump

[JMJ333]

Thanks for the ping and bttt! =)

[x]

Hollywood would not do anything to threaten its own lifestyle and standard of living. It cares less about your lifestyle and standard of living. But if you watch TV or go to movies it probably wouldn't want to see you impoverished either.

Skousen confuses some things. There were a lot of actors and screenwriters with Communist leanings in the 1930s. There has also been a long-standing hostility in Hollywood to religion and traditional social values. But this doesn't mean that Hollywood is Communist. They just make too much money for that. True, they don't like religion or small-town America. They don't hesitate to villify right-wingers. They give to the Democrats and gush over Clinton-types. But any socialism in Hollywood is more dilettantish than anything else. Like the Democratic Party, Hollywood knows what side its bread is buttered on. There are plenty of reasons to hate Hollywood, but Skousen was as much wrong as right, if not more so.

Militant generations tend to see everything in terms of war, revolution, liberation, struggle. That's why the "culture war" became such a powerful image. People were still fighting about the 1960s. A lot of those fights continue, but subsequent generations don't approach them with the same passion. What's come out since 9/11, if not earlier, is that we are more one country than we thought we were. It's the nature of activists to see everything in terms of a struggle always in progress and never stopping, but most people recognize that the country is less divided than it sometimes seems -- if for no other reason, then because real war has overshadowed our political and cultural conflicts. Political disagreements persist, as one would expect them too, but confronted with the Taliban and al Quaida we find that patriotism and law and order or modernity and cultural freedom aren't so alien to our own make-up or that of our opponents.

The development of new media and promotion of new artists is all to the good, as is the desire to bring conservative voices to art and media, but the culture war doesn't reflect what's going on now. Look at history. The "culture war" was very divisive in the 1920s, as conflicts over prohibition, evolution, immigration, modern art, theology and sex showed. For the next 30 or 40 years that culture war was dormant as depression, war, and cold war took center stage. We may be seeing a similar development now.

[Notwithstanding]

The communists did not need to use communists or convert people to communism to accomplish the numbered goals.

They communists knew that the cultural decay would set the stage such that a majority of folks would one day consider communism.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[IM2Phat4U]

This is a superb effort.

The second thing we need to do is to stop funding the left with our tax dollars.

[EternalHope]

bump for later

[Old Fud]

Thanks for the heads up.

[Claud]

Militant generations tend to see everything in terms of war, revolution, liberation, struggle. That's why the "culture war" became such a powerful image. People were still fighting about the 1960s. A lot of those fights continue, but subsequent generations don't approach them with the same passion.

I'm Gen X, about the least militant generation you can have. I certainly didn't have any passion about the issues of the '60s (which by the way, we were almost forced to care about). But after I became a conservative, suddenly I was utterly indignant at being lied to all these years, and being sold a bill of goods by the folks in the liberal elite. I actually think that the energy lies with the conservative movement right now.

I'm not a pessimist--and I certainly appreciate the cohesion we've showed after 9-11. But the "constant state of struggle" is not an idea confined to activists and insurgents--I think an honest reading of history shows it really is a never-ending battle.

[Antoninus]

The second thing we need to do is to stop funding the left with our tax dollars.

Actually, that's the FIRST thing we need to do. Our little effort is just an attempt to get a head start on countering the "counter-culture" by offering something different and hopefully better. Thanks for the encouraging words!

[Beep]

BUMP for perusal when I wake up sufficiently!! (Thanks for the ping, AFVetGal!!)

[GROUCHOTWO]

Sign me on! In the meanwhile I boycott movies, sit-coms, etc.