Posted by
flagwaver on Wednesday, May 09, 2007 12:02:58 PM
I am not a culture warrior. There, I said it and it feels good to get it out there! There is so much talk and so many people laying claim to being culture warriors on the conservative side that it seems that being a CW has become almost a requirement. But that's just not me, and as a matter of fact I think the whole idea is pretty silly.
One of the major reasons that I am not a CW is that I do not see it as my duty as an American, and especially as a Christian to be fighting the culture wars. That is not to say that the state of our culture isn't important, I just don't see any precedent for me as a Christian to be running around trying to rescue this fallen culture. As a Christian, my job is to witness to lost souls and try to win them to Christ, not to lobby Congress to get bad words banned from rap muisic. That may be a noble idea, but it isn't exactly what we have been instructed to do.
I also see this whole situation as being an imposition of my tastes on others. While I may not like the lyrics in rap music, I don't think I am exactly in a position to tell others what they should listen to. Just because I don't like something does not mean that no ne else should have access to it. And it smacks of hypocrisy from the conservative side when we rail all day about personal choice and responsibility, yet we are more than willing to try to impose our choices on others. And when we advocate this type of thing, it begs the question of where it all ends. If we succeed in punishing the rappers for saying things that we find to be vile, what are we to say when the left goes after us for saying something they think is vile? There will be nothing we can do, because we will have already set the precedent.
Finally, I see this whole culture warrior stance as being one of extreme arrogance. Every CW I listen to, be it Hannity, O'Reilly, or Laura Ingraham all come across as arrogant when they begin to go into their CW speil. It is all about them, what they want, what they like, and how they are speaking for the people. The only thing is, they are not in a position to even speak for their entire audience, much less the entire populace! Take O'Reilly's stupid campaign against Ludacris and Pepsi. He spent all this time and effort to pressure Pepsi to drop Ludacris as a spokesman because O'Reilly disliked his lyrics; nevermind that Ludacris was a top selling artist at the time, and many people in the viewing audience knew who he was and didn't care if Pepsi hired him or not. No, the only thing that mattered was that O'Reilly didn't like him so he had to save the world from the pernicious creep of Ludacris lyrics. Do you not see how arrogant that seems?
I have lots of likes and dislikes, but I have never been so arrogant as to believe that I represent the people. Hell, I don't even embody all the beliefs, attitudes, and opinions in my own home...so I am pretty sure that I'm in no position to speak for anyone but me!
For me, I think that changing the culture has to start at home. My job is to try to live a godly life myself, and then to instill positive morals and values in my children. If I do that, and I am a good example for my friends and neighbors then I have done more to affect the culture than I ever could in protesting who Pepsi uses as a spokesman. If you really want to change the culture for the better, start at home, then start in your neighborhood, your block, and your town. That's how you change things, not howling at the moon about Hollywood movies!
So I think I'll just keep my sword sheathed in this broader culture war. I have a feeling that it wouldn't have done much good to draw it anyway!
*Special thanks to my brother Patrick for helping inspire this idea!