It's The Culture, Stupid!

With the recent downgrade of the US credit rating, the devaluation of the dollar, the recent fall in the markets, and the lack of economic recovery, the amount of finger-pointing will likely grow in the coming months. President Obama may blame the Republicans, the Republicans may blame the president, and the list of scapegoats may go on and on. Some may want to blame the banks, demographic issues, or the political system for our troubles. But in the end, I have an idea of what is to blame. And I can sum it up in one word: It's our culture.

The backbone of any culture or society is trust. Trust is what makes business work and flow; trust is the underlying currency in trade. People are able to buy and sell products and services because of trust in their fellow traders in the marketplace. Owing to the recent financial crisis, there's a good chance that citizens do not look at their fellow countrymen in the same light. The word "credit" comes the same root word as "to believe" or "to entrust". As the "full faith and credit" in the US has taken a hit, American society and its culture have lost a previous sense of trust in the marketplace. Employees do not have the same amount of trust in their employers as they had in the past owing to layoffs. Students may not have the same amount of trust in societal institutions owing to the inability to find a job. Citizens may not have the same amount of trust in their government as they had once enjoyed.

Without a sense of trust to keep society moving, individuals lose faith in the systems, institutions, and firms in which they work and live. This loss of trust has a ripple effect to spread through a society. Once it is clear that a critical amount of players in the game are not to be trusted, participation in the game contracts and people lose faith in the idea that they can continue to play the game to their benefit. As the game is breaking down, any sense of personal responsibility can become clouded as players can attribute their outcome to systemic (rather than personal) flaws. If the game is rigged, then players begin to wonder why they should play at all. Loss of faith and trust translates into confusion regarding one's role in the society; people struggle to find their place and make their way. I believe that much of the loss of faith and trust in American society can be attributed to the media and commercialism.

It appears that Americans have become much more materialistic in the recent decades. The holiday season has been transformed from a spiritual or religious phenomenon to a commercial phenomenon. With commercialism, individuals begin to put their trust in material items. As individuals put their trust in material items, other aspects of life are taken for granted. Rather than putting faith in things that are not seen, with commercialism individuals are more likely to put their faith in things that can be seen. The specter of materialism draws individuals to let go of higher ideals in life.

As materialism has taken hold over American society, morality and integrity have been thrown to the wind. Without a uniting sense of morality in the country where each individual is left to his or her own sense of morality, citizens have grown further apart in their daily affairs. No longer do we view individuals on the street as fellow Americans, but rather as mere strangers who are by and large inherently dangerous and are not to be trusted or dealt with. To say the least, this type of perspective as spread upon a nationwide scale is counter-productive. Not only is our political system hindered by a loss of integrity, morality, and trust, but our economic system falters as well. In a society where individuals can no longer see their similarities and their superficial differences dominate & choke the rhetoric, the eventual results can be catastrophic. This is because cooperation and faith in the system are abandoned as individuals become more so obsessed with disparities and differences within the population.

As individuals within a society, culture, and/or country begin to focus on their disparities and differences, social cohesion is lost. As such, the institution of the family is damaged. As the social and financial costs of love, romance, marriage, and children rise, people are less likely to get married and have children. However, as much as this may be breaking news for some, a country needs a growing population to survive. Without a population a country is but a piece of empty land. Economist Milton Friedman once wrote, "The ultimate operative unit in our society is the family, not the individual." The history of Marxism is a testament to what occurs in nations when the institution of the family is attacked. The results are moral ambiguity, confusion, and depravity. Even aside from a religious or ethical perspective, these results work to no one's benefit -- even those in power. The fruits of a cultural attack on the family can be known by the way a society functions, the way a government functions, and the way some political leaders view the populace as a mere means to an end.

While commerce slows, distrust flourishes, and the institution of the family is attacked, a society can lose its sense of functionality. As such, government is susceptible to becoming dysfunctional; this is analogous to the dysfunctionality in the greater society. Leaders are not able to work together, citizens do not feel like they have a say, things are not getting done, and the downward spiral continues. The inevitable result is a dying, broken system where individuals plant their seeds of trust in diverse factions of society. Differences caused by fractioning factions make for conflicting values. As these conflicting values further solidify and disrupt political discussion, far from living in one united society, the citizens find that they are living in multiple separate societies, each with its own set of values and goals. This eventually can lead to strife if people are unable to come together to agree on a common set of principles.

I believe that the current perceived political gridlock in the US government is merely a microcosm for the greater Kulturkampf, or "culture war", going on in American society currently. This culture war is not solely because of demographic differences or financial differences, but because of a pervasive distrust & animosity within the system and the inability for individuals to cooperate to everyone's mutual advantage. If the Kulturkampf cannot be resolved in the political system, then in the near future we may be facing Kultur-kaputt -- a broken culture. Our economic system (and any economic system for that matter) is able to function because traders are able to judge each other trader's relevant values for the sake of business. As traders grow to not only dislike but also war against each other trader's values within a given society, the outcome can only lead to strife, dysfunctionality, and discord. It's bad economic karma and bad for business. Though some historical societies have been quite diverse, they have been able to persevere through the building of a lasting, mutual trust and cooperation for common goals.

If we do have a broken political system and a broken economy, it may behoove us to first take a closer look at our broken American culture before passing the blame on to someone else. Perhaps some soul-searching on a cultural level (as well as on an economic & political level) would do the country some good.