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"There are subtle interrelations that exist between the seeming desperate parts of culture, and between the common places of daily life and the most highly developed works of the human mind."--Elliot Cohen

Different cultures have developed different values, expectations, and norms, which then impact the scope and speed of progress. These cultural differences often depend on a different worldview or cognitive orientation of an individual or society. Worldviews influence the political structure, the political structure determines the legal system, and the legal system looms large in determining the economic system.

The fact that a culture tolerated some social ills in the past, or knew not how to remedy them quickly or painlessly, does not mean that there wasn’t good in it, or that its worldview was completely wrong, or that it did not contain wisdom, even overwhelming wisdom.

Western European thought and ethics, especially ordinary people's attitudes, was a fortuitous development that allowed human ingenuity to shine, thereby freeing an ever-growing share with the world's population from relative stagnation, pain, suffering, and the malthusian trap.

Western Civilization was defined by a view of the basic terms of human existence and of how to live and not to live. Those who were able to influence the culture and hence our sense of reality wield enormous power. One's experience is affected not least by the masterminds who have made them see reality through their eyes and shapes both the worldview and conduct.

Russell Kirk put the emphasis on matters of culture, religion, mind and imagination - in other words nurturing the growth of the soul. Even Joseph Stalin, the great murderous atheist, said: "The production of souls is more important than the production of tanks."

What most fundamentally defines our world is a consciousness that owes little to deliberate critical intelligence. But the point here is not that the world becomes whatever human beings wish it to be. One can imagine anything they want, but the real world, the one in which we act practically and encounter obstacles, mercilessly punishes attempts to evade basic facts of the human condition, basic facts the left-wing and their woke culture refuse to recognize.

It is a lie to justify envy, resentment, hatred, vengence and violence in the name of social justice. An inordinate desire to achieve the alleged (but mistaken) perfection social justice demands, can lead to hell on Earth, giving rise to ideological projects to eradicate what social justice denotes as evil. Ideological projects that aim to eradicate the sources of evil in the world magnify other evil in unimaginable ways. Ideological movements in particular take things to extremely limits by sacrificing freedom, creativity, and even life itself for some ultimate happiness that is not to be found in this life.

It is sentimental humanitarianism more than anything else that has undermined the recognition of the basic facts of the human condition, such as those exemplified in Christian(1) heritage. This sentimentalism, a pseudo-spiritual way of imagining human existence, makes it possible to be a moral hero in one’s own eyes without having to undergo any exacting rigors of finding truth and improving one's self. All that is required to receive high marks for one’s virtue is to emote in favor of ever-increasing disadvantaged groups and entertain benevolent- sounding plans for transforming society in the world, aka, "virtue signaling," where morally heroic persons, like one's self--fight injustice. A perverse and decadent belief and behavior.

The result of this ignoring reality and humanity's darker side, and the need for character formation, the result of this type of moral posturing and practice, is that it unleashes that darker side, producing greed, crime, sexual depravity, violence, oppression, deteriorating families, drug abuse, financial irresponsibility - - in short, social disintegration.

Overtime, a perverse, decadent culture can do far greater damage to human lives than particular acts. The presupposition is that men are gods and that the natural order of things can be changed at will. That ill-advised emancipation gives earthly tyrants an open field to impose their wills on the raw material that is the human members of the body politic. Authoritarian politicians are chiefly the consequences of what happened in the culture prior. The worst regimes are almost always tied to a perverse substitute metaphysics that in one way or another denies the natural order, which then the very idea of a self-limiting order becomes impossible. As Eric Voegelin called it, such unrestrained will leads us down a path beyond freedom and dignity, to the loss of both.

Philosophy has a complex task. It seeks to educate The prudent in such a way that he will never be tempted to kill Socrates or Christ. So good politics usually depends on good philosophy. Efforts to develop an advanced philosophical culture might have reversed America's precipitous cultural decline and the consequent social and political disintegration. In the last several years, revolutionary sentiment emanating from liberal ideology has erupted in social and political unrest, even in open rebellion against civil authority, and it has belatedly dawned on some that, yes, it does seem that the decaying culture has something to do with America's deepening problems. No adequate understanding of any other part of life is possible without understanding what ultimately moves human beings.

"Liberalism is an abstract theory unattuned to the empirical realities of human life... Liberalism is acidic. It eats away at the family, community, and faith."--Patrick Deneen

1.     Christian religion has always been instinctively uncomfortable with grandiose theoretical schemes to eliminate evil from the world. True Christianity is above all attentive to the movements of Grace and desire in each person's heart and soul.  As Fr. James V. Schall said: “The Catholic mind appreciates that Revelation is a knowledge that points to the limits of both politics and philosophy. At the same time, it conforms the validity of each in its own order.”

Further reading:

https://www.theblaze.com/news/kamala-harris-bizarre-attempt-to-redefine-culture-elicits-mockery