Sitting out the Culture War: Around the web
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Following links around the web lately, I’ve been finding more and more posts about how, if we want to succeed at creating an awesome future for everyone, we absolutely must bridge the cultural gap between the political left and the right in the US.
Of course, I couldn’t agree more: the Culture War is the biggest roadblock in the process of solving problems in a holistic and sensible way. So it gives makes me very happy to hear so many bloggers talking about this issue from so many different points of view.
Colin Beavan, aka the No Impact Man, contemplates a values-based approach to bridging the gap. He writes about a conservative reader who sent him a note remarking on how No Impact Man’s reduced consumption seemed to lead to increased contentment, gratitude, and love. Who doesn’t want more of those?
Sharon Aystk’s blog offers an astounding piece entitled “Right Schmight, Left Schmeft.” I don’t agree with her grim, let’s-grit-our-teeth-and-make-the-future-work point of view, but she clearly lays down the gauntlet that no matter what our political ideas, we all have to get over ourselves and get ready for things to change.
I especially appreciate her list of what the left can learn from the right, found at the end of this long piece. Postmodern liberalism has brought a lot of great things to society, but it’s brought some problems, too. It’s clearly not the be-all end-all to cultural evolution—we have further to go. I enjoy reading a thinker who can detach from identifying with any political views to the point where she can objectively criticize *and* synthesize them.
Worldchanging’s “Everybody Eats: The Unifying Power of Food” discusses a recent American Conservative cover story on how the slow, local, organic food movement embodies conservative values and shouldn’t be left to liberal activists.
The AmCon article itself doesn’t seem to extend any olive branches to the liberals, but Worldchanging takes an integral view, saying that we must “share ideas and spark meaningful discussion between folks who don’t always see eye-to-eye--or who assume they don’t.” WC suggests community gardens as a way to get that conversation going.
What are your ideas for reaching across the cultural divide and working together?
(image by Bolobilly via flickr.)
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See more articles by Megan Dietz.
Is it bad form to comment on my own post? Ah well. I just wanted to share yet another link that addresses how the left and right can work together to solve our climate problems.
http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/2008/08/the_new_center_on_climate.shtml
This is a really insightful piece which breaks down what policymakers actually vote on, which is policy—not predictions or certainties, but policy. Check out this quote:
“Strange as it sounds, reasonable liberals and conservatives can disagree about the seriousness of the problem and still agree on solutions. But first they need to embrace two principles. The first is the Principle of Climate Uncertainty. Whatever action we take must be robust to ecological and economic uncertainty. Said differently, the policies we implement should be justifiable whether climate change results in floods, droughts and food shortages, or merely the need to turn up the air conditioner.
The second is the Principle of Climate Politics. People—whether Americans, Europeans, Chinese, or Brazilians want to do something about global warming; they just don’t want to pay much more for energy to do it. Thus, the world will only reduce emissions to the extent that clean alternatives to fossil fuels are cheap and available, or that there are cheap ways to capture and store emissions, or both.
If we can agree on these two principles, what then? First, we should make clean energy, and the capture and storage of emissions, cheap. Second, we should adapt to a warmer world.”
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