“It’s the Culture, Stupid” Sydney Williams
The framework of a civil society is comprised of multiple threads, representing common traits like etiquette, respect for one another, accountability, deference to one’s parents and teachers. These customs are woven, along with art, music and literature, to form a nation’s cultural fabric. Culture includes traditions, knowledge of one’s own history and the history of one’s country – the good and the bad. It is what allows a civil society composed of those from myriad backgrounds, races, religions and opinions to amicably live together. Without the ability to civilly debate, darkness falls.
In the political world, there have always been extremists who refuse to comply with rules of civility that bind us. Those generally represent fringes of society. But extremism has become more mainstream, as political correctness, victimization and safe places have proliferated on our nation’s campuses. We have lost a moral sense of universal values. For example, the permitting of protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s killing was right. The failure to condemn and confront violent rioters and looters was wrong.
Gerard Baker, in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal wrote about the old liberal order being under siege: “A basic tenet of the old liberal order is the toleration of views we find detestable.” Today, illiberal Leftism compels submission to identity politics. How else to explain Joe Biden’s contemptuous outburst: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
Blame must be found for the killing of George Floyd and what better target than the persistence of “systemic, institutionalized racism.” The irony, of course, is that Mr. Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, a city that has been run by Democrats for forty-two years, with an African-American Police Chief, Medaria Arradondo. Where were the Democrat-controlled police review boards and unions? The five most crime-ridden cities in the United States, according to an August 19, 2019 report in USA Today, are Democrat-controlled cities: St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, Memphis and Kansas City, Mo. A list of the top cities for murder rates, according to Rapid City Journal: St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans and Birmingham, Alabama – again, all cities run by Democrat mayors. Yet they look for someone else to blame.
Diversity is a worthy goal and has been aggressively sought in schools, colleges, eleemosynary institutions and businesses. But diversity has been defined only in racial, sexual, religious and ethnic terms, never in terms of freedom of opinion. A few days ago, the New York Times abandoned any sense of impartiality when its publisher and editors gave in to staffers who have no concept of freedom of thought. They revolted over the paper’s running of an op-ed by United States Senator Thomas Cotton (R-AZ), a U.S. Army veteran. In the op-ed he condoned the use of military force to bring peace to cities under mob rule. One can disagree with Senator Cotton’s argument, while still allowing it to be vented. The English biographer of Voltaire, Evelyn Beatrice Hall (1868-1956), once wrote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” How far we have fallen since those words were penned!
Protests are a legitimate means for citizens to demonstrate against disliked policies. But when peaceful protests become destructive riots, the welfare of people and property become at risk. Rightful protests against the murder of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin morphed into violent acts of vandalism, killing the innocent, wounding dozens, burning police vehicles, looting and destroying stores. In response, some mayors refused to confront the rioters, allowing them free rein to rob some of their livelihoods and others of their lives. Martin Luther King famously said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Regardless of skin color, what sort of character willfully destroys private property? Mob justice is untenable in a civil society. It is associated with the untamed west of the late 19th Century and the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th. The Klan wore white hoods. Antifa wears black masks.
This murder has added fuel to the false narrative that the United States is a racist nation. Certainly, there are racists. We are a nation of 330 million people, some of whom are racists, mostly ignorant underachievers whose egos inflate as they belittle others. But, as Heather MacDonald contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week: “A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing.” A Washington Post data base noted that in 2019 the police shot dead nine unarmed Blacks and nineteen unarmed Whites. While the percentage of unarmed Blacks killed exceeds their percent of the population (34% versus 13%), FBI reports for 2018 show that 39% of murders in the U.S. and 54% of robberies were committed by African-Americans. In 2016, 2,870 Blacks were murdered in the U.S., 90% (2,570) by other Blacks. It is the “why” of these statistics that should concern us.
“The customs and practices of life in society sweep us along,” wrote Michel de Montaigne more than three hundred years ago. Fundamental to our culture are family life and education. Too often we have failed on both. We de-emphasize the importance of married, two-parent families, and we do not permit school choice for impoverished, inner-city families. Charter schools and voucher programs, desired by aspirant parents, have been shot down by politicians who are financially dependent on teachers’ unions who see any competition as a threat. As well, youth must be taught right from wrong. And they must disabuse themselves of the concept of victimhood, which allows one to disavow personal responsibility. And the definition of diversity must be expanded to include opinions.
The horrific murder of George Floyd convinced many politicians and most of the media that the United States remains a racist nation, which justifies the looting and rioting that followed the protests. However, “without order,” as Andrew McCarthy recently wrote, “our liberties are just parchment promises.” Democrats seek someone to blame for the sorry state of cities they have run for decades. But when something is wrong – and something is – it makes sense to first look in the mirror. Failed, well-intentioned policies should be reviewed. The biggest risks we face are not “authoritarian impulses” of President Trump. (After all, no authoritarian would reduce the role of government by cutting regulations and lowering taxes). The biggest risk is the denunciation by supercilious Leftists of those who do not conform to their prevailing orthodoxies, which were forged in universities, distributed through the media and given expression via left-wing government bureaucrats. Theirs is the way of fascists and communists, not a free people. It is a culture of arrogance that has created this sad state of affairs that must be addressed.
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