Conservatives are constantly aghast at the left-wing bias that has infected all of our institutions -- most obviously, the media and the schools, but also (lately) the boardroom and even the Pentagon.
What's the origin of the bias? Well, we usually talk about academic indoctrination of elites by tenured radicals; or deliberate propaganda efforts by trained operatives -- and all of that probably is a factor.
But I think there's another source, and it's within each of us. The nature of left-wing opposition is to complain and demand, and to attack those who would dare defend tradition or invoke authority.
In other words, the left is a teenager. The right is composed of adults -- and not even particularly stodgy or square adults, just men and (usually married) women who understand what living requires.
The reason our politics and our culture have a left-wing bias is that, at core, it's a bias toward youth. Our popular art forms -- especially rock -- are about rebellion; our ideas of beauty are about youth. Etc.
It's natural to value youth. But we didn't always obsess about youth the way we do today. And I think it has a lot to do with the rise of visual media, from TV to TikTok, and self-consciousness about image.
The Democrats are often fighting what they call a return to the 1950s, which they say means repressing women and minorities, but it also conjures pipe-smoking dads and moms in sensible calf-length skirts.
In other words, the 1950s were about adulthood. The revolution of the 1960s was about the triumph of youth -- and we have never really looked back. After 1968 or so, adults strove to look like kids.
The bias toward youth dooms our politics to have a left-wing bias. It also means that when Republicans win, it's a surprise -- because there are still adults, but they are quiet, and often deliberately so.
So -- if you want to change that bias, you have to make adulthood more exciting. Not just demand people grow up or behave like adults, which is the method of some scolds, but make our adulthood fun.
Adulthood is about enjoying certain things that are off limits. We can't get there by banning things that are widely available -- but there are some things you can't just pull up on a smartphone.
How about, for example... the experience of pregnancy? Not just for women, but men? Savoring a pregnant woman's beauty is something only men in committed relationships can do. It's for adults, only.
Making pregnancy sexy and fun -- or just honored and valuable -- seems more persuasive than going on about when life begins and so on, even if those are really crucial underlying concepts to everything.
So... I'm toying with the idea of developing our notions of adulthood -- not just as a philosophy or a set of rules, but as an aesthetic. If you can get to that, I think, you can start to correct our political course.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
