Cultural Progress

I’ve often said to friends who’ve complained about certain social philosophies prevailing “You just have to wait for the old people to die.”

Its crass, but most times its true. My father was 12 before Civil Rights Legislation was passed. For him, living in the North, he never knew separated drinking fountains or anything like that, but that was a reality for plenty of Americans. And for some of those Americans (despite the Civil Rights Legislation) can’t let it go. They may not advocate separate but equal, but may still be off-put by interracial marriage. This isn’t meant to be a discussion on race, but a discussion on how culture can be ingrained.

From 1933 to 1980, America was on a clear and left-ward trajectory. From 1980 until the present its been dialing some of that back (or trying to), but today we’re at a cross-roads we haven’t seen since (likely) 1887. And that is a culture ingrained is waning in the hearts and mind of Americans. In 1887, everyone born in 1866 was turning 21. Seems like random numbers and blabber, but in 1887, people were voting who were not alive during the Civil war. They may have heard stories and carried prejudices, but it was the downward decline of the Civil Wars great influence in the American populace.

2011 is 16 years removed from 1995; The year when those born in 1974 (the year after ‘Nam ended) tuned 21. Those folks are now starting to move into the political halls of Washington D.C. In fact, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is roughly 41. He was about 3 (and I assume not very worldly) when Vietnam ended. By the time he was 10, Reagan was in the White House and the enemy was the U.S.S.R. To someone not well versed in the trade of American History, Politics, and Culture this probably seems like a big collection of fun facts for a trivia game. But the truth is, both wars (Civil & Vietnam) were enduring milestones for the American people.

Now the generation that was born after the Big 3 (Civil War, Vietnam/Watergate, Civil Rights/Jim Crow) are taking hold of the country. As someone who fits the bill (I’m 1982), I already feel better about the future of the country. As I had said before, you just have to wait for these old people to die.” What I hadn’t accounted for was that they wouldn’t die quietly.

When Pat Buchanan said “we want to take our country back” at the RNC in 1992, many said it was the death knell of George H. W. Bush. What I heard (much later, I wasn’t watching the RNC when I was 9) was “we need to get rid of the Mexicans.” But what I’ve recently come to understand is that its not Mexican’s they ultimately want to get rid of, but the perception that we don’t need to get rid of Mexicans. Not specifically, but when people feel they’re losing the country, it really means their culture. Its hard to imagine the U.S. ever really going down. And for obvious reasons, we have no control over the actual landmass staying or going. But culturally, this is where folks stand. Once upon a time, everyone could get a job on a factory line, support a family, buy a house, and send their kids to college.

Today, there are no factory lines, divorce is rife, people stopped having kids, the house market is up in flames, college sends at least 3 Americans out of 10 to perennial debt. Not to mention less significant changes like Marriage. These days its an end cap to a successful life, not the beginning of one. This and the migration to larger cities has left many men to wait until their mid-30’s for marriage. People go to bed watching the Jersey Shore not Johnny Carson. The internet has blurred most lines, everything’s computerized, and we just stopped sending rockets to the Moon; a move that is so iconic in America’s dominance in the world and over our eternal enemy, the Soviets. Not even the Soviets are around anymore. They’ve been replaced by China who’s nullified our missile defense sheild by simply grinding us down through economics.

The problem starts simply. Once upon a time you could say a cultural norm and have it agreed upon by everyone at the bowling alley, pub, or workplace. Not only are those places disappearing, but you can’t be sure of anything anymore. And this is where the paranoia sets in. America wasn’t any better or worse before cell phones, reality TV, or iPods, we’ve just changed culturally overnight. To the old guard, this is frightening. They’ve woken up in a place that looks like home, but feels like Mars. To too many American’s, you get the impression that they feel as if they’ve landed on planet of the apes. Except instead of primates, you’ve just got racially mixed Americans running around with buds in their ears, staring into a brick in their hand, speaking to kids in India about something called a Processor, but it has nothing to do with food.

The good news is that the end is nigh, and the failure of certain institutions – institutions that were not sustainable – are returning America to some of its post-war norms anyway. Family means something wildly different today than it did in 1946, but more and more the elderly are moving in with one another for financial solvency. Retiring to Florida no longer works. The houses are too expensive, the loans don’t exist, the water has oil in it, and the Hurricane insurance is unaffordable.

But somewhere out there on the horizon is a new American norm. 9/11 was the defining moment of a generation. But children born after it are already 10. And since the killing of Bin Laden, like the defeat of Imperial Japan, its become less of a cultural flash point than it might otherwise have been. I don’t look forward gleefully to the passing of our forbearers. The Baby Boomers got us through some rough patches for sure. But the future for America looks incredibly bright when the sins of our fathers are finally put to rest with them.