Got this from a high school teacher this morning. I've deleted some geographical details to protect his privacy, but otherwise publish this with his permission:
I've been a long time reader of your blog and columns, but only this week finally got around to reading Crunchy Cons. Wanted to drop you a quick note to say it was fantastic, in fact, I really connected with it in a variety of ways. For one, I told my wife that Crunchy Cons couldn't describe our recent life trajectory any better had you called and interviewed us. About five years ago we moved from [deleted] (where I had a high-paying job in IT) back to my home state of Pennsylvania so that we could lead a more Crunchy existence. I got an MA in theology and now teach religion at a small Catholic high school. We've obviously eschewed some of the niceties we had in [our former state] so as to better focus on our kids; but there is no question that we've never been happier.Your personal story, too, resonates strongly with my own in certain aspects. I am also an avid indoorsman who once upon a time grew up in rural areas, fishing and trapping (my heart wasn't in it, either, but like you, to this day, I have deep respect for outdoorsmen/conservationists like my father). And although today my idea of a good time is an afternoon in the library, I'm still deeply concerned about the environment.
But nothing in Crunchy Cons struck more of a nerve than your discussion on the way consumerism has mesmerized American conservatives. Well, it has mesmerized everyone, but I am particularly interested in the effect it has had on conservatism. I come from a staunchly conservative family -- my grandfather was a machine Republican from NW Penna who spent a decade or so in the state legislature. Conservative values are in my blood, and I never doubted their ability to rescue us from the onslaught of secularism.
Never doubted, that is, until I moved to the frontlines of the Culture War (I teach 11th grade morality). The supposed highpoint of conservativism that we experienced during the early part of the decade (GWB's first term) was in many ways a mirage -- while we were winning a few key battles (like with SCOTUS nominations) we were in many ways losing the war with young people. Today, just a couple of short years after that highpoint, my students are almost completely secularized (at least 80% are cultural Catholics, at best, and could not care less about anything the Church has to say); there is almost unanimous support for gay marriage, total indifference to abortion, divorce, premarital sex, etc., etc. I honestly don't think that our conservative leaders have any clue as to just how badly we're losing this generation of young people.
And I blame consumerism. The mad dash to consume and own and profit erodes any attempts to establish a moral foundation. When you encourage a kid, from the time they're about three years old, that they should be instantly gratified in all things consumer, it then becomes impossible to teach him/her to delay gratification on matters of, say, sex. It's just impossible. They're too used to having it their way. The Republican Party's unwavering support of corporate America is toxic, I mean toxic, to our youth. (I say this with the implicit idea that the Democratic Party has little or nothing to offer youth in the first place.)
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I suspect, Rock, that your grandparent's move was not motivated by the promise of stuff for the sake of stuff, but rather to take advantage of the opportunities to prosper and provide security for your family.
And westward expansion was not born of consumerism. I think you confuse entrepreneurs with consumers. Our current crop of diabetic video game junkies and porn addicts are not going to go forward and conquer the world any time soon.
I've known greedy, self-centered people who ranged from ultra-religious to ultra-secular, and everything between.
I've also known compassionate, generous people who ranged from ultra-religious to ultra-secular, and everything between.
Can we stop looking to assign all blame to Someone Else, and try to find the areas where we have common fears, common hopes, common values & goals?
Consumerism doesn't care if you're liberal or conservative, religious or secular. We're all just grist for its voracious mill. It'll grind us up & spit us out when we're no longer of any use to it.
An anti-consumerist value of "Enough!" has to be held by a growing number of people. So many seem to feel that no matter how much they buy, how much they own, they're somehow being cheated by others, that they're "losing" -- although I'm not exactly sure if they could articulate exactly what's to be won or lost.
But if we spend all our time decrying the liberals or conservatives as the source of all our troubles, the consumerist machine will just go on eating us up.
Mammon has no allegiance, except to its own continued existence.
Loudon is a Fool,
I suspect, Rock, that your grandparent's move was not motivated by the promise of stuff for the sake of stuff, but rather to take advantage of the opportunities to prosper and provide security for your family.
I suspect that my grandparents came to America for economic opportunity, social mobility and freedom. In other words, they came here to improve both their material standard of living (i.e. making more money and being able to have "more stuff) and their social standard of living (i.e. being able to live in a society where people have freedom of speech and basic human rights).
And westward expansion was not born of consumerism. I think you confuse entrepreneurs with consumers.
Silly me. I thought that entrepreneurs are successful when they are able to sell to consumers. I guess if a entrepreneur could dictate to the consumer what he or she would have to buy, it would make things simpler for the entrepreneur. But, there again, the evil free enteprise system comes in and lets consumers choose how they will spend their money. Joe Stalin would not be pleased with that I'm sure.
Our current crop of diabetic video game junkies and porn addicts are not going to go forward and conquer the world any time soon.
I am pretty sure that my grandparents didn't come to the United States to play video games and view pornography. Still, one wonders why this makes socialism (i.e. hostility to "money" and "corporate interests") a better bet than free enterprise.
Who says you can't be pro-life and pro-free enterprise?
rock, do you even know what people mean when they refer to consumerism? From your responses in these conversations, I'm thinking you're not working off the same page as Rod or most of the other commentators here. Not trying to be insulting, I'm quite serious.
Rod,
You say:
"This teacher suspects that a lot of it has to do with having been raised in a consumer culture, one that places the autonomous choosing self at the center of moral authority. The students, in other words, have been conditioned by this culture to see their Church as non-authoritative in matters of morality."
Does recognizing and respecting an authority require unquestioning agreement with all that authority states? I feel like I was a little ahead of the Papacy on the matter of Limbo - was I putting self at the center of moral authority or using my faith, reason and belief in a just, loving and forgiving God when I, at age 8 in 1972, reasoned that God surely would not separate the soul of a newborn baby from those of its family for eternity due to an event beyond the ability of the newborn to control?
Crunchy cons seem to always lump support for gay marriage in with disregarding teaching on pre-marital sex and abortion, but to many reasoning people, it is possible to differentiate a social justice issue (gay marriage) from pre-marital sex and abortion.
And it is interesting to me that the consumerism lamented here is linked to sexual sins, while the enormous impacts to family from economic insecurity, dual-income households where both parents either choose to work or have to work, the fission of the larger family where grandma/grandpa live hundreds of miles away, the decline of the neighborhood as a social unit, etc. etc., are not considered.
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