The Culture War

So, I was saying earlier that for some reason I have this deep interest in Christianity in the United States. The thing that interests me is this idea of the culture war.

To some people on the right it seems, the culture war is a fight between the righteous on the right and the lecherous heathens on the left. The left wants to pollute are media with profanity and pornography. I haven't read about the idea of the culture war extensively, but I have heard people on the right say things along these lines.

The thing is, this isn't true at all. I'm on the left and I think a lot of the stuff the media puts out is distasteful. Like rap lyrics most of the time are overly materialistic and sex-oriented, in a way that can be demeaning. It doesn't offend me personally because I'm not that easily offended, but like I said I find it distasteful. I find pornography distasteful. It's not so much the images themselves that are distasteful, because like a lot of people would argue sex is natural and human and good, but it's the way that they talk about women on porn sites. Yes, I've looked at a lot of porn sites. Not recently, and not because it actually turned me on but just to see what was out there. It's not the nudity or sex that's bad, it's the attitude.

Yet, the reason I'm not opposed to these things is because it's about freedom. People can say or do what they want. Porn stars are adults who agree to take part in these activities. True, some of these messages can be damaging to children, but it's the parent's job to raise the kid, we shouldn't have to make everything in the media "kid friendly." People on the right say they are for freedom, but they are always trying to legislate their own brand of "morality."

In order for the left to be effective though, they have to distance themselves from this notion that they are heathens. My sister's roommate is a strip club DJ. Strip clubs - talk about distasteful. They have started this thing where they have pageants, among others there is the "Vagina Beauty Pageant." So my sister and her roommate drive around in this car advertising the Vagina Beauty Pageant (which says Vagina Beauty Pageant in big letters on the back), and my sister videotapes peoples' reactions to it through the tinted window. I admit that it is funny to see people get all shocked over seeing the word "vagina" on the back of an automobile, but it doesn't really help people on the left in the scheme of things. Imagine the right wing people, seeing this and shaking their fists: "Those dirty heathenistic liberals and their vagina beauty pageants!" They get angry. It fuels their fire.

I might revisit this topic again later.