A culture war is a struggle between two or more
sets of conflicting cultural values. It is a phenomenon which began in the 1990s in the
United States. It generally refers to a conflict between traditionalist or conservative values and progressive or liberal values. Culture wars have influenced the debate over public school
history and science curricula in the United States, along with many other issues.
This
expression entered the vocabulary
of United States politics with the publication of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter, a
sociologist at the University of Virginia, in 1991. Hunter presented changes in United States politics and culture, including the issues of abortion, federal and state gun laws, global warming, immigration, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, and censorship.
The
phrase culture war represents a loan
translation from the German Kulturkampf. The German word Kulturkampf (culture struggle), refers to the
clash between cultural and religious groups in the campaign from 1871 to 1878
under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the German Empire against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.
In
1990 commentator Pat Buchanan in a campaign for the Republican
nomination for President of the United States against incumbent George H. W.
Bush received a prime-time speech at the 1992 Republican National
Convention, which is sometimes dubbed the "'culture war' speech. During
his speech he claimed: "There is a religious war going on in our country
for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of
nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself."
For example, in the USA actions of culture war arguably reached its
apogee in the early 2000s, with the drive to incorporate gay marriage bans into
state constitutions. In 2004 alone voters in 11 states approved such measures. By
2012, 33 states had adopted gay marriage bans. Then, thanks to successful legal
challenges across the country, the legal religious conservatives had
constructed over a decade crumbled and fell.
Questions:
1. Have you ever heard about culture war?
2. Do you recognise this phenomenon in your country? In what way?
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war
http://eramuslim.ga/Culture_war
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/you-cant-hide-from-the-culture-wars
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-29697169
ReplyDeleteIt is not the first time I have heard about the culture war. Nowadays there is a great deal of problems and overall issues, which raise doubts among societies. They fight a battle for or against in vitro, animal rights, abortion, homosexual relationships or on politician grounds. Last presidential election in Poland might be a marvellous example of the culture war, which divided society into people, who eager for better future and those, who accept reality and don't want changes. It was especially visible to the naked eye on TV, which manipulated people having lost objectivism and various voters' opinions and comments on social media.
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ReplyDeleteI heard about culture war. For example about the rights of homosexuals. They walking through the streets and shouting and haveing transparency. They wear colorful clothes and Fight for Their Rights - for exemple right that having kids. Traditionalists walking through the streets and shouting about traditional family and normal home and God.
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ReplyDeleteI heard something about culture war. Nowadays, in European Union is a war between imigrants and nations. Islamistic people do not accept European culture. They making hijacked, assasination etc. I think it is religious war. I don't know why they don't accept our culture. Maybe EU is weak with imigrants politics.
ReplyDeleteI heard about culture war. Nowadays it is quite common phrase. Although it entered into public in early nineties, in my opinion the struggle existed much earlier, even befor Von Bismarck, but the scale wasn't as big as it is right now. It's also visible in Polish society. The war between traditional christians and more liberal, modern, mostly younger people. We can see it everywhere, starting from TV, political debates, newspapers and ending on social media, even in the most trivial cases from everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI also have heard about culture war. I think it is present in discourse of all western societies. In Poland is related with controversial topics like abortion, in vitro, law of homosexuals and immigrants, but also with reprivatisation of properties or social policy.
ReplyDeleteI am familiar with culture war. This phenomenon is present in life of our country and it is widely discussed in main media those who belong to main stream and those less popular. Journalists refer to cultural issues from around the world and they find a lot of them in our country. As an example of case witch has tensions on cultural background I can bring long and difficult fight of sexual minorities for their rights. As most of cases like this particular one in my opinion there is no one good solution, and the only way to solve this problem is a dialogue and a sort of a compromise. To sum up, in my opinion culture war is a part of modern and globalized society and people have to teach how to deal with it and it cannot be avoided.
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