Tenth Ten Postings of Gravitas

The following list of titles and accompanying dates refers to past postings on the blog, Gravitas: A Voice for Civics Education, that have been deleted.  After each title and date, the entries below include the first paragraph of each respective posting.  If you care to receive a copy of a particular posting, send your request via email to gravitascivics@gmail.com .  One posting per request.

MORALISTIC POLITICAL SUBCULTURE

(July 22, 2011)

Of late, this blog has been focused on the influential social dynamic of political culture. One purpose for this focus is to provide an explanation for the diversity in political thought that characterizes the US. But more to the point of the postings I have just written, I want to share some insights that I believe shed light on why our political culture has evolved in such a way that we as a people are not as engaged in political discourse as we once were. This is the case at both the local and national levels. So far, I have written of the competition between a harsh Calvinistic tradition that began in the New England colonies through the contributions of the Puritans and the more genteel tradition of the transcendentalists as exemplified by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. With that duality as a backdrop, I then shared the overall depiction by Daniel Elazar of three distinct political subcultures that formed in American history. They are the individualistic, moralistic, and traditional political subcultures. In the last posting, I reviewed the individualistic subculture.

TRADITIONAL POLITICAL SUBCULTURE

(July 25, 2011)

This blog has been tracing a historical story of how we, as a people, have evolved in our political beliefs. To date, I have shared with you how basic religious sentiments, Calvinism versus transcendentalism, pitted a competition between a strict Puritanism against a more genteel, individualistic perspective which promoted a good sense of self confidence and self initiative. Both views served Americans well as they faced the vast wilderness of the continent. (Of course, this narrative oftentimes fails to mention the dispossession of the indigenous population.) With this foundation, the American political development included the formation of three distinct political subcultures, one in the northernmost states, another in the mid-Atlantic states, and one in the southern states. In the North, a moralistic subculture took hold, noted by a sense of public service and community. The mid Atlantic states saw an individualistic subculture become dominant in which marketplace values held sway. Daniel Elazar, who identified these developments, reports that in the South the traditional political subculture evolved.

CULTURAL DUALISM

(July 22, 2011)

In trying to understand our political disposition, I have taken up the task in recent postings of tracing how our political culture has evolved. I have reported what two prominent scholars offered on this topic. First, George Santayana observed that early on, the nation developed a dual cultural view in which on the one hand there was a strict Puritanical view that had a strong religious foundation and on the other, there was a more genteel view, transcendentalism, which promoted an individualism underscored with strong senses of self confidence and self initiative. As this dualism worked itself out, the nation developed within three different regions, running north to south, three distinct political subcultures: moralistic, in the North, individualistic, in the mid Atlantic region, and traditional, in the South. Of the three, the individualistic has gained prominence in the US.

EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION ON POLITICAL CULTURE

(August 1, 2011)

If you are just beginning to read this blog, I am in the midst of relaying a story of how we, as a nation, have gone about developing our political culture. To date, I have outlined the formation, during the early days of the republic, of a dual moral view of strict Calvinism and a genteel transcendentalism; i. e., a view that promoted strict discipline (based on a fire and brimstone religious tradition) and a more moderate view that takes on an individualistic, self confidence posture. Both views proved very useful in a very hostile frontier environment. With this foundation, the nation diversified into three distinct political culture regions (in the northern states, a moralistic subculture, in the mid states, an individualistic subculture, and in the southern states, a traditional subculture).

EFFECTS OF A NATIONAL ECONOMY ON OUR POLITICAL CULTURE

(August 5, 2011)

Continuing the American story of how our political culture has developed to where it is today, I want to pick up this account at the beginning of the twentieth century. We already saw that the initial effects of a Calvinist religious tradition were strongly diffused by first the effects of the philosophic beliefs of transcendentalism and the empiricism associated with industrialization. Also affecting any religious based cultural element was the influence of pragmatism's impermanence. All that American political culture needed was a new standard for goodness, a criterion based on temporal goodness, to begin a chain of changes that would affect our basic institutions.

THE NEW DEAL AS A CULTURAL CHANGE FACTOR

(August 8, 2011)

The last posting described a debate among Progressives during the early years of the twentieth century. They argued over whether reforms directed at addressing the abuses of large corporations should be based on trying to reestablish the competitive markets of a prior time or if the efficiency of large corporations should be accepted and met with a strong central government that could effectively regulate these large entities. The debate never achieved closure. Instead, it led to a consumerist approach of piecemeal reforms that basically purchased, through votes, specific legislation that either ameliorated the more egregious abuses of large corporations or attempted to eliminate the practice(s) that caused the abuses. These attempts neither systemically attacked the underlying causes nor addressed the cultural foundations that allowed the prominence enjoyed by the large businesses that controlled the American economy.

NEW DEAL'S EFFECTS ON LOCAL ALLEGIANCES

(August 12, 2011)

I have been sharing with you a history of our political culture. I started with the Puritanical origins of our colonial past and traced that development through the transcendental movement, industrialization, and the Progressive Movement. I have placed this development in the context of three subcultures: the moralistic, the individualistic, and the traditional subcultures, which were each prominent in three different regions of the nation – a layered effect in which each region is roughly parallel going east to west. For details, you can check the postings of this blog since July 8. This posting will pick up the story where I left off in the last posting; that is, with the influences of the New Deal.

T V

(August 15, 2011)

Let me continue my account of how our political culture has developed:

While I do not generally agree with much of what critical pedagogues propose, I do believe they often contribute insightful observations as to the state of education and our nation in general. One such case is that of critical educator, Henry Giroux's observation regarding the effect TV has had on the degree of emancipation Americans enjoy. He writes that TV has been deleterious to our culture. His attention is focused on an array of effects from hindering Americans from fulfilling themselves and developing their full potential, to its active attempt to sell a materialistic lifestyle that effectively intoxicates too many Americans to a baseless consumerism. But Giroux's main lament is that TV has belittled community and has helped augment individualism.

COMPLEX CULTURE, POLITICALLY AND OTHERWISE

(August 19, 2011)

Since this last July 8^th posting, I have been sharing my sense of how our political culture has evolved since the nation's colonial days. This posting is a review of the main points the intervening postings have made. Hopefully, it will not be too rambling, but instead encourage you to go to previous postings to read, if you have not visited those postings, the presentations this blog have made on the various issues addressed. 

COMPATIBILITY WITH SOCIAL CAPITAL

(August 22, 2011)

This blog, through its postings since July 8, 2011, has traced the historical evolution of our nation's political culture. In the last posting, I alluded to the importance of a political culture to a civics teacher in that that culture places certain parameters on what the teacher can present or places limits on how content can be presented. I want to further the argument by pointing out that political culture is part of what needs to be taught to students. They, like their teachers, operate politically and otherwise within a cultural environment which contains support for certain messaging and actions and sanctions for other messaging and actions. Students, as well as everyone else, need to know the content of that environment.