I started this topic thinking of it as the Culture War but quickly realized there have been many separate instances of what is essentially the same phenomenon. So culture wars it is. Many of these culture wars overlapped in time and so are not chronologically distinct.

The Rock ‘n Roll War

As far as my consciousness of the culture wars, I’d say it goes back to the 50s. I was only 6 or so but I remember vividly the ruckus created by the arrival of Elvis Presley on the American scene.

That was my first inkling that there was a conflict within our culture.

Elvis descended on American culture like a cataclysm. The impact scar was a deep-running schism between those who feared and hated him for the loosening of social strictures he represented, and those who thought, "I don’t know, what’s so wrong, let the boy wiggle when he sings."

Now this schism is a complicated thing, and I don’t mean to oversimplify it except for the purposes of discussion. What explains this natural schism between reaction against change and acceptance of it or openness to it is somewhat mysterious. It could be as simple as right-brain/left-brain dominance, or it might be purely cultural maybe going all the way back to the Puritans. The one thing that can be said with certainty is that such a natural schism exists and is, at least in part, what separates conservatives from liberals, or reactionaries from progressives if you prefer. In 1950s Alabama, everyone had an opinion on Elvis. You were ok with him (maybe even liked him a little), or you hated him and declared that he would be the end of civilization.

Thank God we got the criminals, and America got the Puritans! ~ Australian folk saying

The Civil Rights War

Of course, unbeknownst to me, there were all sorts of conflicts going on in our culture. The civil rights movement was brewing with all the bitter conflict inherent in that.

There were conflicts between the defenders of the status quo and social reformers, Labor and Capitol, civil libertarians and the law and order crowd, the peaceniks and the warmongers, the beatniks and the bankers. There was plenty of conflict to go around.

The Civil Rights Movement wasn’t only about the rights of black people; it was about the rights of all people. If justice could be denied to one, it could be denied to many.

The Civil Rights Movement made strides toward ending the racial divide in America but was largely held in check by violence and social and economic oppression. The power elite gave just enough to take some of the wind out of the sails of the movement, and then finished it off with the murder of Dr. King.

The War for the Soul of America

World War II brought something new and sinister to America, the prospect of war as business and armaments as industry. The notion that there were profits to be derived from war was nothing new, but the industrialization of war as big business was (if not entirely). Because of the necessities of WWII America now had a vast industrial power house dedicated to the manufacture of the tools of war: planes, tanks, bombs, cannons, guns, bullets, and etcetera. All that industrial capability could rake in some massive profits if only we could sell the rest of the world enough of the implements of war.

There were important voices warning against this new threat to America called the military-industrial complex.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. ~ former President and military leader, Dwight D. Eisenhower (emphasis added)

Please don’t gloss over this Eisenhower quote. This is a very important piece of history that has a profound bearing on where we are today. That we failed to heed Eisenhower’s warning is a pity beyond measure.

It is now our job, and a considerable challenge it will be, to reverse this tragic mistake of history. We can no longer allow greed to drive humanity – for it has driven it into a ditch. We must end the arms trade and turn the resources, genius, and capitol of the military-industrial complex to peaceful purposes. Don’t scoff. People have done the seemingly impossible before, and we will do it again. This is both a moral and a practical imperative. As things are, the center cannot hold.

All of the energy, treasure, and sweat that has been devoted to the mass production of the lethal implements of war need to be redirected to solving our very real problems such as:

Global warming

Alternative energy

Food distribution

Disease prevention

Fresh water distribution

Crumbling infrastructure

And so on

We need to be building desalination plants, schools and hospitals - NOT bombs.

As it is we come very close to outspending every other nation combined on weaponry and the military.

The rhetoric is always, "We have to defend ourselves from the evil warmongers of the world." Well, guess what? We are the evil warmongers of the world. The rest of the world needs to worry about us.

Just because they have won this war up till now is no reason to concede. We must win back America’s soul and put the nation on a righteous path, one that we can all be proud of, and one that will serve the world and all of humanity, and serve them well.

The Hair Rebellion

Just about the time the Civil Rights Movement was peaking, here came the Beatles to America. It seems funny now that these clean-cut lads would cause such an uproar, but boy howdy did they ever!

People freaked out about their hair, though in pictures now they look well sheared. As the objections grew so did the Beatles’ hair. It was a thing of beauty.

Of course now every other kid in America wanted to grow their hair out too. As the Beatles grew theirs longer, we followed suit. This was a travesty to the mainstream, and many of us kids were mocked, beaten, thrown out of school or kicked out of our homes for the choice.

For a period of several years it was all about hair. You could tell almost any kid’s politics by the length of their hair.

By the mid-1970s long hair worn by much of the American youth evoked little comment and indeed was considered fashionable. But during much of the previous two decades male hair length was a contentious issue that divided the generations. The struggle over hair in many ways epitomized the sixties generation’s challenge to authority and their claim to individual rights. During the era, the meaning of long hair changed dramatically from what it was during the fifties. It began as a symbol of youth culture rebellion linked to music. By the latter part of the sixties, however, it became associated with a political and social critique of American society. https://eidr.wvu.edu/... Master’s Thesis in History

Almost Cut My Hair Almost cut my hair

It happened just the other day

It's gettin' kind of long

I could've said it was in my way But I didn't and I wonder why

I feel like letting my freak flag fly

Almost cut my hair

It happened just the other day

It's gettin' kind of long

I could've said it was in my way But I didn't and I wonder why

I feel like letting my freak flag fly

And I feel like I owe it, ... to someone Must be because I had the flu for Christmas

And I'm not feeling up to par

It increases my paranoia

Like looking in my mirror and seeing a police car Well I'm not giving in an inch to fear

çause I've promised myself this year

I feel like I owe it, ... to someone When I finally get myself together

I'm gonna get down in that sunny southern weather And I'm goin' to find a space inside to laugh,

Separate the wheat from the chaff

I feel ...

Like I owe it, ... to someone, yeah Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

It may seem silly now, but our hair was our protest. As such, it took on great significance at the time. It was an in-your-face statement to the establishment that we weren’t buying their crap anymore.

The Anti-War War

At some point in the mid-60s, we as a culture began to wake up to the fact that we were losing a lot of young American lives in an obscure little country halfway around the world called Vietnam. We still had a free press then (more or less) and they reported dutifully. The entire nation followed the daily body counts on the evening news, and the war became a major focus of the youth rebellion. Our peers were getting slaughtered and it made no sense at all. It eventually began to dawn on us that companies like Dupont and Bank of America were reaping huge profits from the war, and that was why America was sacrificing its youth.

I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag Yeah, come on all of you big strong men,

Uncle Sam needs your help again.

He's got himself in a terrible jam

Way down yonder in Vietnam

So put down your books and pick up a gun,

We're gonna have a whole lotta fun. And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! we're all gonna die. Well, come on generals, let's move fast;

Your big chance has come at last.

Gotta go out and get those reds -

The only good commie is the one who's dead

And you know that peace can only be won

When we've blown 'em all to Kingdom Come. And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why

Whoopee! we're all gonna die. Huh! Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,

Why man, this is War-a-go-go.

There's plenty good money to be made

By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,

Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,

They drop it on the Viet Cong. And it's one, two, three,

What are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam.

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why

Whoopee! we're all gonna die. Well, come on mothers throughout the land,

Pack your boys off to Vietnam.

Come on fathers, don't hesitate,

Send 'em off before it's too late.

Be the first one on your block

To have your boy come home in a box. And it's one, two, three

What are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam.

And it's five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! we're all gonna die. ~ Country Joe McDonald and the Fish

The Vietnam War protests became a battleground for the war between the rebellious youth and the establishment who profited from the war. The establishment left us no doubts that they were prepared to slaughter us on the streets of America to hang on to their precious little war.

For a good long while following the war in Vietnam, our nation avoided war. We had learned some painful lessons about messin’ in the affairs of others. Sadly, we failed to retain the wisdom over time and slowly began to forget what we had paid so dearly to learn, thus setting the stage for Iraq. If we had remembered Vietnam, Iraq would never have happened.

One lesson we should remember about both Vietnam and Iraq is that a certain segment of our society reaps great profits from war and has no compunction about having their money come to them soaked in the blood of innocents and patriots. They’ll happily kill your children and mine for the base motive of short-term profit.

The Drug War

This war has wrought infinitely more death and human suffering than drugs themselves ever could. Because of the hype, hysteria, and misinformation we are subjected to on the subject, many of us don’t realize that the majority of the harm caused by drugs is actually the direct result of our draconian drug laws, aggressive and violent enforcement of those laws, and the criminality imposed by prohibition.

We need to bring all of this drug hysteria to an end. Prohibition does not work. The fact is that people have always used drugs and they always will. But the point here is that this misbegotten war causes terrible and heart-breaking damage to our society, and to innocents, children, and others who would do us no harm.

And God help anyone who is caught up in the Drug War or for any other reason goes to prison in this country. For decades prison populations have been rising dramatically while prison conditions have been deteriorating just as dramatically. Prison reformers once imagined that as time went by, conditions would improve because awareness would naturally increase and Americans would act on their consciences. They were wrong.

The Bullshit War

Every day of our lives we are ruthlessly exploited, manipulated, conned, and lied to. And all the time there is a steady drumbeat from the MSM that everything is mostly alright, there’s nothing seriously amiss here, just calmly do what you’re told and everything will be alright. You can believe that if you want to – but I don’t advise it.

We live in a world of unrelenting, and overwhelming propaganda. We are constantly lied to through every imaginable media. We are fed a sugarcoated version of reality designed by expert propagandists to keep us acquiescent of the status quo. "Everything’s cool baby, just go along to get along, don't rock the boat!" is constantly whispered into our collective ear. When you buy into that bullshit, they have you right where they want you.

The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media. ~ William Colby, former CIA director as quoted by Dave McGowan in his book Derailing Democracy

This is a former director of the CIA telling us that the CIA owns the media. We should all be paying rapt attention. In a fit on conscience in his old age, Colby told many such tales out of school - which may be why he was discovered one day quite mysteriously dead.

The extent to which you believe what you’re told, or even allow it to register without rigorous questioning is the extent to which you are sadly misinformed. This concerted campaign of disinformation is so pervasive in our culture that it can’t help but affect us all, disorienting individuals and distorting every issue to the point that knowing the truth in modern day America is nothing less than a Herculean task - and yet knowing the truth, as elusive as it may be, is our solemn duty as citizens.

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. ~ Gloria Steinem

The War of All Wars – the Class War

This is the war that underlies all the others. This is the real divide in America, the only one that really counts. All the other culture wars have been largely a matter of the power elite exploiting social divisions to keep us at each other’s throats, so that we wouldn’t turn on them – the old divide and conquer strategy. It’s worked pretty well too up to this point. They have used race, generational tension, culture, religion, bias, bigotry, drug hysteria, nationalism, homophobia, and gender inequality to keep us riled up and fighting amongst ourselves.

The ruling class, or power elite, are comprised of the rich and powerful in America. They are, directly or indirectly, heavily invested in the military-industrial complex and therefore the arms trade and war.

These are the corporate masters of America. They are also heavily invested in our government. They have raised the stakes and the ante in our political system to the point that most of us are effectively excluded from the game. They pay for it and they own it. They are blinded by their greed and amorality and therefore represent a clear and present danger to the rest of us.

These rich and powerful players are the heart of the rightwing, though a relatively small portion of it. The rest are their dupes who subscribe to the wingnut philosophy because:

They hate one race or another

They are eaten up with homophobia

They believe in American exceptionalism and brook no criticism of the USA

They think war is patriotic

They hate people of other religions

They fear change

They some day hope to be gazillionaires and so want to be in with the right crowd

Or any number of other bogus reasons

The real power elite manipulate these fools like puppets. Prayer in school, homosexual marriage, flag burning amendments, born again Presidents, and on and on goes the list of their manipulative devices. They easily fool these folks into voting wholeheartedly against their own economic interests. And they pit their dupes against the rest of us to keep us all from presenting a united front to them and thereby challenging their rule.

One of their favorite tactics is attempting to hang their sins on their opponents as a way of deflecting the criticism they know they deserve. That’s why you hear repubs accusing Democrats of class warfare. They’re trying to smear us with their own agenda to confuse the issue. "It’s not us, it’s you," they’re saying. All the while they are actively plotting to destroy the middle class and reduce us all to a condition of abject servitude.

They have been gleefully practicing class warfare against the lower classes (which includes everyone who is not a certified multi-millionaire at the very least) for most all of my life.

In the 60s one adult could support a household. Living was relatively inexpensive, cars and houses were inexpensive, college was cheap, even people with mediocre jobs often worked a couple of years then took a year off to travel. A lot of the things we now pay for were then free.

Today, even if you have a good job, chances are you live paycheck-to-paycheck, and that more than one adult in the household works fulltime just to make ends meet. The cost of college has skyrocketed into the stratosphere, and nothing is free. Fifty million Americans are without any form of health insurance. Many have been victimized by the export of American jobs, just ask any computer programmer, and the list of exported professions is growing at an alarming rate. What manufacturing jobs we still have are on their way to China, high-tech jobs to India, and those of us not filthy rich are in the process of being reduced to peasants – and peasantry pays poorly, even in America.

In Summation

Are we all going to wake up one day in our hovels or on the street with no job or income or hope and think to ourselves, "Hey, I guess that was a war"?

What is it going to take to get people to realize that small incremental change is never going to make a real difference? It is massive, fundamental change that is called for and that is the only change that can help at this point. As it stands, we are the world’s leading warmongers, war profiteers, and purveyors of the implements of mass murder. This is not something in which we can take pride, and it’s not something which we can sustain.

And because of the blinding greed of those we have allowed to take charge of our country, we are failing to act on the issue of global warming. This is the height of folly and irresponsibility.

When are we all going to stand and say ENOUGH?

But don’t worry, I’m not pissed off or anything...

Post Script

So what do I expect you to make of this diary? It’s intended as a history lesson in the form of a brief overview, history admittedly as filtered through my personal experience, analysis and interpretation. I hope it will help someone to focus more clearly on our present circumstances, as we are in desperate need of solutions. If we don’t even realize we’re in a war, we’re going to keep getting our asses kicked again and again, just as we’ve been doing for lo these many years. If you still don’t believe this is a war, just ask those who were with Dr. King the day he was shot, or someone who was beaten, gassed and jailed in Chicago in 1968, or the girl in the photograph at Kent State.