Cultural Conservatism

A detailed Summary of Cultural Conservatism

Culture in ancient times was defined as "the sum total of the equipment of the human individual, which enables him to be attuned to his immediate environment on the historical past on the other". It reflects in effect what humans have added to nature. It comprises the spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society and includes, in addition to the arts and letters, the value systems, traditions, modes of life and beliefs of the society.

Through these aspects it is evident that the basis of growth and establishment of human culture is addition and change. However, in modern America this growth of culture is often resisted until it can no longer be held at bay. Many conservatives see these social changes as threatening because they feel that it will ultimately degrade the religious or social ethics which they personally hold.

However, to put it simply, and it's not a problem that only conservatives have, conservatives very often confuse ethics and aesthetics. When people such as Gertude Himmelfarb, a conservative Christian historian, attack our, as she perceives it, "amoral," "sexually deviant," and "perverse" culture they are primarily responding to something that they find culturally foreign and aesth

It's not that the opposites of these cliches are true. For the most part these criteria are irrelevant. Money can make life easier, but it can also make life miserable. Convention has some good points and some bad points. What it all comes down to is a flexibility that should allow for the well being of the individual without compromising the rights of other individuals.

We sit back and watch as cultural conservatives try to legislate their petty morality at the city, state, and federal level. They successfully overthrow school systems because they encourage condom distribution and an open-minded curriculum. Here's a question - how are teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and a unnecessary, overly-filtered curriculum conservative?

Many people grow up in a world of rigid cultural archetypes. With white businessmen going to office buildings while their wives stayed at home and their kids went to school, what most conservatives would consider a utopia; lots of money, prestige, cultural cohesion, and good conservative values. But these values are in fact aethetics, but because they have brought up to worship these myths, to question them is an admission of personal failure. What are these myths?: that money makes you happy, that society is right, that poverty is bad, that maintaining convention in every aspect of your life is the ultimate good, that variation from these ideas is sin, etc.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gertude Himmelfarb, Bible Christ, Jew Muslim, , United Christian, Conservative Christian, conservative christian, single parent, cultural conservatives, single parent families, conservative christian values, cultural archetypes, parent families, christian values,

Approximate Word count = 1052
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics