Hi Peter,

 

Thanks for sharing this. In the spirit of the Intellectual Explorers’ club and general bridging divides to achieve common ground, I am trying to enter into your space here. In doing so, I must confess to having difficulty getting very far and thus am finding myself experiencing resistance. Let me see if I can share my thoughts in a way that makes sense.  

 

First, I certainly can acknowledge that much of the “space” being filled on this TOK forum, the Intellectual Deep/Dark Web, Rebel Wisdom, and the like are people who generally fall into the social identity categories of Whiteness and Maleness. And given that there is a sense that these folks are trying to establish something of a new, leading direction for culture, there are potentially dangerous parallels, especially given our well-documented structural history, where White men have been afforded “privileges” that other social categories have been unfairly denied and marginalized.

 

Second, Let me state here that I very much wish that more people of color and women were more visible in these spaces and I think the spaces would benefit greatly from that. I presume we would be in agreement in the first and second points.

 

However, I am trying to empathize from that to your conclusion. Maybe you can add a bit more to help me see it?

 

To help clarify where I am on this and why I am having some difficulty, let me add a few points of reference that might help us align better on this issue. Although I cannot speak for Peter Limberg, when I hear the frame “Culture War” I think of what emerged with Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell in the 1980s. That is, I don’t see this as the same “culture war” of the 1950s into the 70s, which was a class and civil rights, and anti-Vietnam culture war. There was a significant shift in the 1980s, IMO, where the focus was on core, political identity values, defined most starkly by the Christian/Republican/Moral Majority Right and the Secular/Live and Let Live Left. It may well be that because I was raised as an strong atheist and am married to a Jew that makes this aspect of our culture seem particularly salient to me.

 

So, for me, Culture War 2.0 is new identity/values split that emerges in the 2010s, after the 30 year Left-Right identity-values bipolar conflict. Speaking for myself, this shift is very evident in the academy. And it is why I found some difficulty resonating with your claim. Right now, IMO, the academy is much further on the “left” identity politic continuum than it was in the 2000s. In the 2000s, in the academy, I would have considered myself fairly center and maybe a bit right within the academic culture (FYI, I have always voted Democrat or Independent). On social-political identity issues, I was and am essentially aligned with Obama.

 

Currently, however, many aspects of the academy are very far to the left of me, especially academic departments of the humanities, education, social science, counseling and applied psychology. IMO, folks in these domains are basically obsessed with race and sex inequities and are committing to very strong ideologically driven positions that I think work against the broader values of dignity and well-being with integrity for all (and I think create backlash and result in serious problems, like electing Donald Trump).

 

Consider, for example, the Intellectual Dark Web. What defines is? To the extent anything defines that group, it was an anti-academic establishment view on identity politics. So, that is another point where I am finding difficulty empathizing with your position here. I do not consider myself having views aligned with the more left-oriented academic disciplines and I have experienced marginalization as a function of that. So, that means that there is an inverse between institutional authority, tradition and my political position, and to be frank, my social identity category. Thus, in the academy, I do not feel much “privilege” in being a white male.

 

Thanks for sharing your view, and I hope my reply makes some sense. I would love to get your thoughts.

 

Best,
Gregg

___________________________________________

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)

Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.

Check out my Theory of Knowledge blog at Psychology Today at:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge

 

Check out my webpage at:

www.gregghenriques.com

 

 

I am still lost on the concept of Culture War 2.0. From where I’m standing, it’s still Culture War 1.-something. The only difference today from 50 years ago is 24-hour discussion panels on TV and the Internet and its related digital media. In 1960 it was much easier to ignore the many various cultural voices. Now they all have a goddamn platform, a website, a forum, and an Instagram group. It seems that Culture War 2.0 might be a polite way of saying that those at the top of the cultural hierarchy have finally noticed the noise that has been there all along. 

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