The Culture War - Is there a Way to Move Forward?

An integral factor in the continuing saga of political turmoil in the USA is the culture war.  This conflict may be framed as follows: 

One side sees the USA in cultural and moral decline as characterized by the following:

•  changes in sexual morality, including sexual promiscuity, rampant pornography, and the liberalization of attitudes on homosexuality, gay marriage and gender transformations
• the weakening of the American work ethic and increase in entitlements
• the over-emphasis on perceived racism and its use as an excuse for criminality and the breakdown of the family in African-American society
• increased drug use and a decline in law and order and respect for the police
• the rejection of religion (specifically the Christian religion) and the weakening of its moral impact on our society
• the domination of a liberal elite with their liberal media ridiculing alternative viewpoints and promoting political correctness
• a foolish naivete that embraces too many immigrants and allows dangerous religious groups into our society without demanding conformity to our values
• a worldview and foreign policy that diminishes American exceptionalism and panders to a feckless UN and various bad actors in the international community

The other side sees the USA in the dangerous grip of a simplistic populism and ignorance that manifests itself in the following:

• ethnic and religious bigotry that is sadly reawakening and becoming culturally acceptable
• a hardhearted and misguided perception of the poor and disadvantaged as pariahs and parasites rather than victims
• misplaced and hypocritical religious zeal that is based on outdated moral codes rather than social justice
• a perverse obsession with guns that has derailed all reasonable discourse and study about sensible gun control and violence in our society
• a blind nationalism that ignores the intertwined fate of all nations and peoples
• an overly aggressive focus on law and order that has resulted in the USA having the largest % of its citizens in prison in the world
• an active rejection of peer-reviewed science and other forms of knowledge that makes the US population woefully ignorant and easily brainwashed
• a misinformed public that blames the poor, the immigrants and free trade for economic woes rather than demanding initiatives to decrease wage disparity

These viewpoints are dramatically different and seem irreconcilable.  It is hard to believe that people can view the same world and come to these radically different perspectives on what is happening.  Yet it is indeed the situation we are in.

The question is whether there is some mechanism to bridge the chasm in these worldviews and come to some sort of compromise and way to move forward.  As a person who tries to confront problems with a rational and logical approach, I believe that the only way to achieve progress is to present people with the data that are relevant to these topics and then have an in-depth public analysis of each area.

For example, the ‘black lives matter’ movement and its focus on racial profiling have generated a typical response from the left and the right, with the right dismissing the movement as another example of black people playing the race card and not being willing to confront the rampant criminality in their neighborhoods, and the left righteously proclaiming that the videos of police shootings are dramatic evidence of what black people have been saying for generations – that the police are routinely harassing and targeting them.

These are ‘polemical’ positions.  What needs to be done is a deliberate and comprehensive analysis of police shootings and confrontations across all races and ethnic groups as well as an in-depth look at violent crime. This data needs to be collected, evaluated by an impartial group and then presented to the public in an easily understood manner.  Statistics and data may not tell the full story, but they will certainly get us a lot closer to a better understanding of what is happening.  Anecdotal, isolated incidents give a strong impression, but they may or may not be indicative of the true situation.

While it is true that different people will view the same set of data and come to different conclusions - especially in non-scientific subjects such as human behavior and economics -  a detailed look at the numbers behind a problem will certainly bring people to a more nuanced view of the problem and hopefully defuse some of the incendiary rhetoric around the issue.  A departure from the shrill tone of today’s political discussion would be the first step in finding an acceptable common ground.