Culture Wars in the US and American Politics

Culture Wars in the US and American Politics The term culture wars gained national prominence when first used by Pat Buchanan at the 1992 Republican National Convention and declare that there is currently a war for the nations sole. This became a critic moment within American politics and can be viewed as a tipping point for a major politic shift within the G.O.P. This also garnered the attention of almost all of the main stream media sources and helped create the movement of Christian conservatism in mainstream politics. This idea is essentially a clash between what two different people (or groups) believe to be true within our society, and others with different viewpoints. No other collective set of ethical and moral issues have driven a wedge into the social fabric of the United States quite like the â€Å"culture wars† of the past thirty years. Lines of division have been drawn on social, political, religious, legal and family issues between two warring factions of secular institute and organized fundamentalists. The culture wars take on more than an ethnographical approach in American society. It is about politics, education, communal relations and the anthropology of how this country will be shaped for future generations. The examination of these wars should be dealt with as a category for the purpose of ethnographic inquiry. In other words, applicable scrutiny must be applied to each significant topic as a function of contemporary social process that makes up the foundation, and the catalyst, of this war. Make no mistake that this monolithic movement has caused a deep divide when the American landscape. The battle against secularism is a movement with profound emotional dimensions. Along with the effects of political mobilization and a strategic purpose, the New Christian Right has developed an emotional construction of collective identities that is at the forefront of today’s issues. James Davison Hunter believes that Americans have been divided between the orthodox and the progressives, characterized by political and social hostility rooted in different systems of understanding. Public debate in modern America is not so much a process of mutual understanding and negotiation as the exercise of power politics, but of imposing one agenda to the exclusion of another (Hunter p.155) He also goes on to state the media no longer mediates the political issues, but instead exacerbates the division by polarizing the moderate discourse that is in the average Americans mindset. This level and volume of this exacerbation can be calibrated and amplified with the unlimited reach and unregulated internet. One defining feature of the culture war is the labeling and classification of issues that have been deemed as moralistic. This is a form of binary construction that lends credence to the idea that the struggle is religious in nature. In most cases, issues and players are presented as polar opposites with irreconcilable differences. Henceforth, most of the battles within this culture war are usually portrayed as liberal versus conservative, or to a lesser degree, Democrat versus Republican (Chapman p. xxvii). Although most Americans may find themselves somewhere between the divisiveness or these polarities, the binary construction has a galvanizing effect on individuals who tend to fall toward either end of the socio-political spectrum. This blending of religion and politics is still alive and well today with people like Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum, Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association, James Dobson of the Alliance Defense Fund, David Barton of Wall Builders, Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America. These are fundamental desperate views on how American culture operates. Methodology of Unification Social approaches through the use of communication, especially with electronic mass communication, are certainly nothing new. Below are a few sociological and psychological unification factors that have contributed to the success in the fusion of the New Christian Right. Evolutionary consideration should be made in terms of how this movement has generated support on such a grand scale. Many of the factors have been used successfully utilized by previous social and political movements, but this particular phenomenon has developed to the point of major influence in the current American political climate. In conjunction with the dynamics of emotional appeal, a number of unifying factors come into play in the attraction and recruitment of interested outsiders. These factors can also strengthen the bond of internal group cohesiveness. Some of these factors are illustrated below, but this list is certainly not and end-all, be-all. Psychological approaches differ by the individuals’ world view and level of influence, or distraction, from local persuaders and opinion leaders. In addition to drawing on preexisting emotional bases, within individual experiences, a conscience constituency can be emergent, especially in the case of highly successful social movements (Goodwin p.31). These social approaches are focused on visible behavior or mobilization into action by the identifying the groups’ cognition. Successful social approaches can eventually led to a version of a socially constructed reality. This group (or it can be said, a number of these groups, but as a whole) utilize Automaton perspectives (Bryant p.7) to help influence their agenda-setting prerogative. In order for agenda-setting to occur, individuals must be susceptible to being programmed by the media. In this particle case, the media in specially honed to individuals who have a need for orientation. Specialized interest groups need the recognition and attention of the mass media (and various specialized channels of media) in order to acquire legitimacy, visibility and credibility, as well as communicate their issue frames to the public (Callaghan p. 9). With a number of carefully selected issues and/or stories, many of these media outlets attempt to completely define issues, or at least exemplify the issue. In these cases the exemplifiers attempt to exemplify the issue (and the perspective) as definite and exemplified. Exemplification is not an all-or nothing concept, however (Bryant p. 21). The degree in which the level of exemplification takes place is subject to empirical determination. These methodologies fall into the parameters of a scientific field of study, but have interpretive qualities to the media consumer. Therefore, the levels of interpretation validate the level of effectiveness for not only each media outlet, but also by each strategy utilized. A social cognitive can also lead into the philosophical position of moral relativism which is the difference between moral judgments across many people and cultures. In the case of the New Christian Right, the branch of moral relativism that copepods into meti-ethical relativism does not factor into their subjectivity of culturally moral issues. Meti-ethical moral relativism holds that no one is objectively right or wrong, but behavior should be tolerated even if that behavior goes against an individuals value system. So, this relativism is relative to their particular stand or viewpoint. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says that, Many moral relativists, however, take the fact-value distinction to be fundamental. There is not manner in which traditionalist can prove that their morals and ethics are particularly right or wrong, but there is still the judgment of their relativism being superior (Westacott). From their perspectives, what is considered the truth is through cognitive relativism that is based on a cultural relativism that has been developed and molded in an all encompassing and unifying perspective. The line that separates church and state has become more blurry within this country. The praxis, by which moralists have coerced, swayed and sometimes enforced their belief system onto the political format has had a resounding affect on our legislative and judicial system. Beliefs are a means to organize behavior and emotion. Therefore, many of these moral activists are seeking a means of ratifying their socially construction perception of reality. Dominion Theology Dominion Theology or Dominionism is the proposal that Christians should strive toward either a nation governed by Christians or one governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law. This ideology is dominant among evangelical Protestants within the United States. It is a type of theocracy and is interconnected the theonomy, though it does not necessarily sponsor Mosaic laws as the basis of government. Some elements within the mainstream Christian Right have been predisposed by Dominion Theology authors. Indeed, some writers have employed the idiom Dominionism more broadly to the New Christian Right, wholly arguing that that faction is founded upon a theology that requires Christians to preside over non-Christians. Typical conservatives do not call themselves â€Å"Dominionists,† and the usage has sparked considerable debate. Their ideas are often reflected by non-reconstructionist like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell as a social revolution that should be forcefully swept across the country in reference to certain Biblical text. This idea states that Christianity will rule all areas of society through strict fundamental interpretation of Biblical laws. These rules should permeate throughout all of society, politics and business. This is not a government system ruled by the church, but rather a government conformed to the Law of God. Paul C. McGlasson states that Dominionism is constructed on four basic foundations: Epistemological dualism operates under the presumption that only devout Christians are truly capable of understanding and properly interpreting the Bible. Therefore, there is a distinct separation between God’s self-defined reality and human autonomy. Hence, any secularist’s Biblical interpretations are skewed and invalid. Dominion theology and the process of re-constructionism are all about a direct application of Mosaic Law to our society. These laws should apply every facet of American society and not just ancient Israel. Christian culture is an all-encompassing national perspective that affects every aspect of society; government, schools, families, corporations. This is viewed as the natural order of operations, and any resistance to this philosophy is purely secular. The forth, and most important aspect for this thesis is Christian political domination which states that individuals and cut into two different groups, believers and non-believers. Thus, there are two distinct forms of laws and governance, Biblical ans secular law.

Jose Aquino

Sure we have gone a very long way to back in the days Of Martin Luther King J. R. , Blacks/Minorities are not so bluntly discriminated but now in days its as if this new form of subliminally resentful actions are being brought to this day and age. Examples like the recent tragedies regarding Mike Brown and Erick Gardner make my argument even more clear to understand and to prove. Of course there are a few people who believe that the actions the police officers took were necessary. Perhaps they might say, ‘ ‘They asked for it,† â€Å"They Resisted arrest,† they had it coming. Y to them that events such as the police killings are a nexus where white racial resentment and white supremacy are made to confront black/ minority pain, reasonable hurt, and the righteous anger. Why is it that the media has always showed the â€Å"gang member† as a Black or Hispanic male? These are subjects we should be asking ourselves and realize how that can be crucial to some ones perception about a group of people and think about the repercussions all this can have to future generations. Just recently released to the public was data that disappointingly proves the Boston Police department has used racially biased policing.Researchers concluded that police targeted Blacks in 63. 3% of encounters, while Blacks make up less than a quarter of Boson's population. This racial disparity cannot be explained. They also found that Blacks were more likely than whites to be subjected to repeat police/civilian encounters and to be frisked or searched. The bottom line is that race was a significant factor driving the BED'S stop and frisk practices. Those on the opposing side would become speechless to this information. These people who were randomly targeted ere minding there business and going about there day.But because of this current view that society has emplace they were boxed in to this stereotypical box, leading to them being victimized. How do we put an end to all of this? First we need to know our own conscious and unconscious feelings. Perhaps think about what stereotypes we may have and ways we might eliminate these believes or figure out why these ideas have been introduced and of course find the ROOT of this. But perhaps the most important but most difficult is to educate ourselves well enough to hanged the way people think and work within the system so that new ideas and change can be accomplished.The simple fact is that racism both personal, institutional, and structural remains a force in American life. It impacts the lives of everyone, whites included because the result of tension , and shapes the broad material circumstances of minorities in countless negative ways. Yes, there are many ways in which we've made progress, and we should celebrate them. But just because we don't face the racism of the past doesn't mean we've solved the problem.

Best Journal Article Award Essay

Academic journals are periodicals in which scholarly material relating to a certain academic discipline is published and reviewed. These peer-reviewed periodicals provide a platform through which new topics or ideas pertaining to that particular discipline can be introduced, researched and debated upon. The articles published are details of original research conducted by one or a group of stakeholders, reviews of book publications related to the discipline, and are therefore sometimes commonly referred to as professional magazines. They range from journals of science to applied technology, journalism, social sciences and humanities. In the professional circles, there is a habit of any willing interested party making unsolicited submissions of their research and discoveries, opinions or articles to these professional magazines. Usually, a bench of editors peruses the submitted entries to determine their quality and relevance and therefore choose which entries they are going to publish and those that are going to be published. Once an article has been published, any interested parties are free to respond either in support or criticizing the information published therein. This is what is called peer reviewing (Effs. org, 2009). Reviewing involves the checking of progress on the research of topics published in these professional journals. This process covers progressive research either on a long term or short term depending on the topic concerned. The reason for journal awards is that the prestige of an academic journal’s award establishes itself over time; the dominant academic journals consequently receive the highest number of submissions and are consequently the preferred choice of seeking the relevant information and opinion regarding a certain topical issue. It is for this reason that certain journals dominate over others in terms of relevancy and credibility. For example in the United States of America, the American Historical Review and the Journal of American History have been able to stamp their authority over most of the other related journals. The ranking of journals is based on the prestige derived from their accuracy, relevance and professional reverence of their most frequent contributors. In the fields of technology and applied science, it is easier to establish the top most journals but when it comes to the social sciences, it becomes very hard to rank these journals mostly on account of the diverse nature of the opinions available and the scope of the discipline. The approach used here is estimating the impact factor, that is counting the total number of submissions following the publishing of all particular original submissions and also counting the number of citations based on the publications (Carl, 2000). The duration through which submissions are continually cited, also called the half life, is an important criteria of gauging the impact of a particular journal. In virtually every professional discipline, it is very important that the industry players get a feedback to gauge the standards and the levels of professionally time over time. To increase competitiveness, progress and professional integrity, different foundations have initiated programs of awarding excellence (Clapp, 2003). Individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary professional standards are awarded depending on merit and this acts as a source of motivation to the recipients but also to their competitors and partners to put the specific industry on the course of achieving greater heights. The importance of the media on contemporary society cannot under any circumstances be underestimated. It is the media that is on the forefront of creating awareness on the most relevant topical issues directly affecting people. From politics to the economy, human rights to diseases and education, the influence of the media is the most significant. It is not a surprise that most people base their interpretation of topical issues almost always based on how the media has put the facts on paper (Wheeler, 2009). It is for this reason that there has been a lot of effort geared towards ensuring that the media is impartial, relevant and correct on the issues that are of most significance to society as its role in determining how they are received by society in general is insurmountable. To increase integrity in this important industry, very many civil, corporate, governmental and even private organizations have come up with numerous awards all aimed at rewarding excellence and increasing journalistic standards. Among these, perhaps the most significant is the award gala night organized by the International Centre for Journalists (ICJ). Each and every year, the ICT holds an award dinner in honor of the achievements and feats accomplished by its fellows. These awards honor those journalists who have, for the preceding year, demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to the cause and have exhibited the most commendable professional standards (Mackenzie, 2007). This colorful event brings together those journalism professionals from the United States of America as well as from overseas countries, who have made the headlines, constantly putting their lives and safety on the line to bring in the news as it is from the harshest and most hostile locations around the world. They are a perfect demonstration of a passionate commitment of excellent news collection and pointblank reporting. Another significant excellence award by the journalism industry is held by The Canadian Journalism Foundation. Started just over ten years ago, the Excellence in Journalism Award has continued to gain credibility over the years. It is now one of the most prestigious journalistic awards held annually and is the only award of its kind given to a media organization for exhibiting an overall excellence in journalistic performance (Chism, 2006). The Excellence in Journalism Award aims to recognize an outstanding dedication to the cause of journalism. Sponsored jointly by the Jackman Foundation and the Canadian Journalism Foundation, the Excellence in Journalism Award has the overall objective of embracing and enhancing the social and political ideals of citizenship under a working democratic system, rigor and professionalism in journalistic practice, honesty and independence in ideology, accuracy in information collection and accountability (Fredrick, 1995). The award also rewards initiative and an artistic flair in information presentation and clarity. The excellence in Journalism award has winners in two separate categories. One award is dedicated to small and medium sized media houses from the locality (that is within Canada) and the North American region while the second category is for the large national and international media houses. The next awards are scheduled to be held on the fifth day of March this year. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Journal Awards are the other main journalistic awards. Specifically targeting the radio broadcasting industry, he awards are aimed at recognizing those radio companies that have stood out from among their competitors in terms of successfully using the technology of Radio Frequency Identification. The RIFD journal, to ensure a relevant and trustworthy, has put in place a panel of qualified judges who undertake the work of evaluating all competitors and eventually choosing the winner (Burnett, 2000). The aim of these awards is to encourage the application of the radio frequency identification in radio broadcasting and award the winner in this sector. The RIFD has five distinct award categories fro the best implementers of the radio frequency identification technology, the company that has best used frequency identification to enhance their service and the quality of their service to their clients and a special achievement award (PressRelease. com, 2009). Other influential journals include the Harvard Law Review, The Academy of Management Journal and the American Journal of Sociology for the discipline of Social Sciences, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Proceedings of the Royal Society and Science in the area of general sciences. In the specific sciences, the leading journals are the Archives of Sexual behavior, Industrial Engineering and Industry Research and the Journal of the American Mathematical Society (Wankat, 2005). The reason why journals hold award giving events is to award leading contributors for their commitment and research in a particular discipline and therefore encouraging research and progress. The prestige of any intellectual society is directly derived from the relevance and applicability of their findings; therefore by awarding leading researchers, there is every potential of encouraging further leaders and nurturing the aspirations of future scholars and therefore ensuring intellectual continuity.

Ways Of Men And Women - 1131 Words

12.) Ways that men and women differ in how they cope with stress is that men are more likely to fight or leave, while women seek social support. Men will become focused, while women tend to become emotional and overwhelmed. 13.) People from different cultures may differ in their cognitive appraisals of stress because it indicates an individual s ethnic background is associated with what that person appraises as stressful. 14.) Hardiness is a characteristic that distinguishes stress-resistant people from those who are more susceptible to it s harmful effects. It refers to a bunch of characteristics, than just one. 15.) Hardy people differ from others by three respects. The first one is commitment (rather than alienation) and this is†¦show more content†¦There more likely than pessimists to seek social support and they re more likely to emphasize the positive in their appraisals of stressful events. Pessimists are more likely to deal with stress by giving up or engaging in denial. On the other hand, optimists are better at coping with the distress associated with everything from menopause to heart surgery. 17.) There are three general options for coping with stress. The first general option for coping is to change environments. This is where we might choose to move to another city, change jobs, separate from our spouse, and etc. The second general option for coping is to change the environment. This is where we can often work to improve the situation that is causing us so much stress. The third general option for coping is to change me (improve my coping skills). This is where it s important to remember that it s not really the event that causes stress, but it s our reaction to it; our attitude. 18.) Self-talk affects the perceptions of stress because most of our stress is unnecessary and it really comes from faulty conclusions we have made about the world. It s really our interpretations like what we say to ourselves about our experiences, that will create the emotions of anxiety, anger, and depression. 19.) Rational and irrational beliefs differ because rational are the beliefs that result in appropriate emotions and behaviors. Appropriate emotions and emotions are those that are more