The Culture Wars Evolve into a Class War
The article, “How America’s culture wars have evolved into a class war,” was written by James Davison Hunter who is a professor of religion, culture and social theory at the LaBrosse-Levinson. He is also an executive director for advanced studies in Culture at the University of Virginia as well as the author of various books including "Culture Wars." For a long time, the United States has had to deal with societal conflicts as a result of racial discrimination as well as immigration issues (Hunter, 2017). The most of the heated debates in the past were how to solve the issues of illegal immigrants if not gun control. However today the social conflict is shifting from the usual traditional wars between peoples' cultural background and race to class wars. Having gone through this article in the Washington Post, I present the case of a country that is riding on class divisions with distrust between the highly educated and less educated as well as the politicians and the public.
The Growing Tensions: Working Class vs. Lower Middle Class
This article represents the situation of the growing tensions of the widened gap between the working class and the lower middle class. It pities the highly educated professionals against the lowly educated, the nonprofessionals producing new forms of tensions. Unlike the past culture wars over such issues as religion, family and sexuality, today’s class wars are greatly influenced by the shifts in economic circumstances including globalization. Another class conflict discussed in the article is the legitimation crisis. Majority of Americans most of them uneducated believe that the government can’t be trusted, that their leaders are self-centered, incompetent and unable to influence institutions for the good of the community. This mistrust causes the depletion of credibility in the political establishment (Hunter, 2017).
Part 2: Assessment
The wedge between the middle-class segments can be traced to originate from the great recession. When comparing the professional class with the lower middle, nonprofessionals, it is clear that the former recovered well from the effects of the recession. For the lower middle-class counterparts life after the recession has been characterized by stagnating wages, a decline in union membership and traditional work-related benefits, as well as decline in manufacturing jobs (Hunter, 2017). The result is increased income inequality which further estranges the lower middle class from their professional class peers. The distrust between the leading class of politicians and government officials and the public can be seen to emanate from the neglect by the leaders of their constituents when their support is needed. For instance, the members of the lower middle class in the society often are on the receiving end of dishonorable actions by the elites in the society. They (the elite) dishonorably ridicule the values by which the lower middle class live by as being backward, bigoted, xenophobic, and misogynist. Their leaders are either supportive of these insults or cowardly not to rebuke them in the open.
Relationship with Sociological Theories
The above two situations of conflict relate to all the four sociological theories which include Structural Functionalism, Social Conflict Theory, Feminism, and Symbolic Interactionism (Goodfriend, n.d.). Symbolic interactionism involves the attachment of meanings to symbols. When the powerful elites insult the beliefs of the lower middle class the leading class especially the politicians do nothing. Doing nothing is interpreted by their subject as condoning the actions of the elites in the society. The result of this interpretation violates the provisions of the structural functionalism theory which places the community as part of the interconnection of various parts to form functional machinery (CliffNotes, n.d.). The community members and the government are examples of these parts. However, an analysis of the above situation shows that there exists mistrust between the people and their leaders. The political establishment has lost its credibility in the eyes of the public. The people believe that their leaders are self-serving and incapable of challenging the high and mighty in the society and that’s the gap between the privileged and the less privileged is ever widening.
Social Conflict Theory
Social conflict theory comes into play after the evaluation of the different groups of people in these situations. The professional class lacks nothing while the lower middle class lacks everything. Conflict is created when the lower middle-class people accuse the professional class of caring for themselves only. The lower middle class accuses the professional class of being greedy. For instance, by moving manufacturing jobs overseas where production is cheaper which is beneficial to the rich professional class denies job opportunities to the poor lower middle class. Feminism is not portrayed in greater length in the above situations. However as part of the insults by the professional class, there is a mention of misogynist reference to the beliefs of the lower middle class. The society’s elite look down on the women and the ability of women to influence the economy of the country.
Part 3: Discussion
The author presents the reality of the class conflict as it is today in the society. According to him, class wars are the biggest source of tension between the people of the United States. He supports his argument of the reality by quoting various studies conducted on Americans. One such study by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture which he led found out that 7 out of 10 less educated Americans believe that their educated and successful counterparts are self-serving and care the least about others.
Unwritten Cultural Assumptions and Media Biases
There are various unwritten cultural assumptions. The author notes that one reason why the pathetic living condition of the lower middle class is not improving is because of the immigrants (Hunter, 2017). He does not explicitly write this but what he means to say is that the high number of immigrants in the country get the few jobs that are available in the market. This makes it difficult for the Native American to land a job. Also, when the author is talking about the legitimation crisis, he likens the situation with the Hitler’s German. Such symbolism can be said to mean that if corrective measures are not put in place, the country can find itself in a situation similar to that of prewar Germany. These cultural assumptions especially the immigrants' connotation reflect ideologies in modern America. President Trump has been very local in the past while advocating for his policy and ideology regarding immigrants. He supports the deportation of undocumented immigrants and places the American citizens first before others (Brooks, Manza, & Cohen, 2016). The ideologies support the status quo that illegal immigrants are a danger to the society especially when they create gangs to ensure their survival (Medina, 2017).
There are biases in the media. Today most media chase money, for them it’s all about the business. They, therefore, favor sensational stories over substantive ones and trade serious stories for superficial ones if by doing so, they will be assured of more dollars in the process (Hunter, 2017). The implication is that, it becomes hard for the voices of the lower middle class to be heard since the professional class is given priority, after all, they can pay.
Conclusion
The divisions between different classes of people in the society from the less educated to the highly educated professional class and the leaders are the major source of discord and tensions in the country. The widening gap between the professional class and the lower middle class has given birth to resentment between the two segments each accusing the other of not doing enough, either to progress in life or to help one another. The relationship between the sociological theories and the situations surrounding these class segments is proof enough that the country is ailing. The media, on the other hand, does little or nothing to help alleviate the situation. It has become a sellout to the highest bidder creating a bias between the haves and the have-nots. To ensure that everyone moves with tides of recession or otherwise the government has to work hard first to restore its credibility in the eyes of the public and involve the members of both class segments in developing ways to bridge the gap between them and heal the tensions in the country.
References
Brooks, C., Manza, J., & Cohen, E. D. (2016, September 23). Political Ideology and Immigrant Acceptance - Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza, Emma D. Cohen, 2016. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023116668881
CliffNotes. (n.d.). Three Major Perspectives in Sociology. Retrieved from https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/sociology/the-sociological-perspective/three-major-perspectives-in-sociology
Goodfriend, W. (n.d.). Sociology's Four Theoretical Perspectives: Structural-Functional, Social Conflict, Feminism & Symbolic Interactionism - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/sociologys-four-theoretical-perspectives-structural-functional-social-conflict-feminism-symbolic-interactionism.html
Hunter, J. D. (2017, September 12). Perspective | How America's culture wars have evolved into a class war. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/09/12/how-americas-culture-wars-have-evolved-into-a-class-war/?utm_term=.94454e0e2798
Medina, M. M. (2017, September 28). Immigration And The Status Quo In The United States. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/myra-m-medina/immigration-and-the-statu_b_11881344.html
