We often speak of our era as a very polarized age.  I will demur.  First, I remember 1968 in America, and the polarization and hate between cultures then was a lot worse than it is now, with actual riots and shootings. Watts, Chicago, and Kent State hardly represented a more peaceable world than now.  Second, Andrew Bacevich, the pacifist conservative, declares at Front Porch Republic that we actually have a consensus; lots of people reject it, from Occupy to the Tea Party to the Social Conservatives, but the opponents of the consensus seem to be relatively impotent.  The consensus endorses military intervention overseas, corporate crony capitalism, and sexual liberation from historic restraints.  Bacevich declares, “Are the troops in Afghanistan fighting for our freedom?  If so, the package of things they fight for includes . . . no fault divorce, abortion on demand, gay marriage, and an economic system that manifestly privileges the interest of the affluent . . .”

I declared in an earlier post a few years ago that I thought that the events of 9/11/2001 had changed the course of the culture wars, because if the enemy was now Islam rather than ‘Godless Communism’, we had the choice of defending ‘Christendom’ and clarifying how its values differed from Islam, or defending the New Order.  The cultural leadership chose the New Order.  Shortly after that I heard Tim Keller, of Redeemer Church New York City, saying the same thing, which, of course, proves how smart he is.  But in terms of the establishment that really controls things in this country, do we not have a consensus on a lot of very important issues?

In response to: “American Political Praxis” by Andrew Bacevich at Front Porch Republic