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to note that in the two days since the election, we have had a number of people on DU post information about the growing divide that they have experienced with parents, siblings, spouses, co-workers, neighbors, and people that they are in close contact in their daily life. We are experiencing a huge cultural divide, which I think combines many of the conflicts of the 1860s and 1960s. But the distinctions are not so clear-cut. It's not as simple as race, religion, or economics .... although those issues are all involved.
Snyder's book hinted at what was the best potential in the counter culture in that era. It's no coincidence that the people who really were able to reach a religious or spiritually-based higher ground in the 1960s tend to be involved -- deeply -- in the progressive politics of today. It doesn't mean that they still dress or wear their hair the same way, (though they might) because they can own a business and still hold the same values they did 35 years ago.
The internet allows people to experience some of the sense of community that Snyder writes about. DU is a good example: my guess is that many of us know more about each other's political, cultural, and spiritual values than do many modern families. In '68, at the end of the industrial age, the family sructure was still "nuclear." Our high-tech society has the splintered and fractured family systems, which fit the needs of the business world as well as the nuclear family fit the industries, or as the extended family fit the agricultural society, or the clan/tribe fit hunters & gatherers. We witness the progression in isolation experienced by members of each; the price our society pays can be measured most accurately by examining how little our society invests in the very young and the very old.
It's no surprise that the families that we identify as "conservative republican" cling to a sterile form of "christianity" that does not allow for individual experience. I'm all for respecting the experiences of the tribal people who herded sheep in the Middle East 2500 years ago, but I think that we need to consciously make a reconnection to that energy force that supports life on earth .... all life on earth .... no matter what name we want to apply to it. We need to experience it, and realize that life force is not "dead."
I do not believe that the conservative republican social structure has much potential for offering that experience. They are only dimly aware at best that the old stories in that good book involve the rural tribes trying to break free of the restrictive oppression of the kings of the urban centers. George Bush defines what they were religiously opposed to.
Perhaps we need to redefine society ... including redefining our goals. When we focus on what our goals should be, we may find other tactics available to us to survive the onslaught that is going to occure, as evidenced by what we have seen in the past 48 hours.
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