Culture Wars: History, Identity, Future - Dr. Rudolf J. Siebert

Politics within the United States is deeply divided. Many analysts believe that outside of the Civil War, the US is more divided now than ever. What fuels much of these divisions are the various “Culture Wars,” which are comprised of topics such as LGBTQ+ rights, religion in the public sphere - including public schools, the issue of abortion, what has been called “Critical Race Theory,” immigration, Black Lives Matter, and the changing demographics of America. In essence, such culture wars are struggles for identity and the leitkultur that guides that identity. Should America be a “Christian” nation, reflecting the values, beliefs, ideals of the majority religious tradition, or should it maintain itself as a secular democratic Republic, wherein one is free to be religious or not? Should America continue to be a majority White country, and therefore limit immigration from non-White countries, or should we embrace the ideal of a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and therefore multi-confessional identity. Should we continue to embrace our Willensgemeinschaft, a “willed people,” brought together by our political ideals, ala the U.S. Constitution, or should we insist on a Volksgemeinschaft, a people rooted in pre-political foundations, such as shared ethnicity, shared language, shared history, shared religious traditions, etc. Unlike the traditional Right and Left, which fought over political-economy, the culture wars reflect the antagonisms between those who see America’s future in its cultural past and those who dream of a better American culture in the future.
The English phrase “Culture Wars” is borrowed from the German, Kulturkampf, which was originally used to describe the struggles between the Catholic Church in Germany under Pope Pius IX and the Kingdom of Prussia under Otto von Bismarck, which last from 1871-1878. This struggle centered around the control over education and ecclesiastical appointments in the Roman Catholic Kingdom of Prussia. In our times, in Germany and Europe as a whole, it is used to describe any kind of political and/or ideological conflict within society, especially as it relates to issues regarding cultural change. This is most poignant in northern Europe, especially Germany, as it relates to mass immigration, the refugee Crisis, and the “Americanization” of Europe - all what rightwing critics call Völkerchaos (chaos of peoples) and Umvolkung (Deculturation), or what in France is called Le grand remplacement (The Great Replacement). Indeed, backlash to the “cosmopolitanization” of Europe over individual national cultures, coupled with millions of “new Europeans,” has led once again to the rise of far-right and/or fascist parties in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland, and of course, Viktor Orbán’s Hungry - with its equivalent in the United States with Donald Trump. The changing identity of the West is a source of severe unbehagen - uneasiness - which has led many into the fold of rightwing nativist populist leaders, offering easy answers to complex problems.
We have with us today, Dr. Rudolf J. Siebert, professor Emeritus of Religion and Society at Western Michigan University, where he taught for over fifty years, published over thirty books, and wrote hundreds of articles and essays. Dr. Siebert is originally from Frankfurt, Germany, where he grew up during the rise of the Third Reich. He later participated in WWII, was a POW in the US, was declared an anti-Nazi and sent back to Germany to help in its democratization. He would later return to the U.S. with his family in the early 1960’s and take a position at Western Michigan University in 1965. He is a critical theorist, theologian, dialectical religiologist, and the mentor of Dustin J. Byrd.
For more information about Rudolf J. Siebert:
www.dialectical-religion.org
For more information about Dustin J. Byrd:
www.dustinjbyrd.org
For more information about Ekpyrosis Press:
www.ekpyrosispress.com
For more information about the Institute for Critical Social Theory:
www.criticalsocialtheory.com