tomorrow's culture

 "the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group" 

This is one definition of the word culture. I extracted it from Google and so felt I should put it in parentheses. When people refer to their culture, I believe this is what they have in mind. Mostly I think they are talking about their social group. It's assumed that we are Americans and share that common culture. That's the nation part. But I'm thinking about culture as an identity. A lot of identifying going on these days. A lot of cultural appropriation is closer to the truth. 

 Your culture is learned from your parents and peers. It isn't culture from a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago or the distant past, rather your culture springs from yesterday. You are responsible for tomorrow's culture! That is worth repeating, you are responsible for tomorrow's culture. Culture transforms every generation. It doesn't remain the same in every aspect. That change is what we call, progress. Progress is an improvement. It stands to reason in order to make progress, to get better, culture must do that as well. So, when one determines that the past culture was superior, you are advocating for a regression. To regress is a bad thing, that's what we are taught. 

 As we grow we begin to modify the culture. Sometimes we refer to that as fad and fashion. We develop our own style. Some will take a more radical approach to that, and others will be more subtle. We all reject some of the culture that we were taught. Whether you accept that teaching or not, you were taught it! Don't confuse the two. Each generation will embrace their own culture, and in time, most will long for the culture that was lost. That is when we begin the appropriation of a past that we really never knew. We say we are embracing our cultural heritage. But the truth is what we know of that heritage has been modified through the generations, only the finest parts remaining. The portions we ourselves modified being rejected altogether, forgotten and ignored. 

 My ancestors come from many walks of life. I have Swedish ancestors, they were steel makers, in the mountainous regions. I know little of that culture, only what I have read in history books. I have ancestors that were around the world whalers. I certainly know little about that culture. Other ancestors hail from portions of Great Britian, farmers, peasants, adventurers or immigrants, depending upon your view. What culture was that? I don't know. I do know about my parents, my grandparents and their culture, what the normal thing was in their time. The cultural norm is what we are taught! My only point being I can make no cultural claim to distant ancestors. I'm no Scandinavian steel maker, no whaler, no British subject, no immigrant, I am an America, from the cultural period following World War two. That is my cultural background, nothing more. 

  History repeats itself. It's a lesson we have all heard. I'd suggest that culture will repeat as well. I'd also suggest that America is in a period of regression. We have made great strides in culture over the last two hundred and forty-six years. Remember it took one hundred and fifty-seven years before we became America. There has been much cultural change, but we are regressing in an important area. That area is morality. The decline in morality will be the downfall of the nation. That was perhaps best stated by John Adams when he said our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. Note he separates the two, morality and religion. The two are not the same thing! Still, both are required for a Republic to survive. In fact, the United States was the very first constitutional republic in the world! Others have followed, but we were the first. A change in culture for certain at a time when Monarchs ruled the world. 

 If I am to claim a culture that is the one I select. The American culture. A Republic. " That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" It is what I was taught, what I learned, what I adopted and preserved as my own. It is what I did my best to pass to my children and my grandchildren. I learned that from those that fought in World War Two and Korea. They fought to defend the world against the Nazi regime and the Imperial Japanese.  

 They returned to a nation of progress. There were many cultural changes during that period, the period of the baby boomers. Freedom and equality achieved through strife and struggle. The civil rights act of 1964 was landmark legislation in altering the culture of America. It was met with strong resistance in the southern states but eventually was passed. It was something I was barely aware of at the time. Why? I lived in the north and my culture didn't discriminate based on race, not that I was aware of. Yes, there was discrimination, no doubt, but mostly based on your social station. There were poor people and there were successful people. They came in all colors! You either were a person of means or you weren't. The cliche of the tracks was very real. It was a world of staying in your lane. That was the prevalent attitude. 

 That remained until the "hippies" came along and said there was no lane! Free love, peace and communal living. It was an experiment in culture. It was also a failure as soon even the hippies got tired of those that contributed, and those that did little to nothing. The lesson of socialism was learned. It was a lesson they had been taught by the previous generation but decided to ignore. Yeah working for the man was a real drag, but it's the only way to get the things you want. Nothing is free, it has to be earned. And so summer camp ended for the hippies sometime in 1969. 

 I was never a hippie. No, I pretty much clung to the culture of my parents. I mean, I was cool, but not that cool. Perhaps if my parents had been a bit wealthier it would have been different. They weren't in any position to buy me the "cool" clothes and trappings of the hippies. I was expected to get a job to buy the things I wanted. I wasn't given the freedom to let my hair grow long. There were rules! And a great deal of that had to do with my parents' station in life. They were the working class, not the upper middle class business owners. My home wasn't the Brady bunch or Father knows best. No, My Three Sons. No, we didn't go on family vacations, go out to dinner or have a maid. Dad didn't have a Den or a Study, he had a recliner. We fixed on own cars, repaired the house, and sometimes sewed patches on our clothes. We changed out of our school clothes when we got home. 

 All of that is the culture I grew up in. I heard tales of those in the past. I never heard my father making claims to being some hyphenated American of any kind. He wasn't a German-American, he was an American. We certainly weren't wearing lederhosen or listening to Oom pah music. My grandmother would tell us stories about being a little girl in Sweden. She didn't tell us she was Swedish though! She was as American as you could get in my eyes. We were all Americans. 

 That's the culture I grew up with and the culture I promote to this day. Most likely I always will. I am responsible, that's the bottom line in all of this. It's a moral obligation. I pray to my God for strength, and for moral courage. I do believe all men are created equal. I also believe you will reap what you sow. You are responsible for you. You are responsible for the culture of tomorrow. It is dependent upon what you allow today. Yesterdays' mistakes and missteps, the injustices of the past, cannot be changed. You just have to keep moving forward. You create what you want, drawing upon the lessons of the past. You alone are responsible for that. That's what morals are.   "a lesson, especially one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience."