Cultural Conservation :: essays research papers

One problem with cultural conservationTo put it simply, and its not a problems that only conservatives very(prenominal) often confuse(or conflate ethics and aesthetics. When Gertrude Himmererfarf lambastes out (as sheperceives it) amoral, sexually deviant and polymorpously perverse culture she isprimarily responding to something that she finds culturally foreign and aestheticallythreatening.I agree with her that values are much a dangerous thing, precisely only when they areborn of an ethical and pragmatic perspective, not an aesthetic one.The conservatives want a seemingly neat and compartment confederacy wherein stableappearances are maintained and archaic cultural archetypes are adhered to religiously. Igrew up in a world of cultural archetypes. I grew up with egg white businessmen going tooffice buildings while their wives stayed at home and their kids went to school. or , moreaccurately, I grew up with alcoholic, adulterous business men who lives culturally parochiallives while their wives took sedatives and smoked cigarettes and vented their frustrationson there kids, and these same kids took reams of drugs, got abortions, drove drunk, andvictimized the weaklings. I grew up in what most conservatives would consider a utopia split of money, prestige, cultural cohesion, and good conservative values. But their values were in fact aesthetics, and maintaining these aesthetics ruled andruined their lives. Almost everyone in this suburban bourgeoisie organization hated their lives,but because they had been brought up to worship aesthetic myths they felt that toquestion them was an admission of personal failure.What are these myths? theyre old and platitudinal but Ill trot on them againthats money makes you happy, that society is right and that poverty is bad, thatmaintaining convention in every aspect of your life is the ultimate good, that aberrancefrom these ideas is sin. ect.Im not going to secern that the polar opposites of the clichs is true, that w ould beone of the failings of the radical left. I believe that for the most part these criteria areirrelevant. Money can make life easier, but it also can make life miserable. Poverty canbe bad but it can also be fine. Convention has some good points and some bad points. What it all comes down to is flexibility that should allow for the well being of theindividual without compromising the rights of other individuals.When conservatives trot out their litany of evils-homosexuality, single levyfamilies, multiculturalism, ect. Im always asking why?. If people are happy being gaythen whets wrong with that? it may be a lifestyle thats aesthetically incompatible from what