Thread: American Culture?

As "diversity" continues to be touted as the greatest moral obligation on secular university campuses and in the work place; as American society becomes an ever-increasing bastion of pluralism; can we speak of such a thing as "American Culture"?

Does a culture need to be homogenous in order for it to be considered "culture"?

I live in an area full of refugees, liberals, conservatives, atheists, Christians, etc. etc. --if there isn't an overwhelming consensus of shared values, then what can we say about our culture?

What is American culture today?

Thanks

Matthew,

I think America is still a postmodern society as some will probably say not. I do feel a slight turn towards an anti-Christian philosophy in America with the effects of postmodernism. It truly does seem to me the older I get the more we are not "of this world." So to answer your question: America is postmodern but evolving into something much more evil.

A question I have is why does the secular society today try to revise American history to remove any idea of a Christian culture formed by our founding fathers? It almost seems like they are still striving to remove any thought of absolute morals to allow for the pluralism you mentioned.

You need to read this book:

Amazon.com: Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (9780830833948): Andy Crouch: Books

It's one of the best discussions of culture that I have ever read.

Thanks for the responses.
I'll have to check out that book.

I'll be going over cultural analysis with my students for the next couple of weeks and I was just thinking about how to talk about American culture. It may be quite difficult because some of the students may not even see themselves as a part of American culture --maybe they're Mexican or Chinese and identify more with that culture.

What determines what American culture is?
If America ought to be considered a postmodern culture, then do we derive this conclusion from the way that the general media might be perceived as postmodern, or is it how the laws are being passed in this country, or a mixed bag of multiple things?