How Life and Culture Affects Politics
How and why life affects culture, which in turn affects politics
It is often said that only two things are certain in life: death and taxes. This is an easy conclusion to jump too, seeing as yes, we all eventually die (unless your the Queen, may she live forever), and that no matter where you live, the taxman cometh, and sometimes with more guns then collection pouches. However, there are a host of other things that inevitably come as part of living what philosophers call the “human condition”, including but not limited to:
Friends
Adversity
Pride
Love
Heartbreak
Laughter
Loss
Life is something that is hard, and something where both the good and the bad are inevitable. But our lives are something that influence the world around us. Our own lives influence our friends, who in turn influence their friends, so on so forth.
So why am I, a self claimed political analyst, talking about how our lives affect culture? Why is this important, and not talking about the recent decision by President Biden to cancel thousands of dollars in student loan debt, or recent developments in the FBI raid on Donald Trump? Because politics runs secondary to culture, and the struggles of life is something that influences the world we live in.
Culture is something that directly impacts the political world. Major cultural events happen in relation to the actions of government. And these are all affected by our lives. Life affects culture, culture affects politics, and politics effects life. This is why people often say that politics run downstream of culture. When same-sex couples became increasingly accepted into everyday society, even before Obergefell v. Hodges, the government decided to legalize and normalize it. When it became more culturally acceptable to smoke marijuana, states stepped in and legalized it (and it seems that it could be coming soon on the federal level). Politics has always been downstream of cultural changes.
There are other major examples of culture affecting politics, and vice versa. One of the most famous examples of these is the Credence Clearwater Revival (CCR) song Fortunate Son. In the song, singer John Fogerty protests the draft the government put in place during the Vietnam War. He sings about how the rich and powerful, avoided the draft, and were able to avoid taxes, and commit political corruption in general. The verse is as follows:
The song later became an antiwar rally cry, used by protesters during the movement, which later succeeded in ending U.S involvement in the war, albeit in disastrously fashion, during the Carter Administration.
Fortunate Son however is just one example of culture helping or making political change. Major cultural events have inspired the drafting of laws, and has changed the political climate immensely. Major movements we see in our society today that are affecting politics at this moment like the Black Lives Matter movement began has cultural movements before becoming more politicized.
Life itself is one of the major influences on culture. When people entered hardships during the Great Depression, music reflected the atmosphere of the life during the time, like in the song Brother Can you Spare a Dime?. Something we can always remember as we go through our own walks of life is that regardless of what happens, it is we that create the culture around us. It is not the actions of the wealthy or the elite that create the culture, although they certainly influence it. Culture will always reflect the lives of the people, and politics will eventually reflect a culture.
So perhaps at the end of the day we can all take a step back and breath for a second to see the impact we make on the world around us. If we want to make our country a better place, we must first make our culture better. If we want to heal the division in our country, start with a smile and a greeting when you get your coffee in the morning. Help your neighbor when they need help, and be a nice and generous person. If we do that in our lives, it will eventually bleed into our culture, and from there into our politics.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please consider subscribing, as it helps a lot. If you would like to check out some of my other works, check out this piece about classical Western ideals and why they are important. Or this piece about the aftermath of Liz Cheney's (R-WO) primary loss. Thank you once again, and have a wonderful rest of your day.