Black Friday

21st Century children appropriate Puritan culture

I travel 45 minutes every morning to drive my kids deep into the woods so that they might attend a country school that embraces "cultural appropriation" and understands it to be the primary strength of Western Civilization. The capacity for the western mind to pluck the best of other, sometimes opposing, world cultures and incorporated the views, dress, music, food and customs of these cultures into the ever churning mixing bowl of Western Civ. is one of the greatest things about living in Europe or America or Australia. I love the fact that I can wake up on a Sunday morning, do my Yoga practice, read a little KJV Bible and thank God for my blessings, watch my beloved Washington Redskins play some football and cook up some fried rice in my wok for lunch then listen to some Tuvan throat singing in the afternoon stretched out in front of the crackling fire with my dachshund. It's all part of the "western" experience which is diametrically opposed to the concept of multi-culturalism and for good reason. Cultures that can not, or will not, adapt to change by incorporating (consuming) new ways, ideas or customs will obstinately fight their "oppressor" (i.e. the more flexible, nimble and superior culture) with everything they've got and once they've lost they will just hunker down and talk amongst themselves while refusing to participate in society (broadly defined). Not that Western Civ. can't handle a little multi-cult insolence because we've got plenty of it here in America - from the Amish in Pennsylvania to the Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn to the Indian tribes scattered across the fruited plain we've got our hold outs. One might even consider the Antifa/Resistance brigades the occupy college town like Berkeley and Burlington to be a collection of outliers though their "culture" (if you can call it that) is somewhat murky. Then there are the subcultures that straddle the gaping breach between "the old ways" and the dominant culture such as the Cosa Nostra, Mormons, Nikkei and countless other groups who play the game, more or less, by the established rules and just lump it when they get screwed because, after all, none of these outsiders understand us anyway. Small, well defined groups of multi-cult anomalies can be managed and accommodated (if they're peaceful) and bigger, ethnically or religiously homogenous groups who hold tight to their cultural tropes while embracing the "American way" in its fundamentals are fine - even entertaining (see My Big Fat Greek Wedding)

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

I wonder where he got the idea?

And then there's Capitol Hill. Congress. Our elected representatives. There's no particular ethnic, religious affiliation to these people but there is a peculiar culture separate and far apart from what everyone else in the country experiences day to day. For example, this headline from WaPo last Friday Nov. 24th "House moves toward mandatory anti-sexual harassment training for members, aides". Now anyone who's worked at any company, but especially a large, established company during the last 20 years has been rigorously "trained" on the subject of sexual harassment and how to avoid it. Annual training modules, on site training classes, quarterly memos from the boss are all part of the effort to combat unwanted or unsolicited sexual attacks at the workplace. It's a big job and some organizations will even create a full time position with 6 figure salary to oversee the war between the sexes and keep the peace. But not in the US Congress - There's been no mandatory training, no online modules with 50 questions and a 100% accuracy rate on the answers required to get a passing grade - none of that crap. They're just starting to think about it it now and the Post believes (hopes) that our Reps are "moving toward" a policy that everyone else in the country has been beaten over the head with for decades. So a resolution has been proposed!!! Now We (the royal We) shall submit to the same rigorous training that we've forced every other Federal and State agency and every large corporation to submit to for years - We're not saying it's going to pass, but We will float the idea and see how We feel about it. My guess is that the politicians won't feel too good about it because I know enough stories from congressional Pages and worker bees on the Capitol Hill hive to know that sexual harassment is considered a perk of high office (for most the money's not that great) and without the promised abuse of power the long hours and aggravation just aren't worth it.

"A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a resolution requiring all members, congressional staff, interns and fellows to receive anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training, which currently is voluntary and completed at the request of each member office."

 Want proof?

On Wednesday, the Congressional Office Of Compliance (OOC) released a decade's worth of settlements and rewards broken-down year-by-year. Since 1997, a stunning $17 million has been shelled out to victims over such violations of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995.

Not all of these settlements were for sexual harassment complains because the CAA opens up a lot of opportunity to litigate a nice fat settlement for yourself but you can bet that a good percentage of them were John Conyers type settlements. What percentage would that be? Let's be modest and call it 60% which is about 10 million over 20 years to a few hundred victims - not the end of the world. But what that number leaves out is the huge number of men and women who did NOT file a claim for whatever reason and just "moved on" as Bill Clinton supporter might say. The fact that these settlements were paid out with taxpayer money from a slush fund established to keep the peace and hush everything up tells you all you need to know about Capitol Hill Culture.