Bill's Notes

When I wrote the culture war post, I was concerned, as Harry pointed out, that my argument would be susceptible to the charge of "Well, what about this divisive topic?" or "This one". Particularly, Iraq.

But I stuck with the post anyway, and stand by it now. But I would like to adjust my opinion; I think one mistake I've made is overlinking the culture war with political conflict. I really see them as separate issues, though they contain overlapping areas. Imagine two mylar drawings on top of each other. Sometimes they line up and appear as one, and other times they don't line up and appear as two. That's kind of what I'm getting at. Thus, the Dems are not automatically one way in the culture war, and the Republicans the other.

What I'm saying is I do believe this issue of sexual morality is the thing that's most dividing us and that the issue of sexual morality is the fundamental fault line in Western Civilization.

However, as in any abstract hierarchy, you could go deeper, all the way to epistemology if you want. I think sexual morality however is a good, concrete issue on an abstract hierarchy that both reifies the differences below it (that is, the fundamental worldview differences beneath) while helping to explain much of the behavior differences above. And I stand by it.

That doesn't mean someone else couldn't divide up the cultural war differently. And perhaps the idea of a neat fault line in Western Civilization is an oversimplication -- perhaps there are many such divisions. Perhaps what we have is not a simple fracture, but a compound one. Right now, I'm looking at it as a simple fracture. We'll see where it goes from there.

Harry, also in the comments,
argues about "power and control" in the Catholic hierarchy; at which point, he has merely started to argue one side of the cultural war. The point was to get the lay of the land first. Arguing one side over the other wasn't the point of the post. However, he was correct in naming the issues of power and control -- and that's exactly what I was saying. The question "Does it matter who you sleep with ..." leads directly to issues of power and control (I would also add "advise" and "influence"), which is exactly what I was getting at. This fault line is about power and control over sex.

Perhaps Harry or someone else can make a stronger argument that this fundamental issue of power is ultimately more divisive in our culture, power more broadly speaking, of which the issue of sex is a subset. You could make the argument that there are twin fault lines of sex and money, for example. I just don't see our culture as divided about money as about sex. Your mileage may vary.

Also in the comments, Harry says that I have "perhaps intentional[ly] distort[ed]" a complex issue. If there's to be any progress in a discussion, it's a bad idea to accuse the other side of bad faith.

...

Now what did Chris want me to address?

*****

By the way, here's a good idea of what I mean by an important difference in the cultural war. And it's about sex.