ABSTRACTS
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
VOL. XXXVI 2024
CULTURE & ITS DISCONTENTS:
From Selfies to Community
JIS XXXVI 2024: 1-24
Editorial
BEYOND TRIBALISM:
RENEWING THE AMERICAN IDEAL
Oskar Gruenwald
Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
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Not since the U.S. Civil War has American society been more divided regarding social, economic, political, religious, and especially cultural issues. It is as if America's very self-identity has become problematic. How does the cultural morass and the promotion of “cancel culture” and unlimited individual subjectivity relate to the original American Founders’ vision articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution? By the twenty-first century, the U.S. reflects the moral corrosion of a popular culture with its secular leftist bent and anti-Christian bias. U.S. society is undergoing re-tribalization due to “affirmative action” and the un-American emphasis on race, ethnicity, and gender. It is causing rampant gender and identity confusion, especially among the nation’s youth already stressed by online shaming rituals via social media. Official government and educational bureaucracies promote toxic cultural mandates, invoking “anti-discrimination” laws and the mantra, “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” intensifying the culture wars and divisive identity politics. The essay concludes with a vision to renew the American ideal of “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
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THREE HYPOTHESES ABOUT AMERICA:
HELPER, LINCOLN, DOUGLASS, AND KING
William R. Mary
University of Memphis
___________________________________This essay advances arguments and evidence for three hypotheses about America. First, that slavery was a burden to the South, and the nation, and that it degraded what it affected. Second, that, in the main, the Fathers of this nation meant it when they recognized slavery as a moral evil. And third, that the greatest American after Abraham Lincoln in effecting legal and attitudinal change in America for the betterment of relations between the races built his strategies for reform upon the Founders’ vision, and depended on its truth to achieve his successes. To support the hypothesis that slavery was a burden, the essay recalls the arguments of a white citizen of the slave state of North Carolina, Hinton Rowan Helper. To support the hypothesis that the Founders, in the main, meant it when they condemned slavery as a moral evil, it engages the arguments of a white man of the free West, Abraham Lincoln, and those of an escaped slave, Frederick Douglass. To support the hypothesis that the understandings of the American Founding provided the fundamental guide for the way forward, it invokes the arguments and actions of a black resident of the Jim Crow South, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Two white men, two black men, four Americans to support three hypotheses about America.
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JIS XXXVI 2024: 49-68
IDENTITY POLITICS, NATURAL LAW AND HUMAN DIGNITY
Nalani E. Hilderman
San Diego Christian College
___________________________________Rooted in Marxism and Critical Theory, identity politics upended traditional philosophical anthropology about personhood, and argues that identity is wholly manifested through economic group, social class, gender, or racial categories. Humans are ontologically viewed through their status as victims, not as fully integrated moral persons. Touted as a political issue, identity politics is at heart a philosophical and anthropological problem and to address it one must return to a better understanding of the soul and human dignity. The resurrection of the classical Natural Law tradition is the remedy for finding common ground and rebuilding civil society, for at the heart of Natural Law is the belief in human dignity which imbues every human being with worth to be honored and respected regardless of race, sex, age, or different culture or religion. Classical Natural Law provides the theological, philosophical, and definitional background for human dignity and only if it is resurrected can “the discontent” in American culture be fully human again.
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JIS XXXVI 2024: 69-86
IDENTITY POLITICS IN ISRAEL:
THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX CHALLENGE
Yaron Katz
Holon Institute of Technology, Israel
___________________________________Israeli politics has been characterized by identity-based conflict, particularly surrounding the connection between the state of Israel and its identity as a Jewish state. A significant focal point of this conflict revolves around the tension between secular Jews and the Ultra-Orthodox community. Despite being a minority group, the Ultra-Orthodox holds substantial political influence. Over the past two decades, Ultra-Orthodox parties have strategically leveraged religious issues to gain political influence. Simultaneously, secular politicians have capitalized on anti-religious sentiment among secular Israeli Jews. The central point of contention lies in the demand for exemptions from military service for Ultra-Orthodox religious males. This policy has played a pivotal role in shaping the community. This essay delves into the social and political divisions stemming from religion’s role in shaping the Jewish state’s identity and culture, and the political ramifications of the ongoing identity struggle.
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JIS XXXVI 2024: 87-104
TRIBALISM AND CULTURAL DISCONTENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Yaser Esmailzadeh
University of Tehran, Iran
___________________________________The Middle East has long been characterized by political instability, violent conflicts, and cultural tensions. In recent years, the re-emergence of tribalism has further contributed to the deterioration of peace in the region. This essay investigates the influence of tribalism on cultural discontent and violence in the Middle East, arguing that it reinforces identity politics, exacerbates sectarianism, and undermines democratic values. These factors, in turn, fuel conflicts and hinder peace-building endeavors. The essay explores specific instances where tribalism has escalated violence, emphasizing the challenges of addressing its root causes. For a comprehensive understanding, there is a need to examine historical and contemporary factors that contribute to tribalism’s growth and persistence. The complex interplay between tribalism and other socio-political dynamics highlights how these interactions exacerbate regional instability. The essay concludes by advocating for increased attention to cultural aspects of conflict and the necessity for more effective strategies to foster intercultural dialogue and understanding in the region.
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JIS XXXVI 2024: 105-126
THE CRITICAL CONTAGION:
GENDER AND CRITICAL RACE THEORIES
Jonathan M. Butcher
Heritage Foundation
___________________________________Queer theory or critical gender studies are close relatives of critical race theory. The original critical race theorists stressed that their worldview also encapsulated radical theories on “gender.” The term “gender” is ambiguous. Humans are born male or female–designed to produce either sperm or eggs, even in cases of individuals with biological abnormalities. Individuals, including young children, can be confused about their biological sex, now a cultural contagion leading young people to make irreversible changes to their bodies. Culturally, a society should show empathy and offer to help young people through counseling and guidance, but we do not help children when we affirm his or her choice to assume a gender that conflicts with their biology.
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JIS XXXVI 2024: 127-145
HEALING THE IDEOLOGICAL-POLITICAL DIVISIONS IN AMERICA
Robert M. Anderson Jr.
Tiffany K. Ah Loo
Chaminade University of Honolulu
___________________________________This essay addresses the ideological-political divides in the United States and proposes practical measures to mitigate their intensity. Without advocating for either side, it examines the causes and effects of these divides before presenting a multi-level, hierarchical model of scientifically based interventions: (1) individual; (2) one-on-one; (3) small group; (4) large group (universities, corporations, etc.); and (5) national. Interventions at the individual level are mindfulness or contemplative prayer. On the second level, they include approaching dialogue with an individual who has an opposing ideology with intellectual humility and genuine curiosity. At level three, successful techniques for small group discussions of deeply felt issues developed by the Public Conversation Project may be implemented. On the fourth and fifth levels, administrators and religious leaders could lessen affective polarization—the tendency to dislike or distrust those who do not share one’s worldview–by emphasizing what all Americans have in common and by encouraging cross-ideology dialogue. If an appreciable number of Americans would commit themselves to these interventions, the ideological-political divide in the U.S. could be significantly reduced.
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JIS XXXVI 2024: 146-164
U.S. CONSTITUTIONAL ORIGINALISM FROM TRANSCENDENCE:
THE FOUNDERS’ METHODOLOGY
George A. Seaver
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
___________________________________The characteristic that made the U.S. Constitution effective is the transcendence of the concepts it embodies. This essay seeks to define transcendence, its relationship to originalism in Constitutional interpretations, its historic origins, the consequences of rejecting them, and provide a truly originalist standard for Supreme Court decision-making. This transcendence has resulted in the U.S. being the only democracy since the Roman Republics to have been sustained over the long-term. Four specific areas are suggested by the Federalist Papers and many federal decisions over the last 50 years in the areas of civil rights, balance of power, public virtue, and judicial restraint. In civil rights, restoring the Constitutional diversity of this extended Republic would reverse the present “diversity, equity and inclusion” and its destructive policy. The recovery of the free exercise of religion from its sincere personal belief status would encourage a moral way of thinking and living by restoring Article I in the Bill of Rights to its proper status.
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JIS XXXVI 2024: 165-186
U.S. GLOBAL DEMOCRACY PROMOTION:
CHANGE, CHALLENGES, AND CONTINUITY
Eric D. Patterson
Regent University
___________________________________Every recent presidential administration praises global democracy, but how do they do in funding democracy-supporting activities? Building on analyses of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies, this essay looks at the disappointing landscape of international democracy, and then considers what the Donald Trump administration said, particularly in its National Security Strategy, and what it did in terms of funding of activities to support democracy abroad. Rooted in wider social science evidence, this analysis suggests that there are differences between top-down, bottom-up, and middle-range democracy promotion activities. It demonstrates that the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy privileged a holistic approach to democracy and human rights, and when it came to funding levels, according to government data, there was not the overall decline expected by many. The Trump National Security Strategy emphasized especially international religious freedom as fundamental to human rights and democratic governance in ways considerably different from previous administrations.
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