Trending The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America (Princeton University Press, 2018)
Robert Wuthnow
© Princeton University Press
What are the daily experiences of Americans living in rural areas? What values are most important to them, and how do these influence their political views? Is rural America homogeneous? Robert Wuthnow and his research assistants conducted in-depth interviews with over one thousand residents in rural areas to discover the answers to these questions. Their main finding is that rural Americans belong to moral communities and feel a special sense of place and obligation to each other. Most rural residents live in or near small towns, where they work, shop, attend schools and church services, and socialize. These towns are the physical spaces that reinforce the local norms and customs of moral communities, such as attending community events and interacting regularly with their neighbors. But moral communities are also imagined in the sense that although not all who belong to them personally know each other, they feel like they do and share the same values. Wuthnow (2018) argues that “rural America is not a homogeneous census bloc,” so we should be careful not to essentialize its residents (5). However, most are white (85 to 90 percent) and politically and socially conservative. Therefore, their moral communities are often shaped by exclusion or “othering.”
Many moral communities in rural America feel threatened by social forces beyond their control. The population has been declining in most of these areas, which has resulted in local businesses and schools closing. In addition to a lack of jobs, lower education levels, higher rates of teenage pregnancy, and drug addiction are struggles that rural communities face to an inordinate degree. The moral communities that Wuthnow studies blame Washington, D.C., and Hollywood for the moral decline in America and fight to protect their culture and uphold their social norms. A vote against their economic self-interest is often a vote for their cultural—and in particular religious—beliefs. ●
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Southern Europeans, especially in Italy, are increasingly having difficulty in dealing with waves of immigrants from North Africa. In fact, many would-be immigrants are dying in accidents at sea before they even get to Italy as they seek to navigate the Mediterranean Sea in overcrowded and rickety boats. For years Italy and other countries sought to prevent migrants from leaving North Africa, especially the failed state of Libya. However, a 2012 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights stopped them from doing so. The resistance of Italy, Spain, and other southern European countries to such immigration, like that in northern Europe, is motivated in part by economics and the fear that immigrants will cost natives their jobs. However, it is also cultural in the sense that the different cultures of these immigrants are seen as a threat to Italian, Spanish, and other European cultures.
In short, European countries today have more cultural diversity than ever. However, the situation is fraught with tension, conflict, and danger as people from very different cultures, religions, and languages struggle to find a way to live side by side. Given these recent developments in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere in the world, some are declaring multiculturalism a failure. States, and especially majority groups, are growing less appreciative of, and less willing to accept, groups that represent different cultures (Gozdecka, Ercan, and Kmak 2014).
Identity Politics
While some majority groups have come to oppose multiculturalism, various minority groups have grown impatient with the dominant culture’s limited view of multiculturalism and its unwillingness to accept the minority groups for who they are. Such minorities have asserted their right to retain their distinctive cultures and even their right not to assimilate, at least totally. In reaction, the majority group, especially whites in various parts of the world (including the United States), has reasserted themselves as an identity group (Mishra, 2018). Many minority groups have engaged in identity politics in using their power to strengthen the position of the cultural groups with which they identify (Appiah 2018). Identity politics has a long history; in recent decades, it has included the black power, feminist, and gay pride movements in many parts of the world. The goal of such movements has been the creation of a true multicultural society, one that accepts minorities for who they are. Identity politics has played out not only on the streets in the form of public protests and demonstrations but also in schools, especially in universities. In the latter, the central issue has been whether all students should be required to learn the “canon”—a common set of texts, sometimes referred to as the “great books”—a body of knowledge long regarded to be of central importance. For example, the works of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim are often thought to be the canonical texts in sociology. Minority cultures claim that the canon in sociology and many other fields reflects the interests and experiences of white middle- and upper-class males. They argue that alternative bodies of knowledge, such as those created by women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community, are at least as important. The result has been a proliferation of programs such as those devoted to black, Chicano, and feminist studies, where the focus is on those alternative texts and bodies of knowledge. However, such programs have been the subject of much controversy and political scrutiny.
Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism
Multiculturalism and identity politics are closely related to cultural relativism, which is the idea that aspects of a culture such as norms and values need to be understood within the context of that culture; there are no cultural universals, or universally accepted norms and values. In this view, different cultures simply have different norms and values. There is no basis for saying that one set of norms and values is better than another. Thus, for example, those in Western countries should not judge Islamic women’s use of headscarves. Conversely, those in the Islamic world should not judge Western women who bare their midriffs.
Cultural relativism runs counter to the tendency in many cultures toward ethnocentrism, or the belief that the norms, values, traditions, and material and symbolic aspects of one’s own culture are better than those of other cultures. The tendency toward ethnocentrism both among subcultures within the United States and in cultures throughout the world represents a huge barrier to greater cultural understanding. However, to be fair, a belief in one’s own culture can be of great value to that culture. It gives the people of that culture a sense of pride and identity. Problems arise when ethnocentrism serves as a barrier to understanding other cultures, a source of conflict among cultures, or an excuse for one culture to deny rights or privileges to another.
Global Culture
There are certainly major differences within American culture, such as those that exist among subcultures. Yet few would dispute the idea that it is possible to talk about American culture in general. However, discussing a global culture, a culture common to the world as a whole, is not as easy. Some elements of material culture, including hamburgers, sushi, cars, and communication technology, have spread widely