Fighting to save a culture, that exists in memory only?

Comment by Badger on “Confederaphobia–An American Epidemic”

 Brock, I think, you, I, and many others are fighting to save something already lost. We are trying to save American culture. But I’m afraid, it is mostly gone already. It wasn’t destroyed by leftists and Marxists. It was destroyed by corporate mergers and buyouts. When younger, I traveled a lot with my wife. I loved going to different parts of America and enjoying the local culture.

One of the big losses, most young people do not realize, is the homogenization of our food. One did not have to travel far from home to find regional brands. One of the biggest was soda, or pop. Every part of this country had local brands. Now it’s Pepsi, Mountain Dew, or Coke. All the local bottlers are gone. I loved stopping at a gas station and tasting the local selections. All different and all good…mostly.

Now days, you can walk into a grocery store anywhere in America and only buy the same brands. Regional America is gone. Oh, sure there are a few local brands but overall, they are gone. They were bought and closed by the big corporations. Or forced out of business by the same corporations.

Now we see regional history being erased. And history in general being eliminated and rewritten. I’m not sure everyone across America had the same style education, as I did. We learned American and world history from books. But we also learned local history. We learned about the people towns and cities were named after. John Deere, was born close to here and their main offices are here. We learned about him. No, it was not a huge part of our education. But we did learn local history. That had ended by the time my daughter went to school. Again, forced homogenization in education. All children learning the same things. This I blame mostly on the federal government. But corporations also have a hand. Through mergers and buyouts, there is only one or two school book publishers left. No competition, and they only produce books approved in California. We are screwed there.

Radio, there was a time when every station was local. They had local people producing and broadcasting. Today, almost every station is part of some conglomerate. All their content comes from the East or West coast. Again, the same blandness coast to coast. All America receiving the same programming.

Television, the same. Other than a local news once or twice a day, everything is produced on the coasts. Again, all America is programed by a few. Another source of group-think.

Sadly, I think we may have already lost. The regional diversities of America are mostly gone. They are only memories, to those of us old enough to remember. Southern culture is (and soon to be was) the only hugely cultural distinction, that still survived. We watched, unknowing as our culture was being destroyed. I am afraid, we are fighting to save a culture, that exists in memory only.

–Badger