Counterculture, Cancel Culture, Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Deep State: a Toxic Quartet?

Counterculture, Cancel Culture, Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Deep State: A toxic Quartet?

This article seeks to explore some select aspects of the Counterculture, Cancelculture, Critical Race Theory, and the Deep State. We believe that such movements can put and do put the Christian culture at risk and is therefore an appropriate topic for The Christianity Umbrella effort. There is no intention here to be comprehensive in our discussion of these four affronts to our cultural status quo.

Cancel Culture: Some Select Issues

 Cancel Culture is the suppression and intolerance of people whose viewpoints differ from what our godless society has deemed fitting and appropriate. The voice of God can never be canceled because His creation is everywhere we look. The overwhelmingly left-wing Cancel Culture has aimed itself squarely at Christians who hold a Biblical worldview founded on the authority of God’s uncompromising Word.  A Chick- fil-A food truck at Boston University was targeted by the student newspaper for affirming the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. A number of other campuses have banned Chick- fil-A’s charitable giving program which in the past has given to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and The Salvation Army. It has more recently come under fire for their ‘discriminatory and homophobic practices.’  The threat of the Cancel Culture has gotten worse as social media giants like Twitter and Facebook have started censoring free speech and have targeted those who espouse traditional moral values.  One of the central dynamics of cancel culture has to do with the incredible level of narcissism in this culture. We have reared a generation of the self-absorbed like never before in American history. They act out their belief that if someone sees an issue differently than they do, they have the right to boycott participation, be openly critical, even to the point of injuring other people. Some five -year- old children have more of an intact conscience than the Cancel culture crowd.

 The voice of God can never be canceled, in part because His creation is everywhere and is eternal.

Counterculture: Some Select Issues

 Counterculture is a way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norms in the dominant culture.

 An example, would be the idealists of the 1960s counterculture. Other examples of countercultures in the US could include the hippie movement of the 1960s, the green movement, polygamists, and feminist groups such as the Women’s Intentional Communities’, ‘Female Only Communities’ and Female Separatist Communities.’ Another element is LGBT counterculture that began in the 1970s— and continues today—to include the lesbian, landdyke movement, or womyns.’

 So, we can easily see here where there is overlap with the cancel culture effort to shut out certain groups. And, there is also an obvious theme of counterculture in these several movements highlighted in this article that have set themselves apart from mainstream culture.

 Counterculture may or may not be explicitly political. It typically involves criticism or rejection of currently powerful institutions, with accompanying hope for a better life or a new society. It does not look favorably on party politics or authoritarianism.

 The counterculture movement divided the country. To some Americans, the movement reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, world peace, and the pursuit of happiness. To others, it reflected a self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive assault on America’s traditional moral order.

 So, this counterculture concept smacks of a rebellious teenager that is simply not going to aligned themselves with parental preferences. Some teens in dysfunctional families go to extraordinary lengths to behave counter to any intent by the parents to exercise structure in the home. It is not uncommon for these rebellious teens to resort to acting out at all levels and creating mayhem within the family.

 As an extension of this line of thought, I am reminded a reticent child, perhaps three or four years old who is at the grocery store with their parents and is aggressively pronouncing their preference not to do something by saying very emphatically and loudly: “No!.. No! …No!”! I pursue this line of thought because I believe that at the core, much of the foundation of this Counterculture is regressive psychologically and entails dynamics including narcissism, revenge, and a desperate attempt to dominate and not to cooperate.

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a movement that challenges the ability of conventional legal strategies to deliver social and economic justice and specifically calls for legal approaches that take into consideration race as a nexus of American life. In the CRT movement we see characteristics of counterculture and cancel culture.  Executives from various organizations have been sent to a 3-Day ‘reeducation’ camp where there was an attempt to brainwash them into believing that the white male culture is comparable to the KKK, white supremacists. They also were forced to write letters of apology to fictitious women and people of color!  Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips is in court again, this time over allegations that his business unlawfully refused service to a transgender woman who requested a trans-themed birthday cake. The plaintiff, Autumn Scardina, had previously filed a complaint against Phillips with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and is now in the midst of a lawsuit at the district level.

 Both actions stem from a call Scardina says she made to the Lakewood, Colorado, bakery on June 26, 2017 — the same day the Supreme Court announced it would take up a separate case involving Masterpiece Cakeshop’s refusal to make a same-sex wedding cake. Scardina, an attorney and activist, says she tried to order a pink cake with blue frosting, but that the bakery refused her request after she explained it was intended to recognize her identity as a transgender woman, according to court documents. She alleges that a representative of the Christian bakery told her it “did not make cakes for ‘sex changes.’ ” And while this is not a race-based case, it clearly is a case involving counterculture in that advocates for homosexuality and LGBT are leading the movement to prosecute Jack Phillips; this appears to be an example of brainwashing on the part of those seeking to prosecute Jack Phillips and an example of a specific counterculture movement. Cancel culture is also involved in that as long as Jack Phillips maintains a pro- Christian protest, his business is boycotted by the far left.

 The movement champions many of the same concerns as the Civil Rights movement but places those concerns within a broader economic and historical context. It often elevates the equality principles of the Fourteenth Amendment above the liberty principles of the First Amendment. CRT has its underpinnings in the philosophical writings of Derrick Bell in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was born out of the realization by legal scholars, lawyers, and activists that many of the advances of the civil rights era had stopped and in some circumstances were being reversed.  Early on, legal scholars, including Bell, Alan Freemen, and Richard Delgado, began developing alternative legal theories and frameworks for combating racial inequality. Their approaches combined various other theoretical positions, among them Critical Legal Studies, Critical Theory, Feminist Theory, Postmodernism, and Cultural Studies.  There are Marxist underpinnings in CRT, inasmuch as Marx believed that the primary characteristics of industrial societies was the imbalance of power between capitalists and workers; the solution to that imbalance of power was revolution.  Some of the basic tenets of CRT rest on the belief that racism is a fundamental part of American society, not simply an aberration that can be easily corrected by law, that any given culture constructs its own social reality in its own self-interest; and, in the United States this means that minority interests are subservient to the system’s self- interest, and that the current system, built by and for white elites, will tolerate and encourage racial progress for minorities only if this promotes the majority’s self-interest.  In 1989 CRT became a unified movement at the first annual Workshop on Critical Race Theory. Other notable scholars from the original movement include Kimberly Crenshaw, Angela Harris, Charles Lawrence, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia Williams. Today, CRT has expanded beyond its legal studies foundations into the fields of education, political science, American studies, and ethnic studies. It also has produced several offshoots, including Critical White Studies, Latino Critical Race Studies, Asian American Critical Race Studies, American Indian Critical Race Studies, and Critical Queer Studies.

 The First Amendment can serve to preserve racial status quo, CRT scholars say. CRT scholars have critiqued many of the assumptions that they believe constitute the ideology of the First Amendment. For example, instead of helping to achieve healthy and robust debate, the First Amendment actually serves to preserve the inequities of the status quo; there can be no such thing as an objective or content neutral interpretation in law in general or of the First Amendment in particular; some speech should be viewed in terms of the harm it causes, rather than all speech being valued on the basis of it being speech; and there is no “equality” in “freedom” of speech.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws which regulate an establishment of religion, or that would prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the right to petition ...

At the core, all of these examples are activism that infiltrates our dominant culture, contaminates Christianity, and sets the stage for confusion about what America stands for. These perpetrators of Cancel culture, Counterculture and Critical Race Theory appear to be quite comfortable with their make-believe world of challenging the norm with a dominant flare of narcissism; they obviously believe that their positions should be imposed on everyone. In addition, all three of these efforts to contaminate our culture involve what I called Toxic Relativism that is without boundaries and in many instances is without respect for basic moral principles. Where did the respect for working together to enhance our culture go?

 Equity is defined as “the state, quality or ideal of being just, impartial and fair.” The concept of equity is synonymous with fairness and justice. It is helpful to think of equity as not simply a desired state of affairs or a lofty value. To achieve and sustain equity, it needs to be thought of as a structural and systemic concept. Equity involves trying to understand and give people what they need to enjoy full, healthy lives. Equality, in contrast, aims to ensure that everyone gets the same things in order to enjoy full, healthy lives. Like equity, equality aims to promote fairness and justice, but it can only work if everyone starts from the same place and needs the same things.

 In terms of the First Amendment, the primary battlefield for CRT has been ‘hate speech’ regulation. No one legal definition exists for hate speech, but it generally refers to abusive language specifically attacking a person or persons based on their race, color, religion, ethnic group, gender, or sexual orientation. Hate speech is currently still protected by the First Amendment. CRT scholars have critiqued this protection and the ideology driving it. Early on, these scholars focused primarily on the question of hate speech codes on college campuses and later moved on to review laws and court opinions concerning the broader societal regulation of hate speech.

Melissa Tate, Author

‘Choice Privilege: What's Race Got To Do With It?’ "My destiny has never been pre-determined by my skin color, more than anything else, it is being shaped by the choices I make daily, good and bad." This book follows author Melissa Tate's early life growing up in Africa and eventual migration to the United States. Tate contends that, in America, it is a person's good choices, not their skin color, that determines the upward trajectory of his or her life. After migrating to the United States at age nineteen for college, her experience in America has been a living contradiction to the false "white privilege" narrative. In spite of being "black in America," Tate has been able to achieve great success to which she credits to hard work, determination, good choices, and her faith in God. Her story, like many African immigrants, is at odds with propaganda peddled by the left. She lives a life of privilege as the fruit of hard work, doing things in the right order and prioritizing life in a way that places God first, then family, then her career. Tate discusses the cultural parallels between African culture vs neo-Black American culture as a means to explain the economic disparities seen between African immigrants (who tend to thrive in America) and Black Americans. The larger neo-Marxist agenda behind critical race theory ideology, as a plot to racially divide and conquer the America from within, is discussed extensively in this book. Tate exposes this dangerous and divisive ideology as a "false religion" that is antithetical to biblical principles and an assault on the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Tate offers solutions on how America can overcome this agenda, heal the racial divide, and fulfil its God-given destiny as the beacon of light, freedom, and prosperity in the world.

The Deep State

A Deep State is a type of governance made up of potentially secret and unauthorized networks of power operating independently of a state's political leadership in pursuit of their own agenda and goals. In popular usage, the term carries overwhelmingly negative connotations, although this does not reflect scholarly understanding. The range of possible uses of the term is similar to that for shadow government.  The expression State within a state is an older and similar concept. Historically, it designated a well-defined organization which seeks to function independently, whereas the Deep State refers more to a hidden organization seeking to manipulate the public state.  Potential sources for Deep State organization include rogue elements among organs of the state such as the armed forces or public authorities such as intelligence agencies, police, secret police, administrative agencies, and government bureaucracy. A deep state can also take the form of entrenched career civil servants acting in a non-conspiratorial discretionary manner to further their agency mission for the public good, sometimes in contravention of the current political administration.  The intent of a Deep State can include continuity of the state itself, job security, enhanced power and authority, and the pursuit of ideological or programmatic objectives. It can operate in opposition to the agenda of elected officials, by obstructing, resisting, and subverting their policies, conditions and directives. Conspiracy theories of a secret government typically go far beyond these verifiable agencies and posit actions by more obscure bodies.  Is there a linkage between The Deep State, a Counterculture, Cancel Culture, Critical Race Theory (CRT) and a potential Deep State? What we see in all four entities are an affront to traditional government that is functioning in the best interest of our citizenry and that recognizes Christianity as the Founding Fathers did. Looks like we have political shenanigans here by a series of entities and discontents; and, a big bag of toxic agendas for the country. These four entities can act against cultural integrity and healthy moral boundaries.

‘Receive instruction in wise dealing and the discipline of wise thoughtfulness, righteousness, justice, and integrity.’ (Proverbs 1:3)

Narcissism

So, there is a tight linkage between relativism and narcissism, and these interlinked concepts often ignore or minimize the presence of absolute truths including an absolute conception of the Creator God. Relativistic doctrine includes beliefs that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute; and, that moral decisions are malleable, debatable, and are left to the whim of the individual or group.

It takes a full load of self-absorption, narcissism, to violate well-founded boundaries and to frivolously toss away the healthy aspects of our culture, often in the name of change for change sake. Inherent in this linkage between relativism and narcissism is often what appears to be an adolescent craving for independence at any cost. An example of toxic relativism would be when a person justifies and rationalizes the practice of violent protest.

Healthy self-confidence and self -efficacy are distinct from narcissism. And, there are gradations of self-absorption. Pathological Narcissism may include such traits as:  Grandiose sense of self-importance  Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance or beauty  Beliefs that they are special and unique and should only associate with high status people or institutions  A sense of entitlement including unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment.  Can be interpersonally exploitative; taking advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends  Lacks empathy and is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others  Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her  Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

We outlined these traits here because it appears that narcissism is one of the pathways to the rampant relativism and participation in counterculture, cancel culture, critical race theory, and probably the Deep State phenomenon.

This tendency to be self-absorbed is in contrast to generosity, respect for others, humility, compromise, patience, and healthy assertiveness.

The roots of narcissism are complex and include:  Genetics  Cultural pathology that reinforces and even encourages self- centeredness  Unhealthy and incomplete families  The nature and specifics of one’s internal and external affiliations, to include family relationships, membership in organizations, and ruminating about unhealthy activities.  Narcissists look at the whole world as high school; the suggestion here is one of immaturity and developmental delay.  They feel others need them and they beat the drum to stay in their inner circle, to maintain their place.  Thinly veiled anger is often present and may be prompted by feeling treated unjustly

So, in many instances we appear to have raised a generation of coddled youngsters who cannot cope; well, that is also true of many of their parents. We have been called a nation of wimps. Many parents and grand- parents are doing little more than protecting their children from life! Many of our children are growing up pampered and without experience in handling the routine challenges of life. The fact is that we learn through all kinds of experience including the negative experiences; through failure we learn how to cope. Parents are often taking pains to remove failure from the behavioral equation.

Many today want instant gratification. The whole world seems bent on pleasure, and there is an alarming preoccupation with self. The whole marketing industry feeds this endless desire for stuff. When nations or individuals live only for pleasure, they begin to die morally and spiritually, oblivious of God’s will and scornful of His judgment.

This sense of entitlement on the part of violent protesters is dramatic, toxic, destructive and pathological.

 This inflated ego on the part of violent protesters is, obviously antisocial, toxic, destructive and pathological.  It is unacceptable and must be met with stern disapproval, accountability, and in many cases incarceration.  There is a smattering of narcissism in sinful acts.

Many people today feel that the old moral standards are useless and out of date, and that they ought to be free to make up their own minds about what is right and what is wrong. The suggestion here is that there is no absolute right and wrong.

Conclusions and Recommendations

 The Supreme Court needs to defend this country, when appropriate; it is very unfortunate that in one particular recent issue regarding the presidential elections they were inert and we paid a heavy price for it.  The court system in general is complicit in some instances by not holding criminals responsible. This creates huge confusion about just what appropriate boundaries are.  Some governors and other state officials appear to be confused about appropriate boundaries regarding violent protests; that needs to change! A five-year-old who is reared in a healthy family knows about right and wrong.  It needs to be a given that the United States will defend Israel, whatever the cost. That isn’t happening!  The primary responsibility for child rearing must remain with parents, and parents must have control over just what schools are teaching about American history. Teaching lies about this is unacceptable and must change. Teaching young children about gender-related issues and homosexuality should not be in the purview of public schools. Parents must call the shots on this because parents are more likely to know about appropriate boundaries than the bureaucratic, political school system does.  We must get control of teacher unions and police unions that are intruding on common sense practices.  The voting public has, in far too many cases, not asserted itself strongly enough! That needs to change, or our march towards socialism, Marxism, and communism will accelerate and destroy this country. The issue here is that morals are important and essential for a healthy functioning society.  In my view this continues to be a Christian nation, not a post- Christian nation. The founding fathers had it right and we are responsible for carrying forward, on a consistent basis with Christian morality.  Some white people are racist; some blacks are racist. Racists have an entire worldview with a powerful lens that sees everything in racial terms. These folks are hypervigilant about race, often misinterpret social cues, and may over react aggressively both physically and emotionally. We need to be able to lean on our Christian churches and Christian leaders when it comes to racism and related issues.  In some very important ways this country of ours has turned into a United States of vengeance.  Slow down, take a deep breath, and stop all of the endless details and discussions; instead, focus on the bigger picture and on primary goals, and learn something about compromise. And, seek a new activism that focuses on the Unified States of America. We need to vote for capable leaders who can encourage other world leaders and work in concert with them. However, this also means that we will always advocate for our citizens and will not permit senseless intrusion on our borders that puts our people at risk. This has somehow become a complicated issue, when in fact it should be straightforward and should contain a large portion of common sense.  University presidents who condone lies about America’s history being taught in the classroom and who tolerate political propaganda in the classroom, should be fired! All of those shenanigans cover up the truth; if we do not promote truth in the classroom, we have lost our country.

 To eliminate racism, we need to “name it, frame it and explain it.”

 We must have courage, the courage to stand and speak the truth; the courage to face the mob, courage to shrug off the scorn of the elites.

 When enough of us overcome the fear that currently prevents so many people from speaking out, the hold of critical race theory will begin to slip. If we can muster truth and justice and courage, we will win! To eliminate racism, we need to ‘name it, frame it and explain it.’

 In 2019 President Trump issued an executive order banning critical race theory-based training programs in the federal government; President Biden rescinded this order on his first day in office!

 Some are more honest than others; some have been abused as children, some are racist and tend to see the entire world in racist terms; some have been violent protesters. In order to moderate the extremes of these movements, we need responsible, honest, moral change agents who value compromise, a mindset that is sometimes in short supply.

 Those active in these movements evidence the residuals of juvenile rebellion, revengeful emotions, and a large portion of narcissism and self-absorption that allows them to negatively intrude, sometimes behaving in a protracted tantrum in order to be injurious to others. So, we commonly see revengeful acting out.

 And, there may well be a synergistic response in the interaction of these four social movements; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts: 1+1 = 3. We think this is true because of the energy and resources necessary to carry out the agendas of these four emotionally-laden movements.

 It appears to me that there is a psychological link between relativistic behavior, hypocrisy, pride and ego; when taken together we see boundary violation and a flight from absolute truth. It takes a strong person who has strong convictions to live in concert with absolute truths, especially Christian absolute truths, in a secular society that promotes all sorts of deviancy.

 Now some say we are in an attention society. Notice me, notice me …. An example of bad stuff changing our society.

 It is worthwhile to consider who the participants are in these socio- cultural movements and just who the leaders are. What are their family backgrounds? What is their worldview? What are their spiritual beliefs? We raise these issues because these are citizens of our country who have strongly held beliefs that derive from our educational system, our media and the marketing apparatus, the internet, our mores, and not from some nebulous foreign sphere. Importantly, these folks are vulnerable to brainwashing and being influenced in negative directions at times.

You may be thinking that this somewhat laborious list of recommendations has little to do with the topic of the article, but I would see it differently. The Toxic quartet, mentioned above, functions within a greater cultural context, and to believe otherwise is a fantasy land. Every immoral behavior feeds the entire array of inappropriate, racist, narcissistic, resentful, revengeful and hostile behaviors. These violations of moral boundaries become normalized with repetition: Oh, the tentacles of vengeance ….

References

Arnn, Larry P.: ‘Orwell’s 1984 and Today,’ Imprimis, Hillsdale College, 12 December 2020.

Mohler, R. Albert Jr.: ‘Culture Shift: the battle for the moral heart of America;’ Multnomah Books, 2011.

Rufo, Christopher F.: ‘Critical race theory: what it is and how to fight it,’ Imprimis, Hillsdale College, March, 2021

Tate, Mellisa: ‘Choice white privilege: what race got to do with it?: an intellectual, biblical and experiential rebuttal to critical race theory,’ Liberty Hill Press, 2021.

Zahler, William: ‘Challenges, Threats and Chaos’, www.lifestyle-interventions.com, published online, 2020.

William Zahler, MSW, MPA, DipACLM Website & Blog: lifestyle – interventions.com YouTube: William Zahler Email: [email protected]

June 2021