John McClymer, "The Acids of Modernity" and Contemporary Culture Wars

Our seminar takes its theme from Walter Lippmann's 1929 essay, "The Acids of Modernity," in his A Preface to Morals.

It is these supporting conceptions--the unconscious assumption that we are related to God as creatures to creator, as vassals to a king, as children to a father--that the acids of modernity have eaten away. The modern man's daily experience of modernity makes instinctively incredible to him these unconscious ideas which are at the core of the great traditional and popular religions. He does not wantonly reject belief, as so many churchmen assert. His predicament is much more serious. With the best will in the world, he finds himself not quite believing.

. . . when creeds have to be proved to the doubting they are already blighted; arguments are for the unbelievers and the wavering, for those who have never had, and for those who have lost these primordial attachments. Faith is not a formula which is agreed to if the weight of evidence favors it. It is a posture of man's whole being which predisposes him to assimilate, not merely to believe, his creed. When the posture is native to him, in tune with the rhythm of his surroundings, his faith is not dependent upon intellectual assent. It is a serene and whole-hearted absorption, like that of the infant to its mother, in the great powers outside which govern his world. When that union of feeling is no longer there, as it is not there for a large part of our talkative fundamentalist sects, we may be sure that corrosive doubting has begun. The unlovely quality of much modern religiosity is due to these doubts. So much of its belief is synthetic. It is forced, made, insisted upon, because it is no longer simple and inevitable. The angry absurdities which the fundamentalists propound against "evolution" are not often due to their confidence in the inspiration of the Bible. They are due to lack of confidence, to doubt resisted like an annoying tune which a man cannot shake out of his head. For if the militant fundamentalists were utterly sure they are right, they would exhibit some of that composure which the truly devout display. Did they really trust their God, they would trust laws, politicians, and policemen less. But because their whole field of consciousness is trembling with uncertainties they are in a state of fret and fuss; and their preaching is frousy, like the seductions of an old coquette.
. . . . . . . . . .
Novelties crowd the consciousness of modern men. The machinery of intelligence, the press, the radio, the moving picture, have enormously multiplied the number of unseen events and strange people and queer doings with which he has to be concerned. They compel him to pay attention to facts that are detached from their backgrounds, their causes and their consequences, and are only half known because they are not seen or touched or actually heard. These experiences come to him having no beginning, no middle, and no end, mere flashes of publicity playing fitfully upon a dark tangle of circumstances. I pick up a newspaper at the start of the day and I am depressed and rejoiced to learn that: anthracite miners have struck in Pennsylvania; that a price boost plot is charged; that Mr. Ziegfeld has imported a blonde from England who weighs 112 pounds and has pretty legs; that the Pope, on the other hand, has refused to receive women in low-necked dress and with their arms bare; that airplanes are flying to Hawaii; and that the Mayor says that the would-be Mayor is a liar .... — Walter Lippmann, "The Acids of Modernity"

Advertisements in post-World War I America often attacked conventional morality. Here is an example, an Ivory soap ad from 1931. The text reads, in part: "When birds and millionaires are flitting South and you are left behind in your winter overcoat to think about the coal [i.e. heating] bills . . . Ivory takes pleasure in inviting you to go on a private summer cruise . . . a rosy, South Sea Island dream." Procter and Gamble, Saturday Evening Post (1931). The ad counselled the consumer to seek consolation from worries of the bad economic times (and heating bills) in daydreams. Only millionaires can enjoy the warm southern breezes, perhaps, but anyone can draw a bath and go on a "private summer cruise," no clothes required. The dreamer can imagine whoever he wants as inviting him to "stroll up this gangplank." The figure issuing the invitation has no distinguishing features. But the ad more than hints at what kind of daydream the bather is likely to have if he is fantasing about being on a sailboat, "carefree as a playboy," in the South Seas without any clothes. In this context, the classic Ivory tagline about being so pure that it floats acquires a new level of meaning.

Here is another example, a Lucky Strike ad. The ad endorsed a new ethos, which it defined as a liberation from ancient prejudices. "American Intelligence," outfitted in red, white, and blue, unshackles women from "false modesty" in bathing costumes and from the prejudice against smoking. It had been considered immodest for a woman to expose her bare legs. But "American Intelligence" proved that a sensible swimsuit promoted both "better health and pure enjoyment." The use of "pure" is cunning. It suggests, as with the term "false modesty," that the old moral prohibitions were simply wrong, "ancient prejudices." The new suit is "pure." It suggests too that the enjoyment is more intense once "false modesty" about the female body is banished. The implication about smoking is clear. Enjoyment is at the heart of this new ethos.

What is striking about these ads is that they do not focus upon the product so much as upon the consumer's right to pursue pleasure, a pursuit that requires the overthrow of "Victorian" morality, values, and practices. Nowhere is this clearer than in Modess' "Modernizing Mother" ad campaign of 1929. In looking at the ads, focus upon these questions:

  • What characteristics of the "modern daughter" do the ads hold up for admiration? Be specific.
  • What traits do the ads attribute to "Mother" which her daughter will teach her to overcome? What words do the ads use to describe these traits? Again, be specific.
  • What is the link between youth and modernity? Again, highlight specific characteristics and specific language.
  • How might we use these and other ads as avenues into the culture wars of the 1920s?

A skirmish in more recent Culture Wars

The reaction to John Lennon's comment that the Beatles were "bigger" than Jesus

John Lennon's attempt to explain

Another skirmish

Senator Larry Craig (Rep., Idaho): "Thank you for coming out . . . ."

National Banana claymation video, "I am not gay!"

NOVA Judgement Day, Intelligent Design onTrial. part1

Richard Dawkins' BBC documentary, "The God Delusion" on Ted Haggard

Jesus Camp highlights

Rev. Ted Haggard on Sex and Morality

Lewis Black on Bush, the Bible, and religion

"Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual" by Roy Zimmerman