Postmodernism detaches human beings from tradition, communities, and place and reduces human existence to a series of meaningless sexual, material and psychological transactions that have no deeper meaning.

Almost 40 years ago, in the midst of the Vietnam war and violent student and street unrest, James Kilpatrick penned a column in which he desperately asked what was happening to the heartland of his country.

Millions of Americans cannot be blamed if they are asking the same question this week as the events in Blacksburg, Virginia become known. Having once lived in Blacksburg, and having walked the beautiful campus there many times, the shock is magnified for me. This is a quiet, rural community cast against a serene Blue Ridge Mountain backdrop. It is one of the last places one would expect such violence.

And yet, I write these words knowing that this has become a sad refrain that no longer accurately reflects the state or health of our nation. “Who could believe it would happen here? Who could believe this person would do this? He seemed normal and well-adjusted?” So goes the litany of cliches.

Surely, we have no right anymore to be shocked about violence that has been spiraling out of control for many years. It is time collectively to stop pretending these events are aberrant and start realizing that there are serious issues in our culture that need our concentrated resources and energy.

We must start with the basic question: why are acts of violence occurring with increasing volatility in America? Is it, as European critics claim, an American fascination with guns and violence, a vestige of our “Wild West” heritage? Perhaps this plays a part, but then the perpetrator of these crimes was from South Korea and surely was not shaped solely by American culture. The Columbine criminals did not worship American culture, but the worst elements of European culture - Nazism. The criminal who wrought havoc against more than a half-dozen Amish girls last year lived in one of the most peaceful communities in the world.

There are those who would argue that the blame lies with Hollywood and a news culture whose criticism of gun rights advocates is well known and yet who bombard our networks and airwaves with violent images not because of any concern for Constitutional rights, but to make cheap profits, often at the expense of common decency and proportionality. Brent Bozell, at the Media Research Center, recently announced that violence on television has increased dramatically in recent years, in spite of ongoing pleas from responsible quarters that it be tempered.

Some conservatives, myself included, lay part of the blame on the decline of traditional communities and religious culture. The appetite for violence and sexual imagery flows directly out of a postmodern tradition that - as critic Perry Anderson observed - denies the validity of the traditional narratives that shaped civilization for centuries. Postmodern thought detaches people from religious narratives, rejects the enlightenment tradition, and even distances itself from leftist ideologies, which for all its flaws attempted to build a working class and class conflict narrative that people could comprehend.

Postmodernism - as it takes shape in art, movies, television and literature - detaches human beings from tradition, communities, and place and reduces human existence to a series of meaningless sexual, material and psychological transactions that have no deeper meaning. Postmodernism embraces materialism and nihilism and denies the spiritual dimension of human existence. The authors who are increasingly shaping the narrative of our modern popular culture are not students of our Judeo-Christian or Enlightenment tradition, but rather are a fringe group of ideologues and artists who have embraced violence and nihilism as the spirit of the modern age. Nietzsche begets Freud who begets Sartre, who begets Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarrantino, and Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, all of whom (and many others) churn out movies that are sadistic, cruel and unrelentingly dark.

Whatever the cultural backdrop that is shaping individuals, it is clear that American culture is coming unglued and it is deeply troubling that our political and media leadership have failed to put aside personal power agendas to push this nation in the right direction. Conservatives, captives of the NRA, refuse to engage in a needed discussion about proper gun control. The Constitution protects our right to bear arms, but it does not prohibit common sense laws that take weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of the average citizen or the renegade criminal. Assault rifles, automatic weapons, armor piercing weaponry - there is no rational or justifiable reason for these weapons to be available on the public market. Period. Just ask the law enforcement officials who confront such weapons on our street.

Likewise, the culture of victimology brought to us by the Left has reduced us to what Robert Hughes has called a culture of complaint, a nation of mindless consumers. Langston Hughes wrote that the American dream deferred explodes. One begins to wonder if our wealth and luxury, twisted beyond recognition by relentless greed and consumption and so easily acquired by the most deviant elements of our culture, is not a contributing factor to these acts of violence.

Our young people are bombarded by images of wealth, power, and sex. Yet, they lack basic spiritual and religious tutoring that would enable them to keep these things in perspective. When they find “the dream” out of their grasp, do they turn to mindless violence in an attempt to strike back at a society that has failed to guarantee their success or happiness? Surely, they are brainwashed daily to believe that all of this is their right. The notion of working hard, earning, saving, sweating, praying - this is the missing reality in our postmodern narrative.

Americans desperately need to reassert traditional values of decency and we need to take back the airwaves from deviants of all kinds - right and left. We need to replace a culture of victimhood with a culture of responsibility. Until we do so, our culture will continue to create little monsters angry at a society that promises them everything but - in their minds - delivers nothing of lasting value. And stories like the one that occurred in Blacksburg will become chapters in the unfolding story of the decline of America.

Posting Rules:1. IC intends to allow as many comments as possible to appear on the website. 2. IC reserves the right to delete comments which are profane, racist, or ad hominem attacks. 3. Certain comments are flagged for review by the website software. Most of these comments will be posted to the website after review by the moderator. There may be a short delay before such comments appear on the website. Repeat violators will be banned from the website.

This is cache, read story here