ABSTRACT
Our purpose in this essay is to explore the applicability of four concepts we have found useful in our recent analyses of dynamic processes in American culture, particularly recent radical rhetoric and action, as they affect education. The concepts are: the American Cultural Dialogue; types of adaptation to disruptive culture change; White ethniclass; and cultural therapy (G.and L.Spindler, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994). The American Cultural Dialogue, we will discuss shortly; Types of Adaptation refer to such processes as synthesis of opposing cultural elements, withdrawal, and reaffirmation, engaged in by populations experiencing radical culture change; White Ethniclass refers to the European-American majority and its ethnicity; and Cultural Therapy has to do with a process of reflection on one’s own cultural biases. We will put recent ideological and political turmoil, particularly the attacks on established institutions issuing from sources ranging from fringe groups such as the Montana militia to respectable Republicans, into a broad but integrated sociocultural perspective using these concepts as the framework for analysis. We will conclude by discussing the implications of the turmoil for school programs utilizing cultural therapy. This is a biased paper written from a liberal point of view.
