‘Who’s Fighting and for What?’: Finding a Use for the Culture Wars

As we look at the culture wars of our own time with their ranks of implacable antagonists, Zinn urges us to pursue beloved community, not through avoiding conflict, but through a better, more discerning practice of conflict. Conflict is not the problem. The problem stems from styles of conflict which lack charity, and from tactics of conflict which neglect “the tools of liberal study,” among other things. Through reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address,” Zinn illustrates the potential of tools of liberal study, including “critical thinking, historical understanding,” and “an appreciation for the variety of ideas.”