Sunday, September 20, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Cultural Transformation and Our Personal Lives
Returning to Tuesday's class in which I discussed the dynamics of cultural transformation and how such transformation generally occurs on the fringes of collectivities...
When we encounter the "change makers" in a culture, more often than not they're people who have moved away from the mainstream and sought out ways to think outside the box. Most of us, most of the time, aren't doing that; we're smack dead in the middle of schools of fish carrying us through the well travelled and comfortable waters (that we don't even see as H2O). Einstein wasn't a professor or a student in some top physics program when he envisioned his theories, for example. Those professors would have scoffed at his imaginative discoveries and likely would have lured him into their unimaginative clutches for fear of not belonging. But his independence from the judgement of those he admired allowed him to follow his own call and create a new way of seeing the world.
As I think about all of the sub-cultural groups into which I'm embedded and that cajol me to continue to be a supporting actor in my own life, I'm constantly struck by how much I think inside the boxes that are all around me. I dress like my colleagues; I eat most of the same foods and dishes as others around me; I carry the thoughts that are similar to those of my friends; my music is a mix of the styles to which I've been exposed. That's an interesting example, by the way. I was recently listening to classical Chinese music and it didn't arouse my senses. So I kept listening...and still nothing. Why not? What am I missing by not hearing a synthesis between those melodic tones and the others that clearly appeal to me. I could be sitting on the most intriguing and dynamic fusion of sound that I could ever encounter, one that would open in my mind some amazing breakthrough idea about life -- but I don't hear it because maybe, just maybe I'm too stuck in the center of some familiar cultural system.
I understand that this is normal, that this is inevitable, that this happens to everyone. But I'm searching for dynamic wisdom...for something much larger than myself Maybe that's just me.
Check out this video:
When we encounter the "change makers" in a culture, more often than not they're people who have moved away from the mainstream and sought out ways to think outside the box. Most of us, most of the time, aren't doing that; we're smack dead in the middle of schools of fish carrying us through the well travelled and comfortable waters (that we don't even see as H2O). Einstein wasn't a professor or a student in some top physics program when he envisioned his theories, for example. Those professors would have scoffed at his imaginative discoveries and likely would have lured him into their unimaginative clutches for fear of not belonging. But his independence from the judgement of those he admired allowed him to follow his own call and create a new way of seeing the world.
As I think about all of the sub-cultural groups into which I'm embedded and that cajol me to continue to be a supporting actor in my own life, I'm constantly struck by how much I think inside the boxes that are all around me. I dress like my colleagues; I eat most of the same foods and dishes as others around me; I carry the thoughts that are similar to those of my friends; my music is a mix of the styles to which I've been exposed. That's an interesting example, by the way. I was recently listening to classical Chinese music and it didn't arouse my senses. So I kept listening...and still nothing. Why not? What am I missing by not hearing a synthesis between those melodic tones and the others that clearly appeal to me. I could be sitting on the most intriguing and dynamic fusion of sound that I could ever encounter, one that would open in my mind some amazing breakthrough idea about life -- but I don't hear it because maybe, just maybe I'm too stuck in the center of some familiar cultural system.
I understand that this is normal, that this is inevitable, that this happens to everyone. But I'm searching for dynamic wisdom...for something much larger than myself Maybe that's just me.
Check out this video:
Sunday, September 6, 2009
What Are They Thinking?
In this electronic image of a poster with head shots of U.S. Presidents, take a look at the "photo" that was selected for Obama. Let me help you. Check out the lower right-hand corner. The image was a joke sent out in an email by an aide in the Tennessee state legislature. I think you can assume that the aid was a GOP staff member--but don't be fooled to think that there are no Democratic aides that would make a similar blunder.This goes into the file labeled, "What in the world were they thinking?" I'm torn between assuming, on one hand, that the people who end up in this file are just a few knuckleheads AND that this is emblematic of the depth of racism in our society on the other. (People really do seem to make a lot of racist jokes...or so I've heard.)
Here's another one for the file.
Shortly after the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Boston police officer and member of the Massachusetts National Guard sent out an email--and to lots of people, I should add--in which he called Gates a "banana eating jungle monkey." Ouch.
By the way, there is a sub-folder in this file that is titled "What the F are they thinking?" and this one probably goes there. The police office, Captain Justin Barrett (he's not a twenty year old rookie), asserted that he felt remorse and was sorry for the email and that he is not racist because, afterall, he has friends from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. "It was a poor choice of words," Barrett said. "I didn't mean it in a racist way. I treat everyone with dignity and respect."
Can I disentangle this just a bit. It seems to me that if I went to a KKK meeting and asked someone in a hood to define "negro," they just might say something like, "Negro? Why yes, son, that would be a 'banana eating jungle monkey'." What else would they possibly say that would be acceptable to the racist hoards waiting to reclaim the country from the brown skinned barbarians?
Here's another one for the WTF file:
Unfortunately, this guy only had the funds to pay an entry level, mail order public relations clean-up person and so he couldn't come up with something more convincing than blaming it on supporters of Charles Darwin. That was a pathetic attempt to spin this slip and it went nowhere. My god, brother, have some respect for our intellect.
I find myself saying some pretty off-the-hook things at random moments and yet I never seem to slip into this level of racist banter. I guess since I don't have the thoughts, the words never leave my lips. But I have to wonder if this how many of us think in our private moments. And then when these private moments get loose in the public domain, they spin about until we're all dizzy with the feeling of impending dread of having to suffer another media circus.
Sometimes the "attack of the racists" goes a bit too far -- like the condemnation of the poor schmuck who a few years back correctly and unwisely used "niggardly" in a meeting among colleagues. He got hammered pretty hard because his office mates didn't know what the word meant. (Of course, he might have been baiting them because without the "dly" the word is pronounced just like the N-bomb.)
Other times, however, I suspect that people who engage in what is so obviously offensive and racist behavior clearly deserve what they get. "We don't give a damn if it's part of your cultural heritage; we don't do that any more." Sure there can be a very fine line between these two reactions, and I don't want to be the judge of who crosses it. But sometimes enough if enough.
Friday, September 4, 2009
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