culture matters: are we facing a crisis of culture?
DESCRIPTION
Notes for discussion in the US in November 2010 about whether the country faces a crisis of culture as well as a political, financial, economic crisis etc. What exactly is a 'crisis of culture'?TRANSCRIPT
Cultures create psyches and psyches create cultures
► Inhabitants of coherent cultures share core narratives, patterns of expectations and behaviors and conceptual frames that pervade every aspect of life
► This worldview defines the psychology--identity and mental capacities or “mind” of the socially desired and successful person
► Locally distinct ways of life simultaneously express, maintain and perpetuate this psychology
► When cultural contexts change or collide, psychologies adapt, transform, or collapse.
Psycho-cultural co-creation
Cultures provide ►Framing to make meaning from the
“buzzing confusion”►Alignment of expectations►Safe management of diversity►Containers and outlets for existential
anxieties►Rules for collaboration►Civilize group behavior (regulate balance
between haves and have nots)►Reinforcement of "internalized reality
maps" to guide individual actions , socialize children and newcomers
The deeper news• Identity • Attention (what we notice)• Perception (what we see)• Motivation (what we strive for)• Meaning making (what we make of it) • Brain development • Emotions that are triggered by experience• Learning (what we retain and associate)• Epistemology (the basis truth claims)• What we know-technical knowledge, concepts,
information, habits, culture• Conceptual strategies and rules for using
accumulated knowledge of humanity
Mental autopilot
►The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change, until we notice how failing to notice shapes out thoughts and deeds .
R.D. Laing.
Harmony
INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
The times they are a changin’
►Now and then there is a sudden and rapid passage to a totally new and more comprehensive type of order or organization, with quite new emergent properties, and involving quite new methods of further evolution.
Julian Huxley, 1st director general of UNESCO 1950
►
Workplace
profession
Ancestors family and progeny
Neighborhood
club
Sexuality
psychology self
personality
Logic, language, culture of socialization, landscape, climate
Religion, beliefs. values
Pol party
Travel experiences
immigration /dislocation
Social/Economic /power status
Education
Training.
Skills
gender race
age
health
Sports club
Adverts
Media
Means of sustenance
Workplace
profession
Ancestors family and progeny
Neighborhood
club
Sexuality
psychology self
personality
nationality language, culture of socialization, landscape, climate
Religion, beliefs. values
Pol party
Travel experiences
immigration
Economic status
Education
Training.
skills
race
age
health
Sports club
Adverts
Media
Sou
rce: T
he G
uard
ian
, sum
mer 2
00
7
Inflection Point
Maladaptive responses
Its about consciousness
►Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which we are headed . . . will be unavoidable. Vaclav Havel (Quoted in Lasley, 1994,p. 3)
Interregnum
► Zygmunt Bauman’ describes a "liquid"
modernity: a state of constantly changing
circumstances and shifting priorities that
make it difficult for individuals to have the
time or frames of reference to organize their
lives under conditions of extreme ambiguity.
"
Questions
1. Are we correct that this is a crisis of culture in the US and not just financial, economic, political etc?
2. What are you seeing or experiencing that makes you feel that is so?
3. Where are the signs of hope?