Credibility |
Ours is an age wholly lacking in credibility. From a political point of view that could lead to some dire things since into that breach come the comedians, entertainers, and conmen. Statesmen have no place in such an age. However, for the creative types the age presents a sort of rare liberation. There is no authority. The greatest critic is probably a madman in disguise who has found an excellent gig for himself.
It is far more likely that a cartoon character would be elected President these days, than a Lincoln or Jefferson. As a result little of significance gets done, the people languish, and the only vitality is in capital, technology, and science. There's no credible culture to speak of.
TS Eliot is exhalted in one age and pulled down to earth in the next; pulled around the walls of the city by an angry feminist essayist disguised as Achilles, her breast removed so she may swing the ax ever more fiercely. This is an age the creative type tries to find the delicate line between ignoring the "time" while focusing on the central themes. It could be that the "times" aren't even aware of those themes as yet.
One of those themes is the conflict between power and conscience.
Another theme is this: The struggle between belief systems and pragmatism. We've seen the complete submersion of practical intelligence into belief systems of every stripe. This has very dire consequences for the health of the culture, esp. when it's evident that the academic, intellectual area went head over heels for the belief system. So a generation of free men and women don't know how things work. They don't know how systems work. They don't understand the necessity to separate belief from practical solutions. And it comes down to this: Surrendering to a belief system is far easier than learning how things work and principles of construction. Belief systems are a dime a dozen but when they perceive they are struggling for the center of power a cannibalism breaks out.
Whereas the difficult thing is to build and make and know. These things propel the mind out of its predictable patterns. Obviously, many shades appear in real life in the contest between belief and knowledge. But it's an excellent theme nonetheless. Especially since the critical crowd is part of the problem. That should give creative types some incentive. They are free of all strings.
A democratic culture is dependent on the citizens seeking information, knowledge, and wisdom. Without that they will seek blind faith and, eventually, try to wipe out their faith-enemies. When confronted with an event the citizen has to have enough vitality to understand the event, its history and complexity, and marginalize those who take up, immediately, a one-dimensional view. In our time it's just the opposite. Those with the one-dimensional view clash at the center, usually murdering truth and understanding along the way. The knowledgeable citizen becomes extinct and is replaced by a mass mind that is fractured along predictable lines. The knowledgeable citizen is then morphed into the specialist who can deliver good information, good technology, and excellent stock advice. There's no ability, then, to "know the whole" of what encompasses the person. A kind of eternal alienation follows and will, inevitably, reap some whirlwind down the road.
There's no reason to speak of to get involved in the problems of the culture until a person has a reasonable view of what it is. What is the culture in its totality? What are it's systems? What are its histories? What are its arts and literatures? What are it's regions? Start to answer these questions and then see if a new politics arises.
David Eide
January 24, 2014