Kulturbarer

Who are we?

Where are we going?

What is the mark that our culture, and our generation will leave behind?

As a culture, we appear to be torn in opposite directions, confused, conflicted, stuck in the midst of an enormous paradox. We're obsessed with violence, war, tragedy, and chaos, while we try to lead our lives in the direction of protection, peace, security, and safety. I'm not saying anything new here; we see it and hear it everyday, in music, movies, television, and worst of all the news. We censor more and more, limiting what we allow ourselves and our children to see, hear, and be exposed to, and yet we ourselves, can't seem to turn away from it.

We shield our eyes and our bodies (we censor our fiction, create curfews, legalize unwarranted search and seizure, and pass laws about bicycles helmets and seatbelts), and yet cannot seem to resist the temptation to peak through our fingers at the all too real life horrors that life offers(be they images of the war, aerial shots of areas ravaged by hurricanes and earthquakes, or videos of a family torn down by the murder of a loved one at the corner of Peace St and MLK Blvd) and not so real dramatizations we create to mimic them. So I ask: Who are we? Where are we going? What is the mark that our culture, and our generation will leave behind?

I recently finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorocycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, and while I've not yet full processed the novel in order to comment on it directly (though it's certianly a remarkable book and if you haven't read it, you should), I'd like to share a few thoughts regarding the Afterword. I'll have several posts addressing the Afterword in terms of two issues it discusses. For the moment I'd like to focus on culture, what defines it, what moves it forward, and how this relates to our current situation.

There is a Swedish word, kulturbarer, which can roughly be translated as
"culture-bearer" but still doesn't mean much. It's not a concept that has much
American use, although it should have.

A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one
should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books occur almost
accidentally, like a sudden change in the stock market. There are books of high
quality that are an important part of the culture, but that is not the same.
They are a part of it. They aren't carrying it anywhere.

Pirsig hits the mark in saying that the entire notion of a culture-barer has little American use, though it certainly should. The critical point in all this, is the recognition that culture changes; it's not a fixed entity, written in stone for all of history, constant from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, we as Americans don't tend to like the idea of a changing culture. We resist change more than we should, and in doing so, fail to understand the causes of the changes we see. We have a collective "when I was your age" mentality, and always aim to go back to the way things were before, when politicians were honest, children were safe, and elders were respected. Of course, the only way to go back is to go forward, for what other way is there?

Ok, so here we are, 200+ years after the "birth" of our country and the formation of its initial nacent culture (and by that I mean the Constistution, the notion of the American Dream, and of Democracy, and all such well and good things). So what is our culture? What is being American all about? Well, it's about upholding the Constitution (and taking prayer out of schools, or fighting to put it back it in, and the Scopes Monkey Trial, and Roe v. Wade, and the Bill of Rights) and it's about the American Dream (and the "melting pot," and segregation--both mandated and "cultural," and rising up from rags to riches, and trickle down economics, and child labor, and child labor laws) and it's about Democracy (and how it is sooooo great for everyone to have a say that we should force it on all nations around the world, without giving them a say).

So what's the point? The point is, our culture has changed and is changing and will continue to change, whether we like to admit it or not. The American Dream is not what it once was, and the Constitution doesn't necessarily mean the same things it used to (that's why Justices are supposed to interpret and not just uphold the law), and our Democracy is really a Republic, always has been, and that's probably not changing, so get used to the fact that politicians weren't honest, aren't honest, and won't be honest--we're stuck with 'em.

The question really is, how will everything that's happening right now impact our culture and in what direction will it move? Who wins the cultural tug-of-war? Do we accept all for one and one morality for all? Or do we value diversity, and personal choice? Do we continue to live in fear, on heightened alert, and try to vaccinate ourselves against every evil? Or do we open our doors and let in the good and the bad that the rest of the world has to offer, take some risks, and say "maybe there is more to living than simply being alive." What is it about life that we actually value? Are we here for nothing more than to allow our heart to beat for a given period of time (which will be as long as we can possibly manage to sustain it, by any means necessary, regardless of what the rest of our body has to say about the matter?

These are the questions that we as Americans must begin to answer, because we cannot continue the tug-of-war that we're currently in. We are a country divided, and we have to find the middle ground. But don't worry, we've been here before:

The book also appeared at a time of cultural upheaval on the matter of material
success. Hippies were having none of it. Conservatives were baffled. material
success was the American dream. Millions of European peasants had longed for it
all their lives and come to America to find it--a world in which they are their
descendants would at last have enough. Now their spoiled descendants were
throwing that whole dream in their faces, saying iit wasn't any good. What did
they want?

The hippies had in mind something that they wanted, and were
calling it "freedom." but in the final analysis "freedom" is a purely negative
goal. It just says something is bad. Hippies weren't really offering any
alternatives other than colorful short-term ones, and some of those were looking
more and more like pure degeneracy. Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep
up as a serious lifetime occupation.

It is cultural upheaval that brings cultural change. In the 1970s when Zen was published, the upheaval was over the American notion of success. Two conflicting cultural forces were putting their energy into controlling external forces. The "traditional" culture controlled success by setting the acquisition of material (read: external) things as the main measure of success. The "hippies" asserted freedom as their goal, exhibiting their control over the external world by refusing to succumb to its control.

Pirsig's solution was internal. Success is the ability to connect with what you do. Success is an internal attitude toward the work you do, and the external rewards will fall inline. "Success" is a means, not and end.If you act successfully, the rest of the American dream will follow.

I think we're in the midst of a similar cultural upheaval. This time we are confronting, not success, but fear. Our current "traditional" culture tells us to protect ourselves from our fears. Don't let the external get to us: Wear helmets, label everything with warnings, don't talk to strangers, stay safe by using metal detectors and security searches. The current "rebelious" culture tells us to confront our fears head on, and defeat them. The external world can take it's best shot, we're up to the challege: Play extreme sports, watch as Steve Irwin wrestles with crocodiles and snakes, and as the contestants on Fear Factor flex their "courage," fight a "war on terror" to show them we're not afraid.

I want to offer an alternative to these attitudes. Like Pirsig, I want to offer an internal solution. Recognize that fears are internal--not an external force to be protected against or to challenge. In fact, fears are the emotional antithesis to hope. Fear is characterized by an internal focus on the negative or harmul side of what is possible. Hope is characterized by an internal focus on the positive or life-giving side of what is possible. The choice between fear and hope is and internal attitude adjustment. We cannot live without Fear, but we can also not afford to continue to be fixated on it.

Where Pirsig offered the notion of Quality of experience (you'll have to read the book for the full explanation) as an alternative to the notion that success (and failure) are external or material, I'd like to offer Choice as an alternative to the idea that fear is an external force we must deal with. We can Chose to be Fearful and Hopeless, or to be Hopeful and Fearless.

I'm not offering Hope as an alternative to Fear (for that is not new anymore than success as an alternative to failure was new to Pirsig's audience), but rather Choice as an alternative to slavery. Fear is not something to fight against, because if we do we fight aginst ourselves. We cannot as a people allow our fears to continue to overwhelm us and take us hostage. We must chose Hope.

This book [Zen] offers another, more serious alternative to
material success. it's not so much an alternative as an expansion of the
meaning of "success" to something larger than just getting a good job and
staying out of trouble. And also something larger than mere freedom.
it gives a positive goal to work toward that does not confine. That is the
main reason for the book's success, I think. the whole culture happened to
be looking for exactly what this book has to offer. That is the sense in
which it is a culture-bearer.

So what does this mean for our culture? Probably nothing. Personally, I'd love to see the culture shift and take on the attitude that our experience of fear is a choice. I'd love to see us focus more on our Hope for what Good we may offer as a collective whole to the rest of the world, rather than focus solely on our Fear of the Bad that the world may offer us and on protecting ourselves from it. Will we make that choice? Only time will tell.