A revelatory thought I had about “our culture” is that, because of our investigating impulse about the world, we've developed a self-reflexive muscle that allows us to critique ourselves. This is sometimes labeled as “the bad” part of humanities, although I think of it as our salvation so long as we learn how to “look in the mirror.”
Martin Gurri is a writer and former CIA analyst who is promoting the idea that the self-reflexive and critical nature rampant in the “humanities” (which inevitably includes the social sciences, such as history) is the major force which is degrading our culture.
Implicit in the critique of our capacity to re-analyze history is a critique of Michel Foucault, whose work, which included the history of state surveillance, is often attributed to being “structuralist,” which is a methodological approach in the social sciences which interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. Which is to say Foucault likely did not rewrite history, and his work was likely one of the most major influences of the twentieth century on our thought today.
What is a former CIA analyst doing when he critiques the movement in the social sciences to structurally understand the history of the most dangerous institutions of our society - the asylum and the prison?
I remember when I was in college, in an anthropology of religion class, we watched a video about a tribe which practiced ritualized homosexuality and semen ingestion among all members who were not fully grown men: all women and children were required to perform fellatio and ingest semen under the pretense that it was how the men “transferred energy and power” to the lesser people.
We live in the tribe that studies that tribe, and every other tribe. Why can’t we study our own tribe?
I haven' even finished your post yet, because this is a topic that's started troubling me recently. I need to jump in first and then go back and finish what you have to say about it.
I think our cultural decay may be a direct result of this kind of cultural introspection and I have no idea what to do about that. I am absolutely in favor of subjecting everything to scrutiny, but I think part of how cultures function is by proliferating metaphorical truths.
Metaphorical truths, as opposed to literal truths, are ideas that are useful, but false. When people start poking holes in these metaphorical truths, which is not hard because they aren't actually true, the social benefits of holding them are lost.
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I think part of how cultures function is by proliferating metaphorical truths.
Totally agree. For my work as a writer I take it upon myself to seriously analyze fairy tale stories and mythologies to see what those metaphorical truths are. I haven't written at length about it yet, but I actually think "magic" in these traditional fantasy stories is a metaphor for truth-telling.
In The Arabian Nights I've (potentially) identified that there is a morality of magic: those who use magic to change others into what they are not are evil - except for those who need to use the same sort of magic to "bind" those who unfairly transform others. I wonder if this may be a hidden morality of an antecedent of storytelling, gossip - telling the truth and lying (hidden! for these sorts of writers to uncover!)
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, characters at times self-transform to protect themselves; often, these are female characters who transform to protect themselves from unwanted male pursuit. I haven't had a thought about what this may represent except for some sort of hidden history of ourselves.
Another aspect of this I've noted is that if my first observation is true, there are fairy tales which promote certain forms of lying ("glamor magic"), such as Cinderella and particularly the Disney versions of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. However, all of these stories are wrapped up in the ultimate morality about these actions being for the purpose of true love...although it's also sort of funny to wonder if these stories inadvertently promote taking on extreme financial debt in the pursuit of some sort of ideal.
I'll try to write at more length about it at some point.
I've enjoyed our exchanges so far, so I look forward to your conclusions on this subject.
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I'm in to read more about metaphorical truths. They are the ones that created all these systems based on falsehood and fear?
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A lot of them, at least. I’m sure some are based on literal truth.
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There are metaphorical truths in stories that teach high virtues for the individual. My opinion (so far) is that in western fairy tales, the following stories/story types teach some of the highest virtues: Jack the Giant Killer, Simpleton (a story type, see The Golden Goose), and The Princess and the Pea. There are significantly related variations that iterate and build on the themes I like in these stories such as The Giant who had no Heart in his Body and The Goosegirl.
I can give you my interpretations but I’d rather give the story recommendations and see how you feel about them :)
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Anything and everything should be up for honest examination, really.
The problem is that so much of what is "our culture" these days is alien, a mixed up thing, and in my opinion really synthetic.
So any examination should start with that, and uproot everything that has been pushed & propagandized for ages! Especially post Bernays.
Furthermore a healthy examination of any culture should be rooted in living it, that makes sense of everything. Of course its not realistic to literally go back to what was, what I mean is that one should get as close as possible, that way you'll start seeing very clearly why a lot of details and patterns are forming the core of any culture.
Take the Northern cultures as an example, back during the tail end of the Cold War I had some literally cold experiences: doing a year in the army, including a winter North of the Polar Cirle.
Now I'd already grown up in a culture dealing with this, but living for days or even weeks on end in a tent together, all the way down to minus ~40 Celsius/Fahrenheit really made at least me understand far more... On a gut level, I'd say.
I've also been doing some deep dives into cultures I was not born into, but actively and completely living it for some years makes things kinda dawn slowly, all while the myriads of details also are understood & stored in the mind :-)
Rational analysis on its own is even worse than nothing when it comes to things like this!
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The problem is that so much of what is "our culture" these days is alien, a mixed up thing, and in my opinion really synthetic.
What is it you think is really synthetic about our culture? Understanding the history of that thing might lead you to greater clarity.
I think it's pretty cool that you commit yourself to physical traditional living. I do the same thing, although instead of elements exposure, I subject myself to rather rigorous physical training that challenges the myriad of possible expressions of the human form. Instead of solely analyzing traditional approaches to movement and physical expression, however, I take it upon myself to try to understand the varied expressions of the human body based on current understandings of anatomy and exercise science.
I don't know the actual numbers, but if you take into account the number of bones and muscles in the human body, and the different ways they can move, I believe there actually is a "fixed number" which demarcates all the different ways the human body can move. Fascinating! I hope to someday have something like an "optimal aptitude" of these possible physical expressions.
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@SilkyNinja We need more of this self-reflective thought. Everyone is living a high time preference life chasing the next big thing. Because of all this gnat attention span living, we can't look back with confidence and properly reflect on what we did well, what we could have done better & most importantly how we plan for the future.
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We live in the tribe that studies that tribe, and every other tribe. Why can’t we study our own tribe?
Because our tribe functions on human slavery and far worse, and it would be uncomfortable and dangerous to really critique it
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