Category: Culture

Dipping into the classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, published by Dale Carnegie in 1936 alongside his hugely successful personal development courses, it’s fascinating to realise how much people value skill and insight within their relationships.

Much as life might be about money, security and power, it’s clearly also about social connection. That there was such an appetite for greater interpersonal awareness within the field of adult education is intriguing; as if this were perhaps overlooked in youth, taken for granted rather than actively passed on, or that life itself were demanding more from people.

But then, these things can seem deceptively easy: we’re born into physical existence, there are generally people around us, we learn to communicate somehow, and then we’re muddling our way through relationships with varying degrees of insight, awareness or skill. I’d imagine many people might reach the point of stepping back to realise they didn’t know as much about this as they’d thought or hoped.

Even before we were catapulted into the murky, poorly-defined world of modern technology, it’s conceivable our frameworks for communication might’ve been a little tired, flawed or unexamined. Knowing how to relate – reach beyond the boundary of our own existence, experience, understanding to confidently encounter others – is something to learn if life’s to run smoothly (see Notes One).

And, as far as books on communication skills go, this one stands up fairly well to the passing of time. The essentials of human nature perhaps don’t age? The forms things are taking clearly do, but the essence of what it means to relate might be timeless.

As humans hoping to benefit from communal ties, the need to ‘get along’ has arguably always been there. Social structures and conventions may’ve once held things fairly tightly; whereas these days we’re facing quite a free-for-all. Which is great. But I would’ve thought it necessitates a pretty high level of understanding and skill to navigate well? And, how we define ‘well’ might matter a lot.

Carnegie’s guidance drifts from fundamentals of ‘handling people’ and being likeable, through to winning others to your way of thinking or leading them toward change. While I’ve discussed my reservations around persuasion or coercion elsewhere, these are undeniably some core functions of communication that we perhaps need to make peace with (Notes Two).

“Give honest and sincere appreciation”. “Encourage others to talk about themselves”. “Show respect for the other person’s opinions”. To modern minds, these might seem formulas for subservient listening; but, if everyone did so, presumably that balances out? Equally, the weight Carnegie gave to notions of respect, honesty and sincerity may seem anachronistic or calculated; but maybe they’re hallmarks of genuine relationship.

If life gives us our ideas, and ideas make their ways through words into the lives of others, then learning to approach that so relationships and the sharing of ideas can be healing revelations rather than confronting attacks seems so incredibly important. Approaching each other with mutual interest, respect, and compassion might be quite essential.

Notes and References:

“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, (Simon & Schuster), 1936.

Note 1: Seeing, knowing and loving
Note 1: Mirrors we offer one another
Note 1: Relating to one another
Note 2: Conversation as revelation
Note 2: Attempts to influence
Note 2: What we bring to life
Note 2: The way to be

Culture can be viewed as all the ways we try to make sense of life; all these responses we have to existence in terms of how we think about it, the kind of things we see as appropriate or admirable, the feelings we have and choices we’re making about how to be within the world.

And it’s interesting, because we can clearly lose ourselves in that world: we can get drawn in so deep that our lives become ‘about’ those who are representing all these things for us. We can become obsessed with observing, deconstructing, commenting on the realities of that realm; caught up in pursuing or imitating what we admire and wish we could become.

Which is what it is. It draws people together over this affinity for themes, expressions, qualities we love or feel resonate most deeply with our own existence and views. Culture, after all, can serve to unite us (see Notes One). And we could indeed make that our identity, taking those reference points and turning them into the constellation of who we are.

It’s a fascinating, reciprocal process of reflection and identification: culture taking aspects of our lives and handing them back to us in different forms. It’s almost society’s looking glass, as we see ourselves perhaps mirrored or distorted through these mediums (Notes Two). This layer of creativity as we play with the forms of our lives, the standards and expectations, meeting or subverting them to see what can be made of it all.

And in many ways that does offer identity. Through seeing how we fit within society’s cultural conversation we see how others might see us, ways life is depicted, options available and how they might play out. This arena for making sense of things, working through them hypothetically, and deciding where we stand in relation to what’s happening there.

The idea of this being a place where society plays itself out intrigues me. Because at some point that’s genuine and then it’s illusion; authenticity blends with pretence as people adopt roles, play parts, and present things from a certain angle. These spokespeople or role models for how we might live, images we might recreate, ways we might act or relate.

Over the years, then becoming this rolling conversation between generations: past moments uniting us as we share responses to these common experiences. This layered, self-referential flow of events we’re all somehow related to. From ancient civilisations through to modern pop culture, there’s phenomena we can all talk about.

But with that comes this sense in which we’re expected to keep pace with the global outpouring of cultural content, that being human means going along with all this and forming opinions around it (Notes Three). At some point, we might wish to limit our exposure to constant flows of commercial innovation in order to live more sane and manageable lives.

There’s obviously great value to cultural life, but knowing where life ends and illusion begins is an intriguing reality to grapple with.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Busking as a gift
Note 1: Cultural shifts & taking a backseat
Note 1: Plato & “The Republic”
Note 1: Missing something with modern culture?
Note 1: “The Measure of a Man”
Note 2: Truth, illusion & cultural life
Note 2: How many aren’t well represented?
Note 3: Value in being informed
Note 3: Will novelty ever wear off?
Note 3: Playing with fire?

Over time, I’d imagine any pattern of behaviour begins to create a groove – an atmosphere; a sense of intention or complacency; a static friction, perhaps, of accumulated focus. As we live our lives, those things we do becoming these established channels of thought, repetition and consequence through the choices we’re making and our commitment to them.

Like those places of ritual or worship, where people over the centuries have walked certain paths and filled certain places with thoughts of devotion; running their minds along these established tracks of contemplation. Places that can come to have a special feeling about them, perhaps the result of the sustained manner in which they’ve been occupied.

You can even see where people’s feet or knees have literally worn away stone through the insistence of their presence. As with the proverbs about dust turning into mountains or drops forming oceans, there’s this sense in which small accumulating gestures can develop great strength over the years; working away at things we might’ve thought were immovable or impossible to achieve.

But then, sometimes, such places get repurposed for drinking or housing and there’s almost this jarring sense of dissonance at a building built and occupied with the mindset of collective reflection suddenly having a very different purpose in mind. Centuries of one kind of devotion being replaced with quite different vibes and patterns of activity or intent.

Which is meant as an observation more than a complaint – a sign of the times, perhaps. Because, of course, things change. Ways of being that’ve sustained countries, cultures, civilisations, or communities for years can presumably fade out rather quickly if the coming generations don’t see their value or decide to maintain them in some new form. Anything that’s worth isn’t recognised clearly risks being left by the wayside.

As times change, our ways of being arguably need to change with them: repeating worn out actions that bear little relation to the world around you doesn’t really stand to reason. Sometimes, insisting on doing things as you always have can be a mistake. Understanding what’s valuable within what we inherit from the past seems a fascinating challenge (see Notes One).

Because, if appreciating something comes from understanding it, do we run the risk of discarding incredibly worthwhile things simply by not taking the time to come to know them? It seems an important question; especially given the overwhelming distractions of our times. What if we’re missing out on things, breaking up essential structures or patterns of relationship because we don’t see their value? What if we’re mistaken?

I’m purely thinking hypothetically here – theoretically, conceptually, rather than specifically – but what if the thoughts we think, the ways we’re acting, how we relate to one another, all the patterns we’re building up with our lives really matter?

Sometimes I’m really not sure where my writing’s headed, wandering off along these pathways I can barely see through the undergrowth. At times that might take me somewhere imminently worthwhile, even if I’m still unsure where.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Seeing, knowing and loving
Note 1: Letting go of “who you are”
Note 1: All that’s going on around us
Note 1: Cost and convenience
Note 1: History’s role in modern culture
Note 1: How things change

Other ideas around the topic of change were the focus of Can we reinvigorate how we’re living?

In life, moments can stop you in your tracks. Perhaps moments of shock, of complete confusion as to what people were thinking or the ‘wisdom’ informing certain actions or patterns of behaviour. Perhaps moments of beauty, of recognition that there’s wonderful potential dwelling within us as humans nestled into society.

In all life’s richness, there must be many moments that can offer up either reaction: nature’s generally pretty good at it; human nature also; and then there’s culture (see Notes One).

Sometimes I wonder what culture is (Notes Two). Although, of course, it can be defined with activities neatly categorised under its subheadings: ideas, customs, attitudes, beliefs; language and social behaviour; arts and intellectual achievements. Doing so, you’d likely get a pretty thorough ‘picture’ of culture as the thoughts we weave around life, the social and artistic activities we’re engaged in.

It’s just this absolutely massive picture. These days, there’s not only the ever-evolving richness of our own modern culture, growing seamlessly, as it does, from our understanding of the past; there’s also this ever-present awareness of the diversity of other cultures, and all the ways that’s feeding into this constant flow of human innovation and creativity.

It’s also now so individualistic: each wanting to define ourselves, to be a cultural phenomenon in our own right as this personality, brand or character in our life’s drama. From this limitless global palette, we can each craft a personal response through where we stand on any given issue. Surely a picture of both richness and division? Everything, and our thing.

Trying to distil complexities into more simple solutions is interesting. Because, watching someone play saxophone to a crowded shopping street, it’s clear that music in particular has this power to unite beyond our inevitable divisions (Note Three).

Everyone has their preferences, their memories, their cultural and generational experiences of genres or artists. A skilled musician can, apparently, blend references from the past and present, from different cultures, times and places, into a joyful and coherent flow with a quality all of its own. Things can be blended into beautiful celebrations of the present moment.

Anecdotally, live music has that capacity for engulfing everyone in this cloud of experience: uniting people through their own unique yet shared moment of emotion, memory, anticipation. The air can tingle with this mix of intention, recognition, appreciation that’s invisible to the naked eye.

And, of course, the musician plays because they want to. Likely because they love music, its performance, the atmosphere it can create. But I’d imagine if they thought only of themselves they’d be less successful? These things need an audience, and if you alienate rather than include you’re probably not going to create that social space people want to be part of.

Which is coming down to this question of what we’re creating through culture, through our social behaviour and those attitudes embodied within it all: how we blend things, the reality that’s becoming, and how well individual inclinations might meet within common spaces.

Notes and References:

Note 1: The human spirit
Note 1: Nature speaks in many ways, do we listen?
Note 2: Masks we all wear
Note 2: Cultural shifts & taking a backseat
Note 2: Truth, illusion & cultural life
Note 3: Music and its power to inspire

Casting an eye to how we come to understand those things which are new to us was the focus of Seeing, knowing and loving.

One of obviously many things I find both interesting and important is the ways in which culture blends into our personal and social realities: how stories told there often merge into our ideas of life, how to be or relate, the things we buy and lifestyles we seek to emulate. Through that, we’re seemingly seeking meaning in life through social participation, identity, and those cultural moments we’re choosing to align ourselves with.

In many ways, it’s beautiful. This dance we all do as humans? The ways we’re constantly watching what’s going on, deciding how we feel about it, then going out of our way to transform ourselves in the light of what we perceive as valuable or admirable. It’s amazing really, the creativity of the human mind in playing with all the visual markers thrown our way by cultural institutions (see Notes One).

That last sentence clearly twisted somewhere in the middle. Unintentionally, but sometimes my words take on a life of their own. There’s truth to it though, as I do feel our very human creative and social inclinations are being drawn into quite another world. Whether that’s intentional, and the degree to which it’s a healthy, fulfilling, constructive way of operating as a society is perhaps something only time will tell.

It seems to me that culture’s the place we weave our narratives around our lives. Narratives that sometimes pick up threads from the present or imagine threads from the past, pulling social or historical realities into this other realm to explore them further. Narratives that sometimes take themes or issues from our world then cast them in new lights, often in hypothetical or imaginary worlds that arrange our pieces in different ways.

Culture seems to have this wonderful way of rearranging things: bringing in fresh meaning through juxtaposition, through placing the familiar or unfamiliar in unusual relationship, drawing our inner world of connotations into strange or inspiring places. Now life’s happening on this global scale, there’s conceivably almost endless forms such activities could take by pulling in threads from every time and place (Notes Two).

But, with regard to reality, are we in danger of casting truth aside in preference for neater, more compelling or convenient narratives? History and society being complex, weighty and often dark, it may be appealing to simplify or offset that by re-working things to suit modern sensibilities or agendas. Within that, where does truth stand? Only by knowing the truth would we see the illusion.

If society’s something we have to understand, then filling our minds with potent yet unrealistic ideas could be seen as problematic (Notes Three). If we can grasp the ‘code’ – ways social realities are being represented, plus their true form – then presumably the reworkings of culture are without such great significance: we would see them for what they are.

As with anything, maybe the answer lies in our understanding? In knowing what we’re looking for, what we’re needing, and what it is that’s being offered through these channels.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Meaning in culture
Note 1: Cultural shifts & taking a backseat
Note 1: Revisiting the question of culture
Note 2: History’s role in modern culture
Note 2: Entertaining ideas & the matter of truth
Note 2: Will novelty ever wear off?
Note 3: Plato & “The Republic”
Note 3: Playing with fire?

Picking back up that earlier thought of humanity’s beautiful dance, there was The creativity of living.

It was amusing a few years back when British TV broadcast “Watership Down” over the Easter weekend; as if ‘anything’ featuring animated rabbits was bound to go down well at that time of year. I’d imagine though that it’s one of those films many have accidentally watched, forgetting quite how powerfully dark it was. But, all that aside, both the book and film surely convey some pertinent lessons to keep in mind?

Ultimately, it’s a story about survival, safety and freedom. Also, the position of individuals within their social grouping and the consideration offered for their gifts and insights as much as their age and relative weight, socially or physically. Essentially, about power structures and how well they serve the preservation of society as a whole and the respectful inclusion of everyone.

This sense of understanding your wider reality, trusting your ability to read the signs or listen to gut instincts, must be key to the survival of any community? Whether we’re talking rabbits, local government or national policies, the need to picture how things fit together and anticipate likely outcomes seems fairly essential to long-term, sustainable futures (see Notes One).

Which is why it’s seeming such a wonderful book for the modern day: running through all these potential social, political, interpersonal scenarios whereby individual or collective survival might be threatened externally or by misguided, risky or repressive methods of organising our lives. This way in which the characters must evaluate potential solutions, using the insights of each one, in order to create the reality they dream of.

It’s also an interesting allegory in that Fiver, in particular, is able to sense the darker intentions surrounding them: ways human activity threatens their safety; ways their own social frameworks might render them passive, compliant or complicit; or ways danger might be used as a justification for oppression from within. As an exploration of the ‘realities’ of communities of individuals existing within the bigger picture of their environment it’s fairly comprehensive and insightful.

Yet, in all this, it somehow manages to remain impartial. Although there are political comparisons to be drawn, and a nod to spiritual or religious attitudes to life, it keeps apart from the more divisive labels of the human world to focus instead on underlying ‘truths’ such as freedom, trust, listening, respect, courage (Notes Two).

And, on a completely separate – though possibly not unrelated – note, there’s real familiarity with nature that stands out through details of landscape, flora and fauna. Deep understanding and empathy for lived realities of the animal world seems almost quaint now, but the idea of living sympathetically alongside nature, rather than seeing it only from our perspective, is surely important for us as much as for them? (Note Three)

With fiction, I’m generally wanting ‘value’ to being immersed in an imaginary world: that it’ll add to my understanding of life, giving insight that’ll help in grasping things more clearly so constructive paths can be found. In many ways, this offers a great example of that.

Notes and References:

“Watership Down” by Richard Adams, (Penguin Books/Kestrel Books, GB), 1972. Film version written, produced & directed by Martin Rosen (1978).

Note 1: The philosopher stance
Note 1: Complexity of life
Note 1: Dystopia as a powerful ideal
Note 2: How we feel about society
Note 2: Freedom, what to lean on & who to believe
Note 2: Counselling, listening & social identity
Note 3: Nature speaks in many ways, do we listen?

Alongside this, The idea of self reliance also picked away at the threads of self, community, and what we all bring to life.

Culture clearly goes back thousands of years, with all the ways civilisations have reflected upon and sought to shape their ways of life. It’s a fascinating thought: that stories have accompanied humans all along their path to the present day. How much that process has informed and altered society or individuals is presumably unfathomable to fully comprehend.

And I’ve talked of culture a few times here, musing over its functions within human society and for the individual discovery of meaning or purpose in life (see Notes One). The idea of this as a ‘tending’ of what’s required seems interesting to me, as if cultural forms are as seeds we plant or flames we fan to life in order to sustain what’s needed, productive or helpful.

In that light though, where’s this leading? How can we be sure that the ideas we’re entertaining are wise, the right way to go about resolving things or fostering the attitudes necessary for modern society? Can we trust that our current embodiment of this ancient practice is running along the same lines rather than accidentally enhancing what it’s hoping to eradicate?

We might argue that we’re simply reflecting realities: representing the trends or concerns of our times so others can consider them, make sense of life and form a reasonable response for the good of themselves and others. Maybe that’s true, maybe the thoughts we have in response to culture is where the important conversation needs to happen (Notes Two).

Because presumably ideas can act as seeds or flames, growing over time into something that will often change the course of events? Those words spoken or images seen that might lodge in your psyche, developing over the years into patterns or attitudes that affect how you are. If everything we’re taking in has that quality to it, then what exactly are we leaving ourselves open to these days?

If cultural life can help generate thoughts, attitudes, and values that might help us in how we live or teach us valuable lessons around the perils of paths we may not wish to take, then it must be serving an extremely valuable social function. Rather than seek to experience everything for ourselves, we could learn through the insights offered up to us by others – living vicariously through those other ways of being.

But then, how much can we truly trust modern culture to be offering us that? Are we right to simply go along with what’s offered, taking it all in and mulling it over? If the intentions behind a large proportion of such offerings are essentially commercial, is that a problem? How we might best discern what’s truly worthwhile and respond wisely to the rest of it isn’t so easy to figure out (Notes Three).

Might it not be that we’re effectively playing risky games? Depending on your metaphorical preference, we could end up with a nice warm fire and perfectly tended landscape, or something more closely resembling chaos. Not being sure of which seems troubling.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Culture, art & human activity
Note 1: Revisiting the question of culture
Note 1: Meaning in culture
Note 2: Culture selling us meaning
Note 2: Complicity and cultural attitudes
Note 2: Entertaining ideas & the matter of truth
Note 2: Cultural shifts & taking a backseat
Note 3: Dystopia as a powerful ideal
Note 3: Plato & “The Republic”

When it comes to being human, how exactly we go about it is a strangely difficult question: what we’re doing here, how to act, what’s best for social or personal welfare, are everyday concerns that really don’t seem to have simple answers (see Notes One).

It’s been written or spoken of countless times, as people have sought core principles, values or ideas to help things run more harmoniously. One such offering, succinct and deeply insightful, being “The Measure of a Man” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gently leaving aside the issue of using “man” as a term for discussing humanity as an inclusive whole, this text draws together some powerful and challenging imagery around what it is to be human: “The question “What is man?” is one of the most important questions confronting any generation. The whole political, social, and economic structure of a society is largely determined by its answer to this pressing question.”

That we can be viewed as purely physical beings, with needs and drives on that level, yet also as so much more than that is interesting to contemplate: “There is something within man that cannot be explained in terms of dollars and cents… that cannot be reduced to chemical and biological terms, for man is more than a tiny vagary of whirling electrons.”

The sense of what sets us apart from nature, while we undoubtedly stand within it, is curious to pinpoint: “Man has rational capacity… And so, somehow man is in nature, and yet he is above nature.” “He is not guided merely by instinct. He has the ability to choose between alternatives, so he can choose the good or the evil, the high or the low.”

Those kinds of thoughts, seeking to focus in on what exactly it means to be human, are surely valuable at a time when we’re frequently referred to in quite different terms (Notes Two). The idea of affirming our worth rather than speaking of people in somewhat careless, calculating, dismissive ways seems to me much more suited to the dignity, responsibility, and respect due to human existence.

Moving on to explore life’s “length, breadth, and height” – being your best; caring for others’ experiences; and relating yourself in some way to what might be the meaning of life – carves out this fairly comprehensive picture of the scope our lives may have and all the ways we contribute to our human and natural environments (Notes Three).

Attaining a view of life that sees how things interrelate seems so important given how many systems underpinning modern society now appear to be struggling: “there is still something to remind us that we are interdependent, that we are all involved in a single process, that we are all somehow caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Therefore whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

Ultimately, we all have to make our own choices. But this idea that we’re capable of holding ourselves to higher standards might be an incredibly valuable perspective on life.

Notes and References:

“The Measure of a Man” by Martin Luther King, Jr., (Fortress Press, USA), 1988.

Note 1: What is acceptable?
Note 1: Zimbardo & the problem of evil
Note 1: Plato & “The Republic”
Note 2: What we bring to life
Note 2: Worthless, or priceless?
Note 3: What if it all means something?
Note 3: The human spirit

Thinking about novelty, it seems this strange notion of something being new but also not worth that much. Why those two things ‘go together’ is a question for another day, as presumably new things could also be valuable and have longevity. Anyway, for now I’m mainly concerned with how ‘novelty’ is apparently this endless stream of constant and fairly frivolous change.

In that light, it seems we might never get tired of it; this perpetual rippling of variations, slight differences, unusual combinations, provocative or impractical suggestions. Given the global resources we have in terms of cultural, historical, social, conceptual, artistic reference points there’s arguably a limitless pool of ideas we could draw from in fresh and ‘original’ ways. We’re creative creatures; all with our own unique views.

But then what might it mean for culture, society or economic activity to be built upon that sense of novelty? Where might it lead if we’re forever pumping out ‘something new’ and surrounding it with ‘industries’ that effectively feed off that process? What is that churning tide, and is there anything truly value-able within it? Those are completely open questions; as I really don’t know, but often like to ask.

It’s just interesting, in that it’s viewed as a ‘product’: a product of the human mind, of our desire to belong and create and celebrate the richness of life; but also a product within a marketplace of attention, commercialisation and profit. And it clearly applies on many levels, within technology, news, entertainment, culture, fashion (see Notes One).

And that is what it is really, it’s how modern life’s evolved and the forms things are currently taking. ‘Things’, in that context, being the function that human ingenuity, expressiveness, creativity, and originality have within our communities; the value all that might hold for the lives we share.

Maybe that’s a strange way of looking at things? Maybe we’re supposed to just accept novelty as a way of life and go with the flow. But, as I’ve said, I’m just wondering where it leads and if there’s an end in sight that’s worth pursuing. I wonder if it’s not a misappropriation of our creative and social instincts – diverting them towards endless novelty and the status we’re assigning it, rather than putting it to better use elsewhere.

To my mind, modern culture’s a little strange in that I don’t quite see the meaning or purpose within it all (Notes Two). I know, not everything has to have meaning and some things we just do for fun, to join in and be part of that conversation. But I’d have thought there must be some reason behind these things, some substance there, something we could be adding to the wealth of human civilisation beyond a trail of discarded artefacts.

I don’t know. It’s just a thought really, attempting to circle in on the value of what we’re doing. I might be wrong in looking for more; but it also might be worthwhile drawing things into question, just in case.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Fashion, self & environment
Note 1: Is sustainable design an impossibility?
Note 1: Living in luxury, on what grounds?
Note 1: Culture selling us meaning
Note 2: Entertaining ideas & the matter of truth
Note 2: Cultural shifts & taking a backseat

In all of this – in the tone of my writing, the questions I raise, and topics I address – here, as anywhere else, there’s The need for discernment.

Living in times where facts are frequently drawn into question, the sense of what’s truthful as opposed to simply compelling or entertaining seems to be under quite considerable pressure. When all is said and done, does it matter what we think?

It’s fairly commonplace to hear that it doesn’t, that culture’s all just stories and what we choose to absorb is a personal prerogative. And that’s the thing: it’s true we can think whatever we choose (see Note One). But surely the question of whether it matters is slightly different, and rather more difficult to answer.

Reality – the past or present – must have a truth to it, however complex and interwoven it all might be. There are clearly almost countless perspectives, interpretations, threads or trends we might choose to prioritise as we look at events from different angles, in the light of how they affect or were affected by different individuals. It’s not really a straightforward narrative, an easy story to tell.

In many ways, time’s this quite thrilling convergence of people, ideas and places as ‘whatever life is’ works itself out. Faced with that, choosing any single storyline is going to offer partial truth at best; far less than the coherent, multifaceted representation that would be ‘truth’. So holding any narrative up against reality can easily lead to pointing out all the things that aren’t being said or acknowledged.

Beyond that, does it matter if we entertain notions of Brad Pitt and Wonder Woman fighting in WW2? Does this re-working or re-casting of history help or hinder us in grasping the truth of things? Might having such pictures in our minds desensitise us to the reality of countless ‘more ordinary’ souls deliberately laying down their lives for their values? (Notes Two)

And, with the representation of modern society, are stories we’re being told and their inferred meanings encouraging us to understand, integrate and move forward? Or are they more often perpetuating stereotypes; feeding on prejudice or insecurity? It’s surely important to ask whether the ideas we’re shown around appearance, race, gender, poverty and so forth are fair or particularly helpful in navigating life (Notes Three).

If we were to view culture as a reflection of reality – a map of sorts for understanding the world we all live within – does the truth of it matter, or can that be swept away and replaced with some other story if we’d rather? Is culture now more about escapism and light relief than some sense of having a shared narrative, common interpretation of meaning, and moral evaluation of social or personal worth (Note Four)?

Modern living seems to value neutrality more: that truth or meaning comes from our interactions, our responses, to all that’s freely on offer. Our ability to think the right thoughts about cultural and social realities, past or present, might then be what truly matters (Note Five). Whether we’re looking at partial truths or re-written ones, keeping in mind how anything relates to reality could be the more important question.

Notes and References:

Note 1: What are we thinking?
Note 2: Meaning in culture
Note 2: History’s role in modern culture
Note 3: Masks we all wear
Note 3: Beauty in unexpected places
Note 4: Plato & “The Republic”
Note 5: What is real?