Insanity of our culture

The level of insanity of our own culture can be somehow demonstrated based on the acceptance of insanity of other cultures. By ‘our’ culture I mean Western, secular, liberal culture which grew up thanks to enlightenment, science, industrial revolution, ancient Greeks, etc. Western culture should be rightfully considered the most advanced on this planet so far (unless unlikely of course, a theory about an ancient, more advanced civilisation would turn out to be true).

By insanity of other cultures I understand practices which are against universal human rights, such as honour killings, genital mutilation and other unacceptable customs. Some of those practices were wiped out due to influence of the West – for example sati (immolation of widowed women in India), cannibalism, human sacrifices, etc. But some questionable practices still exist and for some reasons – even in the Western countries – for example some elements of Islamic Sharia law which discriminates women.

Insanity of Western culture can be also somehow determined based on its own self-despise and confusion in issues like: multiculturalism, what are universal values and what we stand for? And of course, there are reasons for that.

MG

PC

As an immigrant I am very grateful for tolerance and inclusiveness of British society. Open, tolerant and inclusive society is a wonderful thing but there are some setbacks. Opposing different forms of discrimination is certainly the right thing to do.

However, I see a danger of new social taboos which make facing certain problems almost impossible. People who are trying to raise certain issues or even refer to certain facts are sometimes automatically branded certain terms and accused, for example, of racism or islamophobia. Pussyfooting, political correctness, multicultural sensitivity – all raised to such a level they became rules of the game.

At the moment it seems to me that this trend, this practice is not no longer as beneficial as it used to be back then in times when there was a huge level of discrimination. Nowadays it is rather harmful and prevents open discussion. People are constrained from having “real talk” and afraid of new social taboos. Others take advantage of it. Sometimes it looks like it is not so important what somebody is really saying but what others will make out of what he or she is saying. In the public sphere these days certain discussions are almost postponed in fear of offending somebody.   

MG

Women on the rise – men are going down

Douglas Adams wrote about days when “spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women” (I’m skipping a part about “real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri”). Yes, the ways of life back in time often seem to be more real than current state of affairs – especially from a perspective of years. But Douglas Adams, who sadly is no longer with us, did not predict a women-dominated society though – at least to my knowledge.

A totalitarian women’s regime has been pictured in “Sexmisssion” (Polish: “Seksmisja”) – Polish famous and cultish – at least in Poland – comedy science fiction action movie from 1984. The story is about (if you are going to watch it – attention: spoilers ahead!) two males subjected to a hibernation experiment who wake up in a post-nuclear female society – because men died out, and in fact they are not wanted anymore – men are considered to be an extinct, aggressive, prone to violence and self-distraction, less intelligent, primitive subspecies – women believe they are better off without men (and that Copernicus was a woman).

And surprise, surprise: todays’ experts predict demise of men and rise of women!  In the world when physical strength is not really needed and aggression and violence is condemned men have to find themselves in the new (for them) empathetic world of soft interpersonal and communication skills, where differences of opinions are no longer fiercely fought out but softly discussed with mutual understanding. And the hell, even women start to earn more than their husbands! Girls even do better at schools! Times are changing – as a man I have to admit it sadly. Listen to two TED talks: Philip Zimbardo: The demise of guys?  and Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women.

MG

An idea for solving ills of welfare depended pockets of the society

First of all, every state has responsibilities to its citizens, for example public safety for individuals and their property. Recent riots in England aroused fear, shock and questions. The state and its institutions failed to protect many hard working, law abiding citizens. It took five days to restore order. Another responsibility of the government is enhancing well-being and prosperity of citizens by providing education, health service, places to work, etc.

Second and foremost, citizens also have responsibilities. People have to pay taxes and abide the law of the land. But menacing gangs of underclass youths on the vicious loose, looting with no restraints and no regret whatsoever, setting everything on their way on fire – where have they come from?  

Surprisingly, they were joined by many so –called “normal” people; people, who usually work and do not commit crimes. But this time, in this very situation when normality disappeared from the streets and so behavioural and social constrains of so many temporally ceased to exist t – in effect so many people found themselves on the wrong side, joining mob, attacking police and opportunistically looting shops, with no dignity and no morals – for a pair of new trainers or a new telly, and I ask rhetorically – what is wrong with this picture? Some citizens failed the state and failed their co-citizens as well. But some people can be hardly called citizens – they do not contribute anything and nothing is expected of them – apart of not causing too much trouble.

The matter is clear enough when we look from the perspective of relations between state and citizens: Citizens pay taxes and expect protection and services in return. From this perspective two problems appear to be obvious:

First problem is that state requires no obligations from some of their citizens without any good reasons. Yes, some people get benefits for doing chronically nothing. In fact, they are hardly expected to do anything. They do not contribute anything. The society seems to be happy enough with keeping them out of the streets e.g. in various forms of social and support housing and they get benefits to feed their basic needs (and addictions). Young and middle aged people who have never worked and who will never be; living all their lives on state benefits and often committing petty crimes or doing drugs. Most of them poorly educated with no real perspectives or incentives or even skills to turn their lives around. They grew up in dysfunctional families and on the streets. They are not needed and they were pretty much abandoned. They have got institutionalised instead and the current system is not helping them. They are entitled but nothing is expected of them.

The second problem is that state is not able to provide work for everybody (and besides, not everybody is able to work). And that is the reality of post-industrial world in which unqualified and low skilled people do not fit well.

If those institutionalised welfare-depended people are entitled to benefits without any expectations then they are not really citizens – that is my conclusion. In fact, they are not even called “citizens” – by various social services they are called “clients”. No surprise: “clients” or “customers” have only rights but no obligations.  And this is just so wrong and in so many ways. Getting something for doing nothing is very harmful – think about perpetual dependence, disconnection, low-self esteem, drugs use – and I am not talking about single mothers (who often work so hard)or other people who are in genuine need and who are not able to do anything constructive in their lives as a way of contributing to the society.  

My idea is simple but fundamental and therefore revolutionary: we should treat people like citizens not consumers.

Citizens are people who have rights and obligations – people receiving benefits should have equally or to some extend their benefits balanced with some statutory obligations as well.

Truth

The main point I want to make here is that the truth is not always the most important thing. In fact people often pretend that something is true (e.g. Santa Clause) in order to do good things for bad or untrue reasons. It comes to my mind the quote from Terry Pratchett’s “Hogfather”. By the way, it is amazing how many deep ideas found their place in this short peace of text:

“Death: Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan: With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death: Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan: So we can believe the big ones?
Death: Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan: They're not the same at all.
Death: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan: But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
Death: You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?”

We have here the problem of truth and fantasy, what it means to be a human, evolution, a metaphor from the Bible, moral duties, the role of beliefs and some physics.

Usually, people try to confirm their experience with their convictions they hold dear as long as they can, but sometimes changes in their lives force them to changes in their belief systems. When looking for the truth we may find different answers than we were looking for. After all, truth is a dangerous thing.

Open minded

People get infected by ideas simply because our brains are pattern-seeking devices. We always try to link the dots and fill gaps – even if we cannot. We also seek control and order – that’s why we categorise things. In an attempt to have influence over things and processes we didn’t understand we created magic. In order to feels safe we invented religion.  In order to understand and submit the world around us we developed science. To express ourselves we often use art.

These days we use technology in more ways and to larger extend than we have done ever before.  Although modern technological progress was a direct result of scientific discoveries many of us still lives in more or less superstitious paradigms. Apparently, old habits die hard but the next tests for our species lie ahead: how to accommodate and feed the growing number of people? What about climate changes? How dissolve social inequalities and injustice throughout the world? The world is bound to change within the next 50 – 100 years more than it had changed in any analogical period in the past. We simply cannot go further sticking to old ideas and old worldviews. To be open-minded is a good start. But then, children’s minds are open as well – and what we do? We allow them to get infected and brainwashed by old memes, old ideas.

MG

Atheistic Christians

No surprise for me here, but the recent BBC article about Rev Klaas Hendrikse titled “Dutch rethink Christianity for a doubtful world” by Robert Pigott is significant. Rev Klaas Hendrikse who does not believe in God and the results of a study by the Free University of Amsterdam that “one-in-six clergy in the PKN (Protestant Church in the Netherlands) and six other smaller denominations was either agnostic or atheist” demonstrate an important cultural change. 

Well, this reflects not just a cultural change but a fundamental change within western civilisation reflecting shift from monotheistic agrarian worldview into new, scientific, modern perspective. Maybe that’s the way how denominations and institutions of mainstream monotheistic faiths will follow to accommodate the growing number of non-believers – or something-believers.  

The article about rev. Klaas Hendrikse is here.

MG

British (English) society from an immigrant’s (mine actually) perspective, part 2

When a foreigner (like myself) has a chat with white British, usually, what he or she hears? Well, I quite often hear: “Oh, your English is very good”. And then I hear national sense of guilt: “We don’t learn foreign languages”. 

Well, it is not exactly true. I know some white British who managed to learn a foreign language – usually, when living abroad for some time. Which is quite an achievement actually – because the whole world wants to learn English. If you are British and you have some basic qualifications you can teach English while staying abroad. The truth is, you British, you don’t have to learn foreign languages. Wherever you are going to travel you can get by just fine with your own native English.

However, going deeper into British/English national psyche one can notice more fundamental issues. 

Living in a diverse multicultural society white British are politically correct and very conscious not to be judgemental. It may be influence of post-colonial ‘white guilt’. Not to be accused for being intolerant or for some kind of “phobia” (e.g. islamophobia) remain one of the fears. In other words there is a culture of what you cannot say in public sphere – unless you are a Pat Condell; and what you say privately between friends.

In my opinion, West has lost its confidence in itself. Several hundred years ago when British were building their empire they knew they were spreading civilisation and they were proud of it. Today people try to avoid controversial subjects (for example some aspects of immigration) in a fear of offending someone. On the other hand I understand that it could be dangerous discussing openly certain issues but I believe problems should not be kept under the carpet of political correctness. There is no need to shy away from noticing that what has been left from agrarian, feudal, tribal cultures around the world can be interesting but it has nothing to offer for western secular democratic society - nothing equal, nothing better, nothing worth to copy.

It appears British are aware of that in the same way they are aware sometimes individuals from ethnic minorities take advantage of the system - like abusing benefits or accusing their employers for racism in case of running into trouble. But they will not call spade a spade. Because you just not suppose to say things like that publicly. Someone could say you are judgemental or call you a racist.

One of the illnesses of multiculturalism is this: it does not necessary help to integrate people into society. In fact, it creates many living independently groups and establishing faith schools does not help. Pakistanis who came to this country some decades ago had to send their children to British schools and their children had better chance for integration than a child send these days and attending an ‘ethnic’ faith school.

Three ways of understanding the world

In order to survive we humans had to create models explaining world around us and we have at least three ways of doing it:

• Through beliefs - creating mythical explanations, something to believe in without logical and critical thinking – for example various myths, legends, prophecies, religions and faiths
• Through paradigms, philosophy, analogy to things that exist; an attempt to create a plausible explanation how things might be working through some sort of rather logical thinking, sometimes clearly providing models which seems to be not provable experimentally or cannot be called science and which may be an expression of some sort of convictions or assumptions about the reality through the prism of existing culture – for example in the past mechanistic paradigm of the universe, or more recent concept of Spiral Dynamics which gives some sort of roadmap to humankind development.
• Through science, through scientific method – where concepts are scrutinised and facts needs to be proven scientifically; the highest achievement which have changed the world we are living in.

MG

Four elements, four nations and the Avatar

/Trailer below!/ In the spring of 2001 Bryan Konietzko took an old sketch of a balding middle-aged man and re-imagined him as a child. Then he drew this figure in the sky with a flying bison and showed the drawing to Michael Dante DiMartino who at that time was studying a documentary about explorers trapped in ice deserts of the South Pole. With such modest beginning came to life extremely popular and brilliant award-winning animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbeneder" (a.k.a "Avatar: The Legend Of Aang"). I had never thought the production aimed at 6-11 years old audience will be interesting to the point I will be willing to watch all three "Books" (Water, Earth, Fire) consisting of 61 episodes altogether (25 minutes long each). Which, I have to admit I did. However, I consider “Avatar: The Last Airbender” as a one of the best titles in its genre with audience not necessary limited to children.
12-years old boy Aang wakes up from a century-long hibernation. His task will be to defeat the mighty Fire Lord Ozai and save the world. For this purpose he must learn specific “bending” powers of the four elements: Air, Water, Earth and Fire; which also constitute the separate styles of martial arts. Aang also must face guilt and loss. He has to control his emotions, accept responsibility, grow and learn new skills, etc. - which is difficult since he is just a fun-loving, 12 years old …monk. As a small child he had chosen the toys belonging to previously living avatars. Thanks to that fact monks were able to recognize him as a new avatar – a new incarnation, a new manifestation spirit of the planet. Avatar’s task is to maintain a delicate balance in the universe between the four elements and respectively between their four nations. These four nations are: Air Nomads (Aang belongs to this nation), Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. Due to tense geopolitical situation monks who were raising Aang decided to drastically reduce his childhood, and hasten his training which indirectly and accidentally resulted in Aang being trapped in the ice with his flying bison Appa. After hundred years of time Aang has been found by Katara and Sokka - siblings from the Southern Water tribe from whom he learnt that during his absence Fire Nation had started war in which Air Nomads were destroyed (except Aang) while other nations were closed to being completely defeated and conquered.
I assume after reading the above short introduction every enthusiast of the Far East culture would have been pricking up his or her ears at least a few times. Because the action of "Avatar" is set in a brilliantly created fantasy world saturated in rich Far East culture and history. It is easy to notice various elements of Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese and Eskimo (Inuit), etc. cultures. It includes spirituality, philosophy, history, arts – everything. So we have references to the history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhist traditions including the search of tulku. Have you ever seen animation for children about chakras? Here you have a one. The whole episode is devoted to chakras meditation with detailed explanation where chakras are located and how they work. There is yoga, chi energy, Taoism, shamanism (and the shaman's spiritual journey to the spirit world), Chinese calligraphy, eating with chopsticks, brewing green tea, temples, Lotus Secret Society, Chinese Wall, Forbidden City and so on. The previously mentioned styles of fighting are actually the authentic styles of Chinese kung fu (wushu to be correct): Ba Gua for airbending (Air), Tai Chi for Waterbending (Water), Hung Gar for earthbending (Earth) including Chu Gar (Southern Style Praying Mantis) exclusively for Toph, and Bei Shaolin (Northern Shaolin) for firebending (Fire).
In addition to this fascinating cultural spectrum, we have a whole gallery of excellently designed and created heroes. Besides of Aang we have (among others): practically orphaned siblings Katara and Sokka who are accompanying Aang from the very beginning of his journey, blind earthbender Toph raised as the only child of wealthy and overprotective parents, Prince Zuko who wants to capture Avatar to please his father who rejected him. Deep and compelling characters contribute to interesting interactions and vivid action. It is also impossible not to notice the elements of western psychology and therapeutics.
The show is in all its aspects simply great and if you are interested how Far East themes are present in modern pop-culture, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is a must see. By the way, I remember watching on YouTube the reaction of the audience during preview of Avatar’s season three in the theatre. People just freaked out and I was even able to hear shouting adults. Which explains why upcoming on July 2010 live-action film “The last Airbender” is so much anticipated. It may be not as good as the original, I'm afraid, but we will see.

© copyrights MG

PS: Here is the final trailer and creators: Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. Notice the reaction from the audience! VIDEO

It is getting better

My grandmother used to say better before the war even apples had been better. Individuals and societies - many of us humans tend to embellish the past and complain about the present. This phenomenon is variously manifested but one question remains: Is the world really getting worse? And is that true in the past life used to be better?

The fact is that in the past people used to live in much worse conditions. Nowadays our life is much better in terms of its quality and in terms of life expectancy. With that statement may disagree various fundamental religious groups within Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the Judeo-Christian tradition time is linear - it has the beginning and it has the end. In those traditions people are awaiting for the Judgement Day, Armageddon, the end of human history and punishment all wicked and unbelievers. Then in the paradise (on earth or in heaven) there will be everlasting true peace and justice. According to such beliefs before will be 'better' first must be 'worse' because only if there will be miserably enough here the God Almighty will intervene at the end of times. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, referring to the Bible, believe that we live in the last days which are hard to bear, and soon God will bring the world to His divine order.

But the facts are that we live better and better. Take the account of the violence. In modern societies, death as result of violence affects only a small fraction of the population. We live longer, many diseases have been eliminated, and hygiene and living conditions have been improved. Old nightmares of humanity decimating population of the medieval Europe - famine and plague - have been eliminated in modern societies. Tourism and leisure have been invented. And I would say we just have started - our modern civilization just has started some 200-300 years ago with the industrial revolution.

The picture is different for preindustrial societies. According to some researches endemic tribal warfare and vendetta causes from 15% to 60% mortality in primitive populations still existing in places where time has stopped - e.g. Yanomami Indians of the Amazon jungle. In the Bible there are descriptions of unbelievable violence and cruel warfare. There were no human rights. Life was short, difficult and far more brutal.

If we take into account the history of mankind up to contemporary times we can notice without doubt the quality of our modern life is far better than reality everyday life of our ancestors.

See what says Steven Pinker about the myth of violence: VIDEO

© copyrights MG