The way that we see the world, and, thus, the way we move through it, is in part handed to us on the day we are born. We enter into the lives of our parents, our community, and the people of our country and are quickly sculpted by their ways. This is culture at work. For better or for worse, we can’t escape culture, nor the ways it molds us into the human beings we become. It is very hard to strip away the beliefs and customs that we grew up with, for they have helped to create who we are today. So thick is the veil of culture that even people who make it their work to understand people of other cultures may not be able to do so entirely and deeply, for they go there not with a clean slate, but one full of their own ways of seeing, thinking, and moving their bodies, which may differ essentially from the culture they yearn to know. Culture holds us, contains us, gives some explanations to the madness, provides us with a boat to travel through dark waters. Maybe it is a beautiful and sturdy sailboat at times, sails billowed in a steady wind. But at other times it is an oil tanker headed for an iceberg. It takes you down into those dark waters, along with all the other life of the sea.
There are so many assumptions given to us by our culture that are not serving us. Most of us in the West operate out of some or most of these assumptions with tacit agreement. They are carried in us like muscle cells so that we don’t even notice they are there. But they are. And they are steering us into deep trouble. As Tim Bennet says, " It hasn’t been working out the way we’ve been taught to think it will." I believe it is not truly anyone’s fault– not yours, not mine--that we move through the world destructively and disrespectful of life (even if we are seemingly very polite to our friends and fellow humans); we have been taught no other way. " We’ve been growing and expanding and building cities and accumulating wealth for so long now," Bennet says, " that it just feels like this is how things are supposed to be. But how can a way of life that is destroying our support systems be considered ‘ the way it is supposed to be’?" This is the vice of culture: we are blinded by it. We cannot see through it even when, because of it, we are killing ourselves and our planet. But we must if we want a fighting chance of survival. We must really look at the cultural stories that shape our actions, so that we can change those actions that don’t serve us. If we look beneath the dark blinding surface we may find fresh waters, renewing waters of life.
Our culture has provided us with the following cultural assumptions, and they are the backbone of our planet’s peril. This list comes in part from Tim Bennet’s film " What a Way to Go; Life at the End of Empire" (it’s only a partial list, know that there are many more to add to it– you may have some to add...). Some may seem to you like they are not problematic assumptions. Remember that they are thoroughly ingrained in you, these stories, and know that each of them can, with some thought, be linked to major destruction and unraveling of ecosystems, our own life-support.
Growth is good
More is better
We can solve anything
We own it
Human have rights (nothing else does)
Humans have dominion over earth
This is the best humans could ever hope for, any alternative is worse
This culture is humanity- no other culture is
This is how humans were meant to live
We are superior to other creatures and our lives are independent of theirs
Some of my own assumptions that I will add to this list ( oh-so-American cultural stories that have governed my life in many ways), which I’ve been seeing through recently with both sadness and joy:
Life should be easy.
Life is meant to be happy.
Instant gratification is the best.
Individuality is of the utmost importance.
Seeing is freeing. I feel loosed and set on wings when I realize that the perceptions that I’ve been steering by are only assumptions, myths. My life does not need to be ruled by them.When this happens I do feel a little uneasy, too, without the boundaries of the beliefs to carry me. But now I can choose to believe something more true to my actual experience as a living being, more true to my real desires. Instead of " Life should be easy—why is it always so hard?...what can I buy to make it better?... where can I drive to make it more fun?", I can say," Life is not easy–it is full of challenges which make for rich opportunities for learning and growth. Right now, right here, this is what it’s about. This is okay. This is good."
We have built our modern industrial empirical world on cultural stories handed down through the last six or seven generations (though of course generations before them shaped their kins views, too). The amazing thing is that they are just that–stories. They are simply beliefs, not necessarily truths , which have manifested this world that we now live in. When we consciously decide to, we can see them as mere stories, and realize that we can choose to be governed by different stories, ones that are more in service to the lives we want to live. Joanna Macy writes, "The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world-we’ve actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves, and to each other."
When we are ready to look beyond our old perceptions, we will find that there is a new paradigm waiting to fill us with life-affirming perceptions. As an example, when I first came across the time lines, which I included in my earlier writings, the new stories that they offered me helped to shift my thinking about my own life in this present day; they have been part of the map that has given me a new awareness, and, therefore, a new way of being in the world. The perspective of seeing my life nestled into the vastness of time has lead to new perceptions about human life: how small we each are, like specks of dust, like flecks of yellow pollen, like one flake of snow in one blizzard out of many years worth of blizzards. How briefly we as a species have been blessed with life. How short is our story of industry and technology. From the time line perspective I can see how short the distance really is from co-existence to destruction. But I can also see how small the distance from destruction back to co-existence. Seeing from this perspective can help you perceive that you are a part of something much larger than your individual self. You are an integral part of the universe, of the history, the present, and the unfolding future. When I look at life this way, I feel small, humble like a snowflake (and yet no less unique), but also like an important part of the flowing and spiraling and creating and building of newness.
Our current emerging consciousness as a species is a convergence of old and new, of indigenous wisdom and scientific understandings. It stems from a stronger sense of our interconnection, with each other and our fellow earthlings, and from a deeper understanding of our place in the universe. From these new stories we can create the world we want.
We humans have continually, over time, changed our ways of looking at the world in order to meet new circumstances . Let’s wake up from our culturally induced slumber, look around us, see what is happening now in this time, and choose to create stories that support our lives as well as all the other lives on this planet Earth. We are so lucky to be living in a time when we have the consciousness to do this. Let’s.
I plan to explore more specific cultural stories and help create some new ones in my upcoming posts. In the mean time, try to sense how some of the above cultural assumptions influence you in the decisions you make and the things you do.
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