Rotten


Cultural collapse isn't all it's cracked up to be
The other day I ran into a spirited online discussion. It started by comparing how a young Eastern European man views freedom vs the typical American view. All that was pretty interesting, especially the point that many Americans take freedom and liberty for granted precisely because they don't have to fight for it.

But then the discussion shifted to "cultural rot."

That's one of the lines I watch closely for, it tends to justify outlawing the things that the writer/speaker doesn't agree with.

Some of the more shall we say "enthusiastic" Pagans don't agree with my writings because I am not progressive in my politics. To hear them say it, I should not be heard. I'm contributing to the problem, you see.

Some of the more "enthusiastic" conservatives don't agree because of my religious views, not to mention my beliefs about nudity and sex. To hear them say it, I should not be heard. I'm contributing to the problem.

And the modern liberals don't like me because I don't think that free markets are responsible for the evils of the world. To hear them say it, I should not be heard. I'm contributing to the problem.

In any discussion of "cultural rot," I'm sure to be near the top of somebody's hit list. I'm used to it by now, it gives me a nice view of alternative ideas.

It's too easy to say "This is destroying our way of life!"

Let's take the easy shot and get it out of the way. What if American's decided tomorrow that only "mainstream" religions will be allowed?

Okay, fine.

Is Reform Judaism a part of that list?

What about the Baptists?

And then what about the Buddhists?

Once we've established non-Aramaic faiths, what Wiccans? And if you include Wiccans, do you include the Church of the Sub-Genus and those who worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster? What about all those self-proclaimed Jedi?

Let's move on to entertainment.

I can't stand American Idol. I say we do away with it. It's a combination of a waste of time and blatant emotional manipulation of the audience.

Of course that would probably be enough to get me lynched.

TLC has a show What Not To Wear. That's another I can't stand. But my mother enjoys the hair and makeup segments. If I banned that show, she would take me to task. So I just know enough to avoid her house when she's home and it's time for that show.

I appreciate fine architecture. Most of the homes built today in America aren't very good. Very few of the offices are worth anything other than warehouse space. And don't get me started on big box monstrosities that offend all common sense. Let's rip them all down.

Get the picture here?

No matter what we do, chances are we'll offend someone's taste. What you like isn't necessarily what I like. I could care less about something that is vitally important to you.

In the discussion I quoted the entry Testing, testing, one two three from Technopagan Yearnings, my other blog. So here's a slightly expanded version of the same quote. And since it's me I'm quoting, I get the Official Technopagan Green.

You can't have the exceptional discovering the right answers without A LOT of the unexceptional stumbling around with the wrong ideas.

Think of it as a signal to noise ratio. You can't turn up the volume and only get the good stuff. Sheer amplification increases the static too.

And as much as I personally would love to premptively cut out the nonsense so we can concentrate on the "important stuff,' it wouldn't work. That nonsense is absolutely necessary to put the good ideas and practices in context. That nonsense is also absolutely necessary to frustrate the exceptional so they come up with new ideas.

I come from a long line of farmers. My maternal grandfather stopped being a farmer when they moved to Arizona, but after he retired he gardened on about an acre and a half until he died. Good farmers and good gardeners will tell you that concentrating on just one crop doesn't work well. Some plants put nitrogen into the soil, some take it out. Some put certain nutrients into the soil while taking certain others out, others take out different nutrients and put still more back into the soil. Some years it's best to let the field lay fallow. And you still can't control what your neighbor grows, or if his crop is better than yours.

One of my root beliefs is that if I can't convince you to change your mind, I have no business trying to force you. If my ideas have any worth, they have to be able to stand on their own merit.

Sometimes life conflicts with my ideas and I have to change them or drop them entirely because they don't work. Ideas HAVE to be constantly tested and tempered by experience to prove themselves. It's an ongoing test, a trial by fire and ice that never really ends.

For an idea to be good, it has to stand out in the nonsense and noise.

Here's the thing that most people forget. We don't always know if an idea is good until years or decades or centuries later. The good ideas will stick around, being tested, becoming part of other ideas. The bad ideas will weed themselves out.

Eventually.

But that means that at any given time, there is never going to be only Truth and Perfection. There will be a few good ideas in a sea of nonsense. Our part is not to judge which ideas will stay, but to use the ideas that work today.

See? It's not moral failure, it's opportunity.

Where other people see rot, I see fertilizer!

— NeoWayland

Posted: Wed - April 22, 2009 at 02:44 PM  Tag


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