Cultural Resources
These resources present ideas, information, and proposals for action to clarify the nature of the cultural problems we face and potential solutions that point the way toward holistic and systemic transformation.
General Resources
Advocates/Services
“Promoting innovations in collective wisdom, co-creativity & collaborative governance
WHAT WE DO
We help grow collective wisdom and the capacity to work well together to co-create a world that works for all.
Transformational Storytelling. We gather and share stories of transformative, co-intelligent approaches to the complex challenges of our time.
Gathering & Weaving. We foster cross-community learning, deepening our practice and shaping new approaches together, including monthly community calls.
Sharing Tools & Resources. We promote and develop tools and resources that evoke and engage greater collective wisdom, co-creativity, and self-governance.
THE WISE DEMOCRACY PATTERN LANGUAGE. Envision and co-create a deeply participatory culture that generates policies and activities that support the long-term quality of life. We seek to appreciate, evoke and engage the wisdom and resourcefulness of the whole on behalf of the whole.
“Culture is power Culture is the beating heart of our human experience. It is the traditions, rituals, and expressions of our deepest values and beliefs. It provides continuity and connection across generations and moves us forward. Culture is fluid and ever-changing, shaping what we think is possible. Culture can heal, sustain collective action, and is the space where we dream new worlds into existence. When we harness cultural power our wildest dreams become possible, and then become real.”
“A research project that explores the hypothesis that flexworkers in the arts, communication, and cultural industries are protagonists of a recomposition of labour politics today.” (read more)
Articles, Essays, Op-eds
American "Progress" and Putin's Mysticism
Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Timothy Snyder
“…So by the politics of inevitability, I mean the notion that sometimes goes under the heading of progress. I mean the idea that some kind of outside force is going to guarantee that the things that we desire and wish for are actually going to come about. And if that seems abstract, then what I mean in particular with reference to the United States after the end of communism in 1989 is the notion that there are no alternatives left in the world.
To quote Margaret Thatcher or to quote Frances Fukuyama, history is over. And it’s inevitable that a larger force, namely capitalism, is going to bring about the thing that we desire, namely, democracy and freedom. And that idea was in the air. That idea shaped everything else. And I think that idea has a lot to do with the crisis of democracy and freedom that we’re in right now.”READ MORE
What Happened to American Conservatism? David Brooks.
"The rich philosophical tradition I fell in love with has been reduced to Fox News and voter suppression... I’m content, as my hero Isaiah Berlin put it, to plant myself instead on the rightward edge of the leftward tendency—in the more promising soil of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party... The central conservative truth is that culture matters most; the central liberal truth is that politics can change culture.”
Crisis of Confidence, Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on July 15, 1979.
…It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession... The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation... We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. ..
Read more
American Culture Is Trash Culture, [behind paywall], Wesley Morris
It’s not just that trash is what Americans want from movies; it’s who we are. So where did it go?
...Our culture has always been at its most pure when it’s in the gutter, when it’s conflating divine and ugly, beauty and base. Blackface minstrelsy, ragtime, jazz: Somebody was always on hand to cry debasement (not unjustly in minstrelsy’s case). But the crude truth of trash is that we like it — to cry over, to cringe and laugh at — even when we say we don’t. The gutter is where our popular culture began, and the gaminess lurking there is our truest guise.
So really what I mean when I say trash vanished is that it vanished from movies. But trash is a persistent, consumptive force that’ll set up shop in any eager host. And its shamelessness went and found a new home, in American politics...
(read more) [behind paywall]
The Trouble with Cultural Evolution, Massimo Pigliucci.
“Ultimately, it is still very much an open question whether we can develop a coherent Darwinian theory of cultural evolution, or whether it may be better to abandon the analogy with biological evolution and recognize that culture is a significantly different enough beast to deserve its own theory and explanatory framework. Of course, cultural evolution is still tied to biological evolution, for the simple reason that we are both cultural and biological creatures. But we may have a long way to go before untangling the two and arriving at a satisfactory explanation of how precisely they are related to each other.”
Cultural Complementarity, Hector E. Garcia.
“All humans see only a small part of reality, which brings about a sense of insecurity (this is one of the assumptions of CC). Our tendency is to subconsciously allay anxiety by acting as if what our group sees in our time is all of the true reality; consequently, all other groups must be totally or partially wrong. Since all groups are doing the same, conflict easily develops and grows….”
Vladimir Putin’s Clash of Civilizations, Ross Douthat, The New York Times, Feb. 26, 2022.
“…In this vision the future is neither liberal world-empire nor a renewed Cold War between competing universalisms. Rather it’s a world divided into some version of what Bruno Maçães has called “civilization-states,” culturally-cohesive great powers that aspire, not to world domination, but to become universes unto themselves — each, perhaps, under its own nuclear umbrella.
This idea, redolent of Samuel P. Huntington’s arguments in “The Clash of Civilizations” a generation ago, clearly influences many of the world’s rising powers — from the Hindutva ideology of India’s Narendra Modi to the turn against cultural exchange and Western influence in Xi Jinping’s China. Maçães himself hopes a version of civilizationism will reanimate Europe,…” (read more)
The One Thing TV Characters Don’t Talk About, Jordan Calhoun.
“The topic of money requires the most awkward suspension of disbelief in fiction.”
‘Part of Why We Survived’, Ian Frazier.
“A new history of the long tradition of Native comedy, inside and outside mainstream entertainment”
Reviewed:
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans in Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff
The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff
"...Humans are resilient, and the risky exhilaration of making one another laugh helps them to be. Again and again in We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, Native people describe how comedy sustained them, and how seeing comedians who looked like themselves lifted them and changed their lives... 'I’m not saying we’re saving the world or anything like that, but it’s just a solid contribution.'"
The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them, [behind paywall] Emma Goldberg. The New York Times, Oct. 28, 2021.
“Twenty-somethings rolling their eyes at the habits of their elders is a longstanding trend, but many employers said there’s a new boldness in the way Gen Z dictates taste...Managers, like Ms. Kriegsman, understand the instinct Gen Zers have to protect their health, to seek some divide between work and life — but some are baffled by the candid way in which those desires are expressed. They’re unaccustomed, in other words, to the defiance of workplace hierarchy...
(read more) [behind paywall]‘Cancel Culture’ Isn’t the Problem. ‘OK Culture’ Is [behind paywall], Lindsay Crouse. The New York Times, Oct. 19, 2021.
"... But that helps nothing. It’s time to stop litigating whether these punishments are fair and to start thinking more deeply about why the behavior they punish seemed OK in the first place. And if others who act like Gruden are scared, perhaps they should be. More important, they should change." (read more) [behind paywall]
The Holistic Paradigm as Democracy's Evolutionary Frontier, Andy Paice (2024)
“To recap - Part 1 explored the emergence of a new paradigm, a more holistic worldview aligned with reality, embracing interconnectedness and therefore better able to address humanity’s crises. It also highlighted the burgeoning field of democratic innovation and pointed out aspects that suggest this field is a facet of this new holistic paradigm.
In part 2 I explore - how might we take democratic innovation into deeper levels of this shift so that it becomes ever more able to address our collective predicaments?
Inspiration, case studies, and ideas inspired here by Iswe Foundation DemocracyNext Rosa Zubizarreta Dr Iain McGilchrist Daniel Schmactenberger Arnold Mindell Otto Scharmer James Bridle Fang-Jui Chang Indy Johar Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard Laureen Golden Tom Atlee Martin Rausch Co-Intelligence Institute
Also Rosa Zubizarreta has just published "Occupy the New Paradigm" which is a great complement to this article and explores similar themes. She advocates making support for this way of seeing and being more visible, being vulnerable about our own conditionings, and cultivating solidarity as ways to help "occupy" and transition to a new holistic paradigmhttps://lnkd.in/e8KA3fS5.”
Film
My Dinner with Andre — Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn.
Presents a compelling, thought-provoking critique of the self-perpetuating dominant culture and reports on counter-cultural projects that opened minds to new possibilities, but fails to offer an inspiring, alternative worldview.
Music
Bob Crawford, Hell & High Water with John Heilemann Podcast
John Heilemann talks with Bob Crawford, bassist for The Avett Brothers and creator of Concerts of Change: The Soundtrack of Human Rights, a new audio docu-series on SiriusXM. Through conversations with artists including U2's Bono, Bob Geldof, and Joan Baez, historian Douglas Brinkley, and civil rights icon Andrew Young, Crawford explores the surge in humanitarian and political activism by musicians -- particularly focused on Africa -- in the seventies and eighties. Heilemann and Crawford discuss the rise of star-studded benefit shows from George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh to Live Aid; the genesis and behind-the-scenes stories of the chart-topping charity singles "Do They Know It’s Christmas?" and "We Are The World"; the singular influence of Geldof in launching Band Aid and Live Aid; the role played by Steven Van Zandt's "Sun City" in ending apartheid in South Africa; and how Bono institutionalized his activist impulses to help combat poverty and AIDS in Africa. They also reflect on Crawford’s career with The Avett Brothers, and how his daughter Hallie's battle with cancer changed him and his band.
Newsletters
“searches for lessons in the most popular movies, books, TV shows, and more. Whatever you’re reading or streaming, this newsletter wants to be your companion to help understand the story and decide what to play next.”
Quotes
"A voice from the dark called out,
The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war."—Denise Levertov
Specific Topics
Cultural Evolution
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