CULTURE, CULTURE, OR CULTURE?

By Bernie Koenig

In our everyday language we use the word ’culture’ in at least three different ways. The first use of the term is sociological or anthropological: Culture refers to the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another. This includes our institutions, normative values, and daily practices such as how dress, what and when we eat, whom we hang out with and where we spend our time, and how we use technology.  And then there are the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of particular social, ethnic, or age groups or sub cultures such as the youth culture and the drug culture.

The second use of culture has to do with the arts and with how people perceive the arts. We call paintings and literature and symphonies ‘culture’ and we call people knowledgeable in these areas as ‘cultured.’

And then there is popular or pop culture, which includes pop music, popular tv shows, pop idols, and so on.

The sad thing is that over the past half century or so we have separated the three uses of the term and, as a result, we have created gaps in what we know, how we know, and what we think about things not included in our own subculture. In other words, we have fragmented our lives so that when we participate in our everyday pop culture world, we don’t realize that we are also participating in our sociological and political cultures. Nor do we realize that our pop cultures are based on so-called high culture.

To use an old fashioned term, by fragmenting our lives in this way, we have become alienated from our own culture.

So how do we go about reconnecting things? The first step is to try to understand why things have fragmented. A great deal has been written on the subject, so we can present things quickly.

One reason is that each generation wants its own identity, so it creates its own music and fashion and even language. A second reason is that the market place takes advantage of these trends. For example, in most places in Canada there is no radio station that plays classical music or jazz. And when we do find stations that play these kinds of music, they tend to play the safe music, so serious listeners still have no place to go to. And the third reason is technology. The way such things as ipods and cell phones and web sites such as facebook and twitter are used tend to isolate people from other groups so members of a specific group are not even aware that other things exist.

Now, there is nothing wrong with using technology. But all too often technology, which was developed for a specific purpose, gets used for other purposes which the inventors did not even think of. Thus individual groups use technology for their own ends and thereby isolate themselves from the society at large.

The great paradox here is that without the great society these people would not have the technology they use, since it comes from that technology. A secondary paradox is that once these companies find out how their technologies are being used, they market their products to these groups. Thus the market place then starts to control how technology is used.

The role of the market is significant here for two reasons. One is that in a market driven society such as ours we tend to understand things in terms of their economic value. Things that do have an obvious economic value are not socially valued. Since we cannot put a price tag on the value of classical music or jazz or of painting, our society does not value such things. They are fine for the ‘cultured’ people but not for everyone else. The second reason is that we live in a society with a puritanical heritage which is suspicious of pleasures or of frivolities. Which is how the arts are seen.  Just think of students’ attitudes when some one studying technology has to take a literature course. “How is Shakespeare going to help me be a better mechanic?” is what they say. And the answer is that it may not make you a better mechanic but it might make you a better person.

We cannot dictate how people use technology. And we cannot dictate how companies market their products.  But we can educate people and make them aware of what is going on in the society outside their subgroups.And we can educate them as to how the market is actually manipulating them. Schools and parents must play more active roles in exposing children to the greater culture. But, all too often, even parents are not aware of various aspects of our culture.

Even symphony orchestra goers tend to reject contemporary music. They do so for two reasons. One is that they are unfamiliar with it and the other reason is that much of it sounds discordant. And how many people actually enjoy looking at abstract art?

All pop music and pop art forms from comics to tv shows are based on the so-called higher culture. As I like to put it in my history of music class, there would be no Beatles if there had not been a Beethoven.

So the ultimate answer is education, not just for people in school, but for everyone. For those who have jobs and cannot go to school there publications such as this one to get you thinking about these ideas. I hope to follow this article with pieces on culture and how learn how to appreciate the so-called higher things.