The Great Cultural Awakening

Paul Schafer is the Canadian author of a series of books about making the transition from an economic age to a cultural age, and has been active in the field as an adviser, educator and administrator for over 50 years. He is also founder and director of the World Culture Project (www.worldcultureproject.org). His overall argument is an important one, given the centrality of economics and more especially of banking and finance in the modern world as the apex of power and global influence. This means that we are primarily consumers and producers, with education also geared to economic growth as the path to prosperity and well-being. He sees cultures as complex wholes and total ways of life, drawing on anthropological definitions such as that of Sir Edward Tylor, who in 1871 defined culture as 'that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.' (p. 16) Another inspiring source is Jacob Burckhardt, writing in the 1860s with his emphasis on such words as harmony, organic, and whole.

Culture and civilisation are sometimes equated, but culture is the broader term while civilisation is related to civis as the citizen. Culture requires cultivation, and it is interesting to read that Cicero focused on 'the philosophy or cultivation of the soul.' Nor is culture disembodied; it is carried by individuals and groups, leading to the development of finesse and artistic taste, in other words refinement of sensitivity. The book covers the whole spectrum of culture in education, upbringing, community, the cosmos, nature and other species, history, cultural development, and the cultivation of spirituality and compassion. It draws on a wide range of reading related to these topics, while the author also cites some of his own favourite paintings and music.

He argues that the challenges we face have outgrown the capacity of the economic age to deal with them. While this is undoubtedly true, it seems to me that the dominance of our linear and left hemisphere way of thinking lies at the root, as argued by Iain McGilchrist and Nora Bateson – see my review of her book above. Moreover, the robotisation of humans risks outsourcing 'creativity' to AI, which can only synthesise what is already on the Internet – hence, AI creativity is recombinant and devoid of genuine intuitive inspiration familiar to all artists and poets. It is typical of instrumental and utilitarian approaches that the arts are diminished and devalued - even deskilled in equating novelty with creativity. The arts engage all levels of humanity. One interesting author cited is the Dutch writer Johan Huizinga – also referred to by Dean Inge (see my review below). Huizinga writes that the realities of economic life conducive to human well-being 'must be balanced by strongly developed spiritual, intellectual, moral, and aesthetic values.' (p. 35) He was deeply concerned by the rise of barbarism in the 1930s.

The musician and international cultural advocate Yo-Yo Ma stated that every generation has an obligation to do better, 'to imagine and create a world that works for all of us.' In times of fracture, we need to return to first principles – 'to seek truth, build trust, and act in service of one another' – though I disagreed with the advocacy of safety, which has recently been weaponised against us. It is also important, as Lewis Mumford also argues, to seek unity in diversity rather than a mechanical uniformity that prioritises sameness over uniqueness - this involves 'coexistence, cross-cultural fertilisation, dialogue, interaction, communication, and exchange' – genuine sharing, rather than simply paying lip-service. (pp. 68, 235) Factories produce identical units, while each artistic creation is unique.

Paul Braisted (p. 112) warns that the alternative to developing more friendly relations is what we are currently witnessing – continuing and deepening conflict, 'with its dangers of increasing reliance on violence, and the corrosive effects upon human life of distrust and fear.' The author notes that 'it is necessary to create a great deal more cooperation, compromise, concessions, and interaction – as well as less competition, confrontation, aggression, and conflict – between different countries and cultures. However, we also need to be aware of the power dynamics of global geopolitics based on this second approach, and deeply rooted in fear of the other, patriarchal domination and the glorification of war – it is dismaying that diplomacy is reduced to appeasement. I found the reality of power was a missing element in the analysis, which also made no mention of the huge influence of informal elite groups such as the WEF and the Bilderberg Group who seek to impose their own agenda while dressing it up in fine words. The freedom of the human spirit is non-negotiable, even while we collectively aspire to a harmony based on the realisation of Oneness – this is what Peter Deunov called life for the whole (the author refers to this on p. 208)

There is no doubt that the author's argument should be widely discussed – how do we best move to what he calls a cultural age that recognises unity in diversity? For me, this has to start from a deeper understanding of what it means to be human, otherwise we are already on the wrong track. I was inspired by a 2017 Indonesian document on cultural advancement (p. 213), advocating 'tolerance, diversity, cross regional participation, benefits, sustainability, freedom of expression, cohesiveness, equality, and mutual cooperation.' Of course, the key lies in responsibility, embodiment and implementation, which has to be cultivated and grown into (cf p. 232). The author provides an inspiring and practical vision, and I leave the last word to a passage he quotes from Albert Schweitzer: 'the ripeness that our development must aim at is one which makes us simpler, more truthful, purer, more peace loving, meeker, kinder, more sympathetic… that is the process in which the soft iron of youthful idealism hardens into the steel of a full-grown idealism which can never be lost.' (p. 260) We each need to be engaged in such a process of personal and collective cultural renewal.