In case you didn't happen to notice Randy Pausch, the compsci professor from Carnegie who's
literal last lecture became a worldwide phenomenon, finally succumbed to his pancreatic cancer. A sad thing ? Well, yes. In many ways. But Randy lived a full and fruitful life and even without the fame and the impact of his lecture made contributions that few of us are given to make. Also this last week plus Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian novelist who impacted the lives of millions, also passed on. A long time ago watching the film of Ivan Denisovitch with my college classmates in S.Cal. they were immensely puzzled by the squeaking noises made when the prisoners walked on the snow. You see when it's very cold and very dry snow squeaks. But you have to have lived there, or someplace similar, to know how cold that really means it was and feel it in your bones. Yet Solzhenitsyn's stories helped tell the story of the Gulags, first to the Russian people - which brought him exile, and then to the world. Both of these gentlemen told us stories in the best sense - myths that cut to the heart of things and helped us understand the world, how it worked and our places in it. Things that we need to know even when they're ugly, sometimes ugly beyond my experience or grasping. Randy's words of wisdom helped many people and to hear them again here's a little YouTube playlist: Randy Pausch Playlist. There's quite a few but his Carnegie lecture is short and to the point while the ABC Memorial Special is the one I'd recommend really listening thru. Hopefully they're all in order.
But with all due respect to Randy the mad Russian poet changed the lives of millions who suffered, as he did, thru one of the most evil tyrannies in human history. Literally - look up the casualty estimates on Wikipedia. Or think about the fact that never before in human history had a government distorted and destroyed the most fundamental human relationships between family, friends, colleagues and fellow citizens. Stalin destroyed the most fundamental glue that holds us in a society, makes us human and is rooted in our fundamental biology and evolutionary history. But he wasn't able to eliminate it or keep it from coming back. I rather like the political cartoonist's tributes to Solzhenitsyn.
The Storyteller
Unfortunately Stalin's inventiveness didn't go unoticed around the world and many clever and imitative people were able to add to our Medieval legacies, natural biological tendencies and combine it with Stalin's lessons to create their own solutions. Yet just as Czesław Miłosz was able to find the poetry and stories to help Eastern Europe rise above those degradations others are doing the same today. Let me introduce you to Chris Abani, courtsey of the TED Talks (an unparlleled resource for exploring all sorts of things). the Nigerian author, activist, UCSC professor and torture survivor.
This is what TED had to say about his first talk:
"In this deeply personal talk, Nigerian writer Chris Abani says that “what we know about how to be who we are” comes from stories. He searches for the heart of Africa through its poems and narrative, including his own."
But the one you should really listen to is his second. If the first makes the point we're shooting for here, that stories (myths, values, beliefs) are what make us truly human this second tells you what the struggle to be human in a nightmare is like. Take a moment (actually about 20 mins to watch Chris). Maybe longer if you really listen to his story. We'll still be here. The thing, once it truly sinks in about what you're hearing, is how he takes us beyond to the best we can be. The Roman Stoic philosopher was an advisor to Emporer's, a great man, rich and influential and one of the great thinkers of Classical times. What lends special credability to his wors, for me, is that his last and greatest work was written in prison just before he was executed. Chris speaks to us from the "Heart of Darkness" and finds a path to humanity out of it. Based on the stories we tell and the redemptive powers of human nature.
Values, Culture and Stories
Not to get all abstract on you, especially after getting down in the "mud, blood and beer" with the real realities nonetheless I do want to come to a larger point, or return to it, in a sense. And pardon the graphic but it gets back to something we think is central. The ground we stand on, our values and culture, is what makes our lives livable, worthwhile and survivable even. And it is the glue that holds our society together. At the end of the day each individual must find the stories the wrestle with each of these dimensions that help them find their ground. And society must achieve the same goals collectively. Or not with the penalties we now know all too well. We've previously dove into the role of religion and believes and their historical evolution and that can be some interesting background if you like: Faith, Hope and Enchantment: Why Religion Matters...More.
The questions might be put this way, but feel free to put them whatever best suites you.
1. How do we cope and manage with violence ? Modern man forgets that violence is the foundation of our society and endemic in our history. And only in modern times and in the West has there been anything like a brief interlude, preceeded by the most horrific and destructive wars and governments in human history.
2. How do we reconcile Faith and Knowledge, or Science and Religion ? This is a newer question that is the fruits really of the Rennaissance and has led to a continous 500-year struggle. One that strangely enough seems to be more vituperatie with intellectual denials recently than organized religion's denials. A large topic but one that is essential for our future and we've extensively discussed (Science vs or plus Religion: From Disingenuous to New Frontiers).
3. How do we find and express the best that is in us ? Another large question but the arts serve a dual purpose of entertainment to help relieve the stresses of the day. And make no mistake - one only has to watch the Kennedy Honors to understand that entertainment can require everything a gifted performer has. But "High Art" at it's best holds up a mirror to help us see what we've not seen - truthful, ugly, beautifully. At its' better than best it helps us find deeper truths and experience things beyond mere words.
4. How do we train our minds and our selves to truly use our knowledge, mental capabilities, etc. to think about the world ? What is the best way to think ? To learn to think and apply it ? And how do we move from being animals who's minds are rationalizing engines to enable our more primitive selfs to pursue the game and instead elevate our decision-making processes ?
One way or another you and your society answer those questions. Often accumulatively and unconsciously over a period of time, at least until the ground shifts and shows how unstable it is. But it is stories that helped you find your ground in the first place. And may help you find new ground when you need to.
Continue reading "Stories We Tell Ourselves: Values, Culture and Change" »
rude awakening. But cast your mind back to that day if you can and try and recover the shock and dismay as all the rock-solid beliefs that we all shared were ground to dust and rubble. If you have trouble going back you might let Alan Jackson set the stage - in fact to make my point please do: Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning? It's not clear we're entirely back on our feet even yet but we've made a lot of progress. But on Sept. 28, 2008 there was a bigger change in the world when Lehman collapsed and almost took the entire world economy with it. Why do we say that? Because the world we thought we lived in was a world where not everybody was going to be a millionaire, indeed far from it. But it was a world where we all thought the rock-solid bedrock of America was that everybody would have a chance to better themselves and build a better life for their children. That world got blown up that day. More correctly we all found out that what we thought was bedrock was actually sand, actually quicksand, and we'd been slowly sinking into it for almost three decades. That shock was the earthquake that told us that our most fundamental assumptions about America needed re-examination.
