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Karen,
Good one. I like your proposals, and suspect you may know where
to begin. Please, continue.
I think that the U.S., like any modern nation, could stand some
liberation
from false security, like W.M.D.s, guns in general, armed forces--in
other words, defencelessness. An economy based in responsible and
sustainable (as possible) creativity that extends round the globe. People
who mostly live to work have no hope that things could be different
and meaningful. They are dis-spirited, un-inspired, out-of-spirits.
When
the focus is self-centred, and in a capitalist society this is
encouraged,
people on the other side of the street barely matter, let alone
someone
overseas. To work but for material wealth simply drains individuals
and ultimately the identity of a culture or nation. The guilt of
ignoring
billions of impoverished brothers and sisters will manifest in
sedation
through immediate gratification. Creativity will flourish again only
when
the U.S. decides to live by example as a caring, giving nation, that
is
secure in the wisdom of knowing peace is truth, and war is a barbaric
business solely initiated to defend the wealth of the nation or to
steal
wealth for the nation. The collective guilt from all war activity is
enough
to keep people from enjoying life.
Once funding is rechannelled to higher pursuits, and war is no longer our
children's future, people can lighten up again. With war retained as
the
so-called necessity, there is no room for celebration because we are
condoning death upon strangers who are really a part of
ourselves. No new
educational system nor well-supported arts program will inspire the
nation
or the world to happiness while defensiveness and aggression still
courses
through our thoughts as an option. People as humans have got to make the
big decision, and follow through. Capitalism will just have to evolve along
with
the rest of us, because it's also doomed if it does not revise its
goals.
It's time to live up to our capacity, unburden, and revel
in what has to be a
global rejuvenation.
Natalia
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2003 1:17
PM
Subject: [Futurework] Cultural
Contradictions of Capitalism
In what I’m coyly referring to as the
midsummer version of the nearly furious Winter and Spring debate over the
European and American divide, TIME’s Michael Elliott writes from Paris
that
Europeans
Just Want to Have Fun
Long vacations. Lots of dancing. So why
can’t we loosen up?
Excerpt: “In a
famous series of essays collected in his 1976 book, The Cultural
Contradictions of Capitalism, Daniel Bell noted how the decline of the
Protestant small-town ethic had unhinged American capitalism from its moral
foundation in the intrinsic value of work. By the 1960s, Bell argued, "the
cultural justification of capitalism [had] become hedonism, the idea of
pleasure as a way of life." This magazine agreed. In a 1969 cover story titled
"California: A State of Excitement," TIME reported that, as most Americans saw
it, "the good, godless, gregarious pursuit of pleasure is what California is
all about ... 'I have seen the future,' says the newly returned visitor to
California, 'and it plays.'"
But
the American future didn't turn out as we expected. While Europeans cut the
hours they spend at the office or factory — in France it is illegal to work
more than 35 hours a week — and lengthened their vacations, Americans were
concluding that you could be happy only if you work hard and play hard. So
they began to stay at their jobs longer than ever and then, in jam-packed
weekends at places like the Hamptons on Long Island, invented the uniquely
American concept of scheduled joy, filling a day off with one appointment
after another, as if it were no different from one at the office. American
conservatives, meanwhile, came to believe that Europeans' desire to devote
themselves to the pleasures of life and — the shame of it!--six weeks annual
vacation was evidence of a lack of seriousness and would, in any event, end in
economic tears.
Why do
Europeans and Americans differ so much in their attitude toward work and
leisure? I can think of two reasons. First, the crowded confines of Western
Europe and the expansive space of North America have led to varied consumer
preferences. Broadly
speaking, Americans value stuff — SUVs, 7,000-sq.-ft. houses — more than they
value time, while for Europeans it's the opposite. Second, as Bell predicted,
America's sense of itself as a religious nation has revived. At least in the
puritanical version of Christianity that has always appealed to Americans,
religion comes packaged with the stern message that hard work is good for the
soul. Modern Europe has avoided so melancholy a lesson.
Whatever
the explanation, the idea of a work-life balance is a staple of European
discourse, studied in think tanks, mulled over by policymakers. In the U.S.,
the term, when it's used at all, is said with the sort of sneer reserved for
those who eat quiche. But it might still catch on. When Bill Keller was named
executive editor of the New York Times last week, he encouraged the staff to
do "a little more savoring" of life, spending time with their families or
viewing art.” (end of excerpt. July 28 issue, pg. 76 or http://www.time.com/time/columnist/printout/0,8816,466081,00.html)
Most
of us on FW have argued or agreed that the Puritanical influences are alive
and well in America today, we take ourselves much too seriously. It’s led to a religious idolatry of
Free Market sects, created mass markets of medicated and numb worker bees, and
allowed the proliferation of a consumer culture based on plastic and home
ownership, not much else. So is
one solution to Pax Americana and Big Brother 2004 a big party? I am interested in American culture
being less identified with product lines and profit margins and more
recognized for its literary and artistic performances; indeed, we cannot
sustain (note how popular this word is now and generically applied) the
momentum of a superpower for much longer if we forget what we are fighting
for, and that does include real culture and sense of time and place – and
play? We cannot even have a good
time being patriotic these days, it’s become an exercise in intensity and
loyalty.
Is
it arrogance that led us down this path? Or ignorance? Or what else? We have reminders all around us, from
friend and foe that empires do not last forever. Blair managed to sneak that warning in
his speech to Congress, and Italy’s Berlosconi added his two cents worth (also
in this same issue of Time) that what Italy learned from the Roman Empire is
that “every prince needs allies, and the bigger the responsibility, the more
allies he needs.”
So
should Americans be stepping back and looking at the horizon, reflecting on
the small and simple things that make life worthwhile, rather than being
force-fed superpower heroic vitamins? I vote yes.
KWC
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