The Power of Culture

Recently I posted comments on a book entitled, To Change the World by Dr. James Davison Hunter. In his book, Dr. Hunter questions the normative view of culture and every norm associated with it.

Culture is thought to be about hearts and minds, and to change culture one simply had to change the majority of hearts and minds. Dr. Hunters believes this is not the case at all. He, not only, challenges this notion but provides an alternative view of culture, which, after dwelling on it and re-reading that section of the book, I tend to agree with his analysis and subsequent theory on this.

Dr. Hunter believes that culture is a "normative order by which we comprehend others, the larger world and ourselves and through which we individually and collectively order our experiences." Dr. Hunter believes that the heart of culture is a "complex of norms" or as he has termed them, "commanding truths." Dr. Hunter believes that these "commanding truths" define the "shoulds and should nots of our experiences and the good and evil, the right and wrong, the appropriate and inappropriate, the honorable and the shameful. To put it succinctly, Dr. Hunter describes culture as a system of truth claims and moral obligations." To him culture is really about ideas.

If Dr. Hunter is right, and I believe that he is more right than wrong, then, what does this new view of culture say about the role of education in acquiring morality? Outside of the family, there is no greater teacher of morality than the educational institution. It is said that values and morals are caught more than taught, and that the act of catching comes from sheer hours of time spent in connection with others who already have values or are also catching values. The truth that we claim and the morality that we follow, from where do they come?

Truth and morality begin within the family, but as your child grows others begin to partner with you in this process despite your greatest protests. Teachers, friends, coaches and friend's parents start to become part of this process - not intentionally, of course. As your child's world expands, they begin to spend more time away from you and with others. They play, run and imagine in different ways and with different others. They interact with the world through their family, their friends, their teachers, their coaches, their mentors and their heroes. All of this affects the formation of their truth and their morality in a deep and impacting way. Eventually, a fabric is woven into a worldview that is, in essence, reality for all of us. Dr. Hunter believes this created worldview is so embedded in who we are that it is reality for all of us. He writes,

"[Worldview] is not just our view of what is right or wrong or true or false but our understanding of time, space, and identity - the very essence of reality as we experience it."

Dr. Hunter's view of culture is very different and very helpful to those of us who want to understand the power of culture and its impacting effect on all of us. He writes on what culture is,

"One must view culture, then not only as a normative order reflected in well established symbols, but also as the organization of human activity surrounding the production, distribution, manipulation, and administration of these symbols. Another way to say this is that culture is intrinsically dialectical. It is generated and exists at the interface between ideas and institutions; between the symbolic and the social and physical environment."

If it is indeed a battle of ideas and their relationships to all of us, and I am beginning to believe that it is, then the education we choose matters greatly. The power of culture is two-fold: culture is a powerful influence on who we are, and it is a power that can be changed by ideas and the people who promote them. Education is an important variable in their equation. Stay tuned for more comments on this very interesting topic! Blessings!