Notes for discussion in the US in November 2010 about whether the country faces a crisis of culture as well as a political, financial, economic crisis etc. What exactly is a 'crisis of culture'?

1. Culture matters
International Futures Forum - US
Berkeley HUB November 2010
editorial@internationalfuturesforum.com

3. Cultures create psyches and
psyches create cultures
► Inhabitants of coherent cultures share core
narratives, patterns of expectations and behaviors
and conceptual frames that pervade every aspect
of life
► This worldview defines the psychology--identity
and mental capacities or “mind” of the socially
desired and successful person
► Locally distinct ways of life simultaneously
express, maintain and perpetuate this psychology
► When cultural contexts change or collide,
psychologies adapt, transform, or collapse.

4. Psycho-cultural co-
creation

5. Cultures provide
►Framing to make meaning from the “buzzing
confusion”
►Alignment of expectations
►Safe management of diversity
►Containers and outlets for existential anxieties
►Rules for collaboration
►Civilize group behavior (regulate balance
between haves and have nots)
►Reinforcement of "internalized reality maps" to
guide individual actions , socialize children and
newcomers

6. The deeper news
• Identity
• Attention (what we notice)
• Perception (what we see)
• Motivation (what we strive for)
• Meaning making (what we make of it)
• Brain development
• Emotions that are triggered by experience
• Learning (what we retain and associate)
• Epistemology (the basis truth claims)
• What we know-technical knowledge, concepts,
information, habits, culture
• Conceptual strategies and rules for using accumulated
knowledge of humanity

7. Mental autopilot
►The range of what we think and do is
limited by what we fail to notice. And
because we fail to notice that we fail
to notice there is little we can do to
change, until we notice how failing to
notice shapes out thoughts and deeds .
R.D. Laing.

8. Harmony

9. I
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D
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V
I
D
U
A
L
I
D
E
N
T
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T
Y

10. The times they are a changin’
►Now and then there is a sudden and
rapid passage to a totally new and
more comprehensive type of order or
organization, with quite new emergent
properties, and involving quite new
methods of further evolution.
Julian Huxley, 1st director general of
UNESCO 1950
►

12. Workplace
profession
Ancestors
family and
progeny
Neighborhood
club
Sexuality
psychology
self
personality
Logic, language, culture of socialization,
landscape, climate
Religion,
beliefs.
values
Pol party
Travel
experiences
immigration /dislocation
Social/Economic
/power status
Education
Training.
Skills
gender
race
age
health
Sports club
Adverts
Media
Means of
sustenance

13. Workplace
profession
Ancestors
family and
progeny
Neighborhood
club
Sexuality
psychology
self
personality
nationality language, culture of
socialization, landscape, climate
Religion,
beliefs.
values
Pol party
Travel
experiences
immigration
Economic
status
Education
Training.
skills
race
age
health
Sports club
Adverts
Media

14. Source:TheGuardian,summer2007

15. Inflection Point

16. Maladaptive responses

17. Its about consciousness
►Without a global revolution in the sphere of
human consciousness, nothing will change
for the better in the sphere of our being as
humans, and the catastrophe toward which
we are headed . . . will be unavoidable.
Vaclav Havel (Quoted in Lasley, 1994,p. 3)

18. Interregnum
► Zygmunt Bauman’ describes a "liquid" modernity: a
state of constantly changing circumstances and
shifting priorities that make it difficult for
individuals to have the time or frames of reference
to organize their lives under conditions of extreme
ambiguity.

19. Questions
1. Are we correct that this is a crisis of culture
in the US and not just financial, economic,
political etc?
2. What are you seeing or experiencing that
makes you feel that is so?
3. Where are the signs of hope?