June 24, 2007
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Soft Minds Think Alike
I’ve been digging up information on American literary theorist/philosopher Kenneth Burke this morning. Oftentimes, I come away from social situations deeply disturbed. Its difficult to explain, but I often feel like people’s minds are soft, like complacency is king.
This atrophy takes form in a variety of ways, but one particularly dangerous way is the American habit (see footnote) of limiting conversations to the identification of problems (“kids these days,” for example), without having the analytical skills or the articulation to move the conversation forward to explore all the many different contributing factors to why that issue exists, to why they perceive it as an issue, to what people are doing to amend the problem, to what works and does not work, ect. In other words, I am deeply disturbed that many, many Americans show zero interest in solving the world’s problems over a pint, over coffee, while breaking bread. It made me think “why don’t people sit down to a Burkean parlor anymore?” And then it made me think, “who is Burke anyway?” Thus, this morning’s research.
Anyway, I’m hoping that Kenneth Burke might be able to help me understand how to fix the “soft mind” issue. The societal fixedness on problems with no interest in creative solutions is horrifying to me; are we really in that much of a decline? I think we are. We are in dire need of a renaissance. And I think that my future Writing Centre can contribute to it.
Not sure if I’ve ever blogged about it in-depth before, but my long-term career goal is to open my own not-for-profit centre for writing and the arts. The past three years right out of college I’ve been working at not-for-profit cultural enterprises and writing centers to see how they work. I’ve been tutoring composition and teaching writing workshops. I’ve been taking courses in English as a Second Language. I think the next phase of my plan involves working as teacher to understand the need in a deeper way, to plant roots in my community in the way I will need to in order to operate successfully. I will get my masters in something like not-for-profit management or education policy. My centre will be built to last, it will make me feel like I’m contributing in the way I best know how.
I need to get my hands on Burke’s A Grammar of Motives, because I think it will totally help me in developing the pedagogy that my centre will operate on.
According to trusty-old Wikipedia (aka: take this info with a hearty grain of salt), Burke explains in a Grammar of Motives his belief that “language doesn’t simply “reflect” reality; it also helps select reality as well as deflect reality.” Special attention needs to be paid to giving people the very vernacular to be able to even dream of a solution, let alone communicate it and activate it.
Wiki goes on to state: “Burke pursued literary criticism not as a formalistic enterprise but rather as an enterprise with significant sociological impact; he saw literature as “equipment for living,” offering folk wisdom and common sense to people and thus guiding the way they lived their lives.” So true. So scary, since books and plays are now in such tight competition with films with flimsy scripts and video games with stories detached from emotion and any motive other than “kill and score points.”
Burke also has this big theory on something he calls Dramatism, where as the world is literally a stage; when humans respond to a situation, they are rationalizing it in terms of story. They react in a way that makes sense in that schematic. I’m not sure if I buy into this theory in full yet (I need to read the book first!), but I know that I actually think in those very terms; I am aware of Dramatism in my own motivations. I know if a decision feels right if it is the “story” I want to tell of my life. Making decisions feels very much like authoring to me.
Practice in authoring works of writing and works of art is a social enterprise not only in the creative product, but in the very act of practicing decision making skills, analytical thinking and creation. It combats the “soft mind.” So far, authoring and the teaching of it is the way that I can best contribute to the revolution, the much-needed renaissance. Because we can’t keep going the way we are going. The world needs to be awakened. We’ve been asleep for too long and bad things have happened while we slumbered.
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Do you notice the “soft mind” in your community? How do you combat it?My little footnote:
You might have noticed that I’ve been labeling this as an American problem. This is not to slag off my fellow countrymen and women. It’s just because I have too little experience with the rest of the world (a year in Scotland does not give anybody that authority, least of all young, 25-year-old me) to nit pick at the cultural nuances of the rest of the world. I can say that I rarely encounter “soft minds” while conversing with Glaswegians (and I can even venture to say that this may be due to a culture that favors gathering at the pub to shoot the shit over watching television at home, isolated and alone), but the truth of the matter is that our friends and colleagues in Glasgow are academics, so of course there will be a different tone to our interactions.
Comments (6)
Man, if you were a boy I would be crushing on you. What an awesome way to wake up on a Sunday! Philosophy! Big merci for bringing Burke to mind. I have another to investigate.You writing lab is a solution oriented thing. McSweeney’s 826 projects are inspiring in that vein as they expand I would love to be a part of that. But my little solution, the one I have been working on (until just recently, sometimes a mind needs to go soft for a sec) is to revolutionize and make effective e-schools. All that exist right now are wanting. I have been investigating online communities for this purpose. The community that is able to promote thought and solutions by providing technology and examples is going to win the race and that race is going to lead the world to a better place in so many ways. Ecologists will dig it, but so will humanitarians AND the bogus one to one computer programs will finally have a saving grace in that a defined purpose will make them golden boys on tax levies. (A community can get one o one computers for WAAAAY cheaper than new schools and the makers can build a kind of produc loyalty that to date only crack dealers seems to know.Oh man. I am sorry! I was going to go on here for pages. I will end it with this though, so far others have shown interest. Mildly here at Xanga but moreso over at the ORG. Both places could host the prototype and be the mommas of a new thinking day. (Gotta see the word drama out on those things because if not then the motor run slower and the battle is years not months in the winning.)Burke’s focus on rhetoric is something that psychologists and the like have used to help in healing. Having the words to heal oneself is life saving. In a social situation, having the words to heal a conflict can be too. They are so important. I think that is why when I know that a person understands how to use and has the vernacular and vocabulary to use words of meaning and then doesn’t it feels as if they are being mean to me. Lazy, soft and as if I am not worth the rhetorical time. (That being said, people so underestimate the value and purpose of dialect and word choice and too often opt for the lofty instead of something interesting IMO.)The motives treatise sounds cool. I only read the wiki and the pentad sounds like the producers of reality TV took a page out of his book to a degree. I would be very interested in your thoguhts after you give it a go.Americans soft minds, I think, in the end if digging and self-loathing were to be investigated it would come to that they are afraid of making mistakes and looking foolish. And that might be then ascribed to the fabled natural drive. Who knows. Super invigorating Sunday morning though! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Oh man. I am sorry.
That’s why I hate people who spend their time with empty gripes and complaints, yet just sit back and let the subjects about which they gripe and complain happen. On the other hand, my friends and I have solved many of the world’s problems over a pint (or several) in a bar. OK, we haven’t actually, you know, done much to solve these problems, but you don’t see us just complaining about it without at least being cognizant of potential solutions.Giving people a vocabulary is like giving them any kind of tool. The more they use it, the more they learn, the more handy it becomes. Self-expression is one step toward self-actualization, so words are powerful tools indeed.Oh, and Dramatism may well inform my life, as I sometimes come into situations and wonder (perhaps subconsciously): Which course of action will lead to the best story or — egads! — the best blog entry? (Yes, I say egads subconsciously sometimes.) But I think our lives are enriched by seeking out experiences that make for interesting stories.
Holy shit, Truly, you have completely lost me on that Burke stuff. I’m the soft mind today. I honestly don’t know what he’s talking about. Of course, I might have a better bead on it if I weren’t wheezing from cleaning out my son’s old room. Dust everywhere. It got so bad, I had to use an inhaler. I’m still recovering from it. But the room is spotless.RYC: They were a bit dense. All they knew was romance and mysteries. I don’t think any of them read literary fiction and that pissed me off. Lynn
Saw the reference to the wallpaper at Boo’s and took a look. At least living in constant cold rain has not washed Glaswegians of their humor. If someone were to begin selling the US version in the city, there would be an immediate investigation called by some elected one, posturing for regulations, not as censorship of course, but only in the interest of “national security, protection of little ones or erasing unfair stereotypes.”
Some of the same humorless are also closet prohibitionists, increasingly lowering the legal limits on consumption of a pint or two (and driving) to the point that all meaningful discussion of solving the world’s problems over a pint at the neighborhood grill are effectively prohibited and it is easier to drink in isolation in our own homes or end up like Paris. That Paris, for example was pegged at a BAC of about .8 which was well under the limit a few years back when were were educated as to “the evils” by State Troopers in drivers ed class. Interesting that those now making the rules are promoting a model where philosophic discussion and discourse is limited. Who benefits from that? Call it the “Paris Effect.”
Obviously liked your thoughtful post and reading of your plans; also found out more about Boo’s project here than on her own “Boowasborn” site. You both are reasons where in spite of sometimes overwhelming odds against, I still have a positive outlook to the future. A nod of my beaker to you!
I loved the Timorous Beasties paper. Wow.We will have to meet when you get back. I will travel!