‘Culture Learning’ is a topic that will hold my interest endlessly; not only because linguistics and how we communicate fascinate me, but also because I am a cultural transplant myself. When I talk about culture I mean language, conventions, traditions and rituals, as well as the sub textual behaviors of a civilization: communication in its broadest sense.
The popular philosopher and critical theorist Slavoy Zizek talks about how we are embedded in ideology and defines identity as follows: “Identity lives in the space between invention and reality.” (Slavoy Zizek, “How are we Embedded in Ideology”, Prague 2007).
What is reality, or said differently, what is truth? Truth is the sum of a society’s conventions. There are rules and meta-rules, which are unknown knowns, call them habits or unspoken conventions that set the parameters for moving flawlessly through a society. It is a social network of implicit rules that tell you how to deal with the explicit rules.
Immigrants come into a new set of rules that are the makeup of their host society. Some rules are obvious, some are not. Assimilation and integration starts with learning of the explicit rules. But the meta-rules or implicit rules we only learn over time by trial and error, by using our intuition and assessing situations and reactions to us.
When too many people do not know the implicit rules of a society, the context for these rules weakens. Once the rules lose their context, they collapse. That is what ‘fear of the Other’ really is – a fear of losing one’s own truth.
Showing posts with label Reality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reality. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Truth - Part 2
“Identity lives in the space between invention and reality.”
What is truth? Truth is the sum of a society’s conventions. There are rules and meta-rules, which are unknown knowns, call them habits or unspoken conventions that set the parameters for moving flawlessly through a society. It is a social network of implicit rules that tell you how to deal with the explicit rules.
Immigrants come into a new set of rules that are the makeup of their host society. Some rules are obvious, some are not. Assimilation and integration starts with learning of the explicit rules. But the meta-rules or implicit rules we only learn over time by trial and error, by using our intuition and assessing situations and reactions to us.
When too many people do not know the implicit rules of a society, the context for these rules weakens. Once the rules lose their context, they collapse. That is what ‘fear of the Other’ really is – a fear of losing one’s own truth.
[Watch 90 absolutely fascinating minutes of Slavoy Zizek’s discourse in Prague (2007) on “How are we Embedded in Ideology”.]
What is truth? Truth is the sum of a society’s conventions. There are rules and meta-rules, which are unknown knowns, call them habits or unspoken conventions that set the parameters for moving flawlessly through a society. It is a social network of implicit rules that tell you how to deal with the explicit rules.
Immigrants come into a new set of rules that are the makeup of their host society. Some rules are obvious, some are not. Assimilation and integration starts with learning of the explicit rules. But the meta-rules or implicit rules we only learn over time by trial and error, by using our intuition and assessing situations and reactions to us.
When too many people do not know the implicit rules of a society, the context for these rules weakens. Once the rules lose their context, they collapse. That is what ‘fear of the Other’ really is – a fear of losing one’s own truth.
[Watch 90 absolutely fascinating minutes of Slavoy Zizek’s discourse in Prague (2007) on “How are we Embedded in Ideology”.]
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Future of Storytelling
Chris Brogan’s series of posts on the future of media, work, marketplaces and community got me thinking about the future of storytelling. Something we are thinking about a lot in the Quo Vadis Think Tank (more on that later).
The future of storytelling is non-linear (sadly, as far as I’m concerned), media centric and for that reason flexible, I would venture to guess also more fragmented and modular. Storytelling will be increasingly interactive, in cases even crowd-sourced, free and digital. Copyright will get a run for its money and need to reinvent itself… I also think the message of the story will become more important.
The message has always been the core for documentaries; and maybe I’m co-mingling message with truth. As documentaries will have to adapt to non-linear, media centric, flexible, interactive and free – how does that change the story? Is the story the message and the medium?
Which brings us to Marshall McLuhan: “The Medium is the Message”. McLuhan says that societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the medium by which people communicate than by the content of the communication. To which I would add: there are about three (maybe five, ok, no more than ten) original plot lines in the world, any other narrative is a derivative or embellishment thereof.
Where IS the message today? Where IS the story? What story does the medium itself give us and how will it shape us into the future? How will Romeo and Juliet, Pygmalion and the Iliad come to us? IS the internet the medium or the meta-medium ultimately?
The future of storytelling is non-linear (sadly, as far as I’m concerned), media centric and for that reason flexible, I would venture to guess also more fragmented and modular. Storytelling will be increasingly interactive, in cases even crowd-sourced, free and digital. Copyright will get a run for its money and need to reinvent itself… I also think the message of the story will become more important.
The message has always been the core for documentaries; and maybe I’m co-mingling message with truth. As documentaries will have to adapt to non-linear, media centric, flexible, interactive and free – how does that change the story? Is the story the message and the medium?
Which brings us to Marshall McLuhan: “The Medium is the Message”. McLuhan says that societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the medium by which people communicate than by the content of the communication. To which I would add: there are about three (maybe five, ok, no more than ten) original plot lines in the world, any other narrative is a derivative or embellishment thereof.
Where IS the message today? Where IS the story? What story does the medium itself give us and how will it shape us into the future? How will Romeo and Juliet, Pygmalion and the Iliad come to us? IS the internet the medium or the meta-medium ultimately?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Reality by detour of Identity and Truth
We have arrived at the topic of reality – again. As a doc filmmaker reality has always been the ethically most relevant topic, but what IS reality? Take it a step further: what is reality and what is fiction and where do they become a lie?
As I’m thinking about Identity a lot these days such banal questions as: “Who am I?” or “What is my reality?” pop up all the time. “Which me is real?” Is it the Facebook profile, my adventurous and sexy Avatar on Second Life, the somewhat overbearing producer, or the sloppy me in the lobby sneaking to the mailbox hoping to remain unseen? My nephew announces he has the best score in the world (!) on Nintendo, because Nintendo tells him so. In the world? Yes, in HIS world.
If I don’t know any better, am I lying? I think you are lying if you are claiming to have done something you have not done. Run the marathon? Sure, but actually I didn’t sing up I just entered the race at mile 2 and left just before the finish line as I can’t cross it without an official bib. To me, with my Swiss background that is an outright lie to say that you ran "the Marathon" under those circumstances, to my Latin friend that’s a minor detail no one is going to lose sleep over. Is my friend lying, or is he well within the ethical boundaries of his culture and not lying? It’s a question I cannot decide, because emotional me decides differently than pragmatic me.
There is no absolute Identity, there is no absolute Reality and there is no absolute Truth. What do you think?
As I’m thinking about Identity a lot these days such banal questions as: “Who am I?” or “What is my reality?” pop up all the time. “Which me is real?” Is it the Facebook profile, my adventurous and sexy Avatar on Second Life, the somewhat overbearing producer, or the sloppy me in the lobby sneaking to the mailbox hoping to remain unseen? My nephew announces he has the best score in the world (!) on Nintendo, because Nintendo tells him so. In the world? Yes, in HIS world.
If I don’t know any better, am I lying? I think you are lying if you are claiming to have done something you have not done. Run the marathon? Sure, but actually I didn’t sing up I just entered the race at mile 2 and left just before the finish line as I can’t cross it without an official bib. To me, with my Swiss background that is an outright lie to say that you ran "the Marathon" under those circumstances, to my Latin friend that’s a minor detail no one is going to lose sleep over. Is my friend lying, or is he well within the ethical boundaries of his culture and not lying? It’s a question I cannot decide, because emotional me decides differently than pragmatic me.
There is no absolute Identity, there is no absolute Reality and there is no absolute Truth. What do you think?
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