Subject: Help In Identifying Meaning Making Resources Date: 18 & 19 May 1999
Bob Stilger, Executive Director, Northwest Regional Facilitators
East 525 Mission Avenue Spokane, WA 99202
NRF Home Page: http://www.nrf.org
ResilientCommunities Home Page: http://www.resilientcommunities.org
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Bob Stilger wrote:
you wrote, Jamie:>"Making Meaning" implies that they have to participate and create ... and our current >McLuhan culture generally discourages that. Meaning is made for them/us by the political >and media controllers.
I wonder, Jamie. Is meaning made this way, or is it meaninglessness that is made? Do you think that people actually believe the messages of the media, or that it simply fills into a void.
Perhaps it doesn't matter and the result is the same. Pondering.....
Robert L. Stilger, Executive Director
Hi Bob.
I understand why you say the current media situation creates 'meaninglessness' ... some uniform and imposed perspective leaves the rest of the population empty of experiencing the creativity that wells outward from within a person. But it still is a 'meaning' .. it has substance and impact ... it molds the persona of a society and culture ... for good and for evil.
I heard a cogent remark by a commentator talking about Columbine. Advertisers spend thousands and millions of dollars just to have a visual presence in the middle of a motion picture ... the so called 'casually and happenstantial' placement of a product logos in the middle of a popular film ... all with the intention of viewers registering it subliminally and then going out to buy the product. But then, all the pundits and politicians and apologists for violence and carnal ugliness say its just freedom of speech and how in the world could images and such "make" people copy-cat and do things they 'know' is unacceptable, illegal and wrong ?!?! ... there is no "proof" that such things affect people's actions and behaviors.
I mean, come on now, the prevarication is enormous, just in the name of 'Commerce'.
The perversities are creating real 'meaning' for us, they don't reflect who we are, they encourage us to be those ways ... maybe not the majority, but the impressionable youth and the adults on or beyond the edge of social attachment. And when the improper actions become widespread, no body is home to take responsibility, except the weakminded (once "innocent") people who did the illegal/immoral acts, and they are left holding the bag, to suffer for their acts. Now, I don't say they are totally innocent of responsibility at that point, but when the conceptual environment whips people into mob-mentality, into hysterical and
thoughtless actions, into treating life companions as soul-less targets without value and substance, then the information/image providers are definitely at fault. It may be 'free speech' but at some point it's simply 'pollution'.
The world needs a stronger dose of Confucian morality/humanity ... voiced loud and clear.
Part of the problem is the twisted concept of 'paying protection money'. Criminal acts are permitted, and then the victims have to pay to prevent being criminalized. Phone 'slamming' isn't illegal even though it's a blatant infringment of several laws. Instead, victims are forced to pay extra or take extra action to prevent it from happening again and/or to restore the original phone arrangements. It's a gangster mentality that's gone wild.
Moral values are being toyed with in the name of economic exchange. It's just not right. But I don't have any clear answers, except to voice moral commitment, along with the rest of you. The 'free market place' is apparently more important than a free and moral citizenry.
We need leadership ... unafraid of the monied interests .. to take is into the Healing Century that humanity deserves. A viable global economy is crucial ... but if it isn't there to take care of it's human participants, just who is it there for?, and why is it preferred over human decency?
Making meaning seems a worthy goal ... as long as it contributes to the betterment of humanity, not it's debasement.
Bottom line ... people do care about 'meaning' in their lives. It's what gives us a sense of place ... in our families, our communities, our world, and in the wonderment of 'I exist .. as part of all these phenomenal goings on.' ... in the universe. Stories are more important than science. The science will be there no matter what ... but the story, it's all so much better when there is a story. Sitting around a primordial fire at night, listening to the lullabies and recollections of the 'old ones', reading the images of scribed words retelling the achievements of community, valuing the experiences that we may ourselves encounter someday - and need insight in how to feel and deal with things; television, movies, soap operas, novellas ... it is all an ongoing
process of making meaning, exploring purpose, finding value in our existence.
It's the best part of us, Bob. That's why it has to been nurtured in the best ways. We deserve it.
Jamie
=====Jamie,
What a delight you are. And I hear what you mean about meaninglessness. I'm pooped tonight, and need to read and reflect on this more carefully -- but my brain is limited to getting a few things already done out the door. More later.
Bob
=====AH James.
These are such challenging times, aren't they.
This morning I find myself reflecting on how everything in our culture has been based on a scarcity model. The internet is one of the most tangible symbols and vehicles for the breakdown of this model -- but from whence come the replacements?
Distance learning will totally revamp universities and colleges over the next 25 years with a massive shift toward learner center learning in a knowledge rich environment. But who will play the knowledge creation role that universities have, and how will it be paid for?
Costco, and all their mimics, will replace the corner radio shop and corner bookstore -- But who will dispense the knoweldge of the corner radio shop and who will provide the leisurely browsing of the bookstore?
Workplaces will be transformed as knoweldge workers increasingly move knowledge, rather than themselves -- but what will recreate a proximate, animate place for human relationships to grow, be tested and change?
Our commerce is a commerce of scarcity, of manipulating people to buy what they don't need or want in brandnames which make the owners money. Commercial advertising pays for most of our information and knowledge distribution via various media. What happens next?
How do we shift the paradigm? What does it look like? How do we hand on now.... and then?
Ruminations....Bob
