MULTITUDE PARADIGM

To what extent can “multiculturalism” be an everyday practice for folks? Before one could answer that question, one should define culture. In trying to define culture one is faced with a vast array of thoughts and ideas. Although definitions across multiple disciplines could cause confusion, perhaps definitions offered by some anthropologists would suffice. Edgar Schein describes culture as “a pattern of shared assumptions.” Geert Hofstede defines it as “the collective mental programming of the people in an environment.”In contestation to concrete definitions, the anthropologist James Clifford offers a new and complex explanation of culture. He writes, “If culture is not an object to be described, neither is it a unified corpus of symbols and meanings that can be definitely interpreted. Culture is contested, temporal and emergent.” In calling for a planetary thinking and multicultural existence, Edgar Morin problematizes the discourse of “culture definition.” Accordingly,  he wants the world to transform into a multicultural entity. In that sense culture can be a concept that transcends singularity and becomes plural. In other words, culture can transform from specific ways of life to global life. Audiovisual arts with their universality can be the vehicle to usher in such a transformation of culture from a “way of life” to “life in global terms.” If culture is “life” and “universal”—in other words, if culture can become pluralistic (i.e., multiculturalism)—then projection-identification happens to all participants of the artistic experience. Upon acceptance of this concept, one might ask, what kind of audiovisual art can take advantage of projection-identification complex and transform its audiences?

SOCIAL JUSTICE

What people mean by the term social justice may vary depending on the social psychology of individuals. Moreover, the ideological apparatus of a society can, to a great extent, determine the parameters that define what social justice means to the majority of members of that society. To be sure, people are strongly affected by their assessments of what is just or fair in their dealings with others.

 

One can ask, What does a person mean by justice and how it influences his or her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Throughout history, writings of philosophers, theologians, and social theorists as diverse as Aristotle, Derrida, Kant, Marx, Morin, Plato, and Rawls have been shaped by efforts to define how individuals, groups, and societies ought to behave. Although diverse in many respects, all of these efforts have in common the argument that both people and societies should be governed by standards of conduct beyond simple deference to the possession of power and resources.In the final analysis, it is vital that people not only be treated fairly but also know that they are treated fairly.

ETHICS & MYSTICISM

Are there ethical aspects to mysticism? There is a misunderstanding amongst the “learned” as well as the “average” thinking persons that mysticism is essentially an escape from humanistic responsibilities. The mystic, it is falsely believed, retreats into an esoteric paradigm to suppress his or her sorrows and by extension forget the rest of humanity’s suffering. If that is true, mysticism is nothing but a narcissistic practice. That is, of course, nonsense!  To be sure, treating a transcendent consciousness as “self-awareness,” and an ”end” to all there is to be done by human beings is indeed a selfish act. What is more,  there have been mystics who have gone that route, but not many.  The great teacher of mysticism, Meister Eckhart, for example, often went out of his way to explicate the ethical responsibilities of mysticism. He asserted that mystical union means achieving an intense state of loving and this indeed must include the love of all human beings. It does not stop there, however, with love comes the ethical responsibility to take action in helping other human beings. This requires generosity, mercy, and self-sacrifice, in words and action. One could translate this assertion into theory and practice of the ethical aspects of mysticism. 

More later…