On the difficulty of living and accurately discerning within our own era (or does a fish know that water is wet/?):
…we see the distinction of its parts, rather than their co-relation. It is said that the Japanese Government once sent over a Commission to report upon the art of Europe; and that, having visited the exhibitions of London, Paris, Florence, and Berlin, the Commissioners confessed that the works of the European painters all looked so exactly alike that it was difficult to distinguish one from another. The Japanese eye, trained in absolutely opposed conventions, could not tell the difference between a Watts and a Fortuny, a Théodore Rousseau and a Henry Moore. So it is quite possible, it is even probable, that future critics may see a close similarity where we see nothing but divergence between the various productions of the Victorian age. Yet we can judge but what we discern; and certainly to the critical eye to-day it is the absence of a central tendency, the chaotic cultivation of all contrivable varieties of style, which most strikingly seems to distinguish the times we live in.
From the introduction (written by Edmund Gosse) to Victorian Songs: Lyrics of the Affections and Nature, published in 1895, edited and illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett.
This is slightly amusing, because to my mind, there are few poets as immediately identifiable as the works of their age as the Victorians. Yet, to be amused at this is also to be blind to the typical foibles and similarities of our own age. We are not any better at seeing our own parts as a whole than the Victorians were. We can see the Victorians and their similarities and the marks that distinguish the Victorian era so easily because we have the distance required for that. For our own era, we tend to see the distinctions and miss the similarities and the cultural assumptions we all take for granted so deeply we do not even know we have them, and a hundred years from now, our grandchildren will see mainly the similarities and find it amusing, or even shameful, that we took those things for granted, or thought there were significant distinctions.
To explain this more clearly, I can only quote what C.S. Lewis said In the introduction to On the Incarnation: De Incarnatione Verbi Dei 
(which is one of my favourite things to quote):
(which is one of my favourite things to quote):“…Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions. We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, “But how could they have thought that?”—lies where we have never suspected it.…None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. … Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.”
By modern, here, I would suggest that we consider anything less than 125 years old as fairly modern and unlikely to help us challenge out own assumptions. That may be too expansive, but definitely anything under 50 years old.
Here is something to ponder: what truths do you think we are particularly good at recognizing in our age and culture?
What mistakes do you think we are particularly liable to overlook?
For the first question, let me focus on culture and answer with a story. We have a daughter who has severe disabilities. She has a profound cognitive delay. She does not speak. She can't dress herself and she isn't really toilet trained (we can take her to the bathroom and she will often go, but she will never tell us she needs to go). We adopted her when she was nearly six years old. When we lived overseas, we often had people express amazement or admiration that we take care of her, and that happens here in the U.S. too, but there is a difference. Occasionally, my Asian friends would say something my American friends never say. That is, "And she isn't even your daughter." It was hard to keep my face neutral the first couple of times this happened, which you understand if you are American. If you are from a society with deep connections to Confucious, you probably don't even understand why this is shocking, even borderline offensive. In my culture, when you adopt a child, that is your child. Your real child. Of course you do what you need to do to care for that child because she is yours. But this is not a cultural assumption shared by other cultures. I tried to explain this to a Korean friend once, and she listened intently, but still looked doubtful. I think in America in this century we care about strangers and make strangers family fairly well (not perfectly, but well). We may differ on *how*.
h
Here's my answer to the second question- what mistakes are we particularly liable to overlook? In America, I would say pride. I have had conversations with a Filipino friend where he has commented on something he's seen in American behaviour or in a story I've told about our background, and he says, "That's pride." And I say, "Really? Maybe, but I don't see it that way," and he's flabbergasted, "How could you NOT?" And really, I have to confess that he is generally absolutely right, but even when I think so, it is very, very difficult for me to admit that without making excuses for it.
Yours may vary, and they will likely be equally valid responses. I wonder, however, if the answers we give today will be the same answers somebody living fifty years from now would give about our time and culture? How will we know our answers are accurate? We live in the water, we breathe the assumptions of our culture and it's nearly impossible to pull those those things out of the air and disentangle them so we can see them as they are.
Here is something to ponder: what truths do you think we are particularly good at recognizing in our age and culture?
What mistakes do you think we are particularly liable to overlook?
For the first question, let me focus on culture and answer with a story. We have a daughter who has severe disabilities. She has a profound cognitive delay. She does not speak. She can't dress herself and she isn't really toilet trained (we can take her to the bathroom and she will often go, but she will never tell us she needs to go). We adopted her when she was nearly six years old. When we lived overseas, we often had people express amazement or admiration that we take care of her, and that happens here in the U.S. too, but there is a difference. Occasionally, my Asian friends would say something my American friends never say. That is, "And she isn't even your daughter." It was hard to keep my face neutral the first couple of times this happened, which you understand if you are American. If you are from a society with deep connections to Confucious, you probably don't even understand why this is shocking, even borderline offensive. In my culture, when you adopt a child, that is your child. Your real child. Of course you do what you need to do to care for that child because she is yours. But this is not a cultural assumption shared by other cultures. I tried to explain this to a Korean friend once, and she listened intently, but still looked doubtful. I think in America in this century we care about strangers and make strangers family fairly well (not perfectly, but well). We may differ on *how*.
h
Here's my answer to the second question- what mistakes are we particularly liable to overlook? In America, I would say pride. I have had conversations with a Filipino friend where he has commented on something he's seen in American behaviour or in a story I've told about our background, and he says, "That's pride." And I say, "Really? Maybe, but I don't see it that way," and he's flabbergasted, "How could you NOT?" And really, I have to confess that he is generally absolutely right, but even when I think so, it is very, very difficult for me to admit that without making excuses for it.
Yours may vary, and they will likely be equally valid responses. I wonder, however, if the answers we give today will be the same answers somebody living fifty years from now would give about our time and culture? How will we know our answers are accurate? We live in the water, we breathe the assumptions of our culture and it's nearly impossible to pull those those things out of the air and disentangle them so we can see them as they are.
 |
| I'd love to be sitting together at the kitchen table, sharing ideas over a cup of coffee (or tea). |
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While you're here, please consider supporting the work I do by buying one of these products:
$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.
$5.00- Education for All, a new CM journal, Feed Your Mind! This issue contains several articles on handicrafts, outdoor play, nature study and science. See sidebar for purchasing options if you are in the Philippines.
$3.00 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Copywork (grades 2/3, carefully selected with an eye toward finely crafted sentences, lovely bits of writing pleasant to picture in the mind's eye, and practice in copying some of the mechanics of grammar and punctuation typically covered in these years.
$3.00 Aesop's Fables Copywork for Year One! Carefully selected with an eye toward well written sentences, memorable scenes, and some practice copying sentences that model the basics of capitalization and punctuation. Suitable for use with children who have already mastered the strokes and letters for basic penmanship.
Picture Study! Miguel Cabrera's beautiful, diverse families, painted in 18th century Mexico this package includes 9 downloadable prints along with directions for picture study and background information on the artist and his work. $5.00
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