From Duty to Self Actualization

One of the fascinating changes in our culture in the last fifty years or so, have been the shift from a sense of cultural or communal duty to one of self actualization. In the past the individual was asked to sacrifice their individuality for a greater cause, today we are asked to serve greater causes as an avenue to self actualization. For an example of how things have changed, compare these two military

recruitment advertisements. Notice in this first one that the emphasis is on duty, the young man is encouraged to join up by an authority figure presumably his mother. His relaxed stance with his hands in his pocket is almost discouraged as his mother moves him from his casual stance by placing her hand on his shoulders and point him towards service and action. The message is that this is probably not something that you want to do, but your society needs you to do this. This advertisment is based on the individual submitting their personal agendas and happiness for a greater social goal.

Now watch this video. It is the latest recruitment TV spot from the Royal Australian Navy. Notice the P.O.V shot emphasising the individuals subjective viewpoint, notice the pace, notice the injection of the ‘fun’ activities. It seems more like a booze cruise that happens to be on a destroyer rather than military service. What is being sold here is a slight sense of duty coupled with a bevvy of ‘experiences’ and ‘excitement’ that implicitly promises the individual a kind of self actualization.

Putting aside any ethical debates about war and military recruitment, these advertisements illustrate to us the momentous changes in how the individual in our culture today understands their sense of self, their life project and their larger duties and responsibilities. Almost everything today in our culture is viewed through a prism of self actualization, the pursuit of personal happiness trumps the submission of self for the greater good almost every time. Even activities and causes that have traditionally been seen to be linked to the concept of the greater self, such as national service, community participation, ministry, mission, social justice and volunteerism,  become subverted or co-opted  as avenues to self actualization. This is a key, key concept that leaders and ministers today must understand as we engage in leading and discipling.

The History of Hip

Greetings Culture-nauts! I have been quite busy of late working away at the copy edits for my next book which is a tough gig for me, as details are not my forte.  

One of the exciting things about writing this book was being able to read a whole ton of stuff on the history of the interchangeable terms ‘hip’ and ‘cool’. Those hard to define concepts which carry an almost voodoo like power over huge swathes of global youth (and not so youth) culture.

One author I discovered as I read about the history of cool was John Leland. John Leland writes like I wish I could. His command of language and his understanding of pop culture is incredible. In one paragraph he will link 19th century poet Walt Whitman, French Situationist Guy Debord, Rapper Biggie Smalls, and then end by discussing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It is not just that Leland knows who and what is cool, it is that he understands that what we call hip is really about a whole new understanding of the human self. His book Hip the Historyis THE book on the history of the social ethic known as  hipsterdom. It is not just a discussion of the latest trends but a complete social history of American popular culture.  

You can read Leland discussing Hip here

Misunderstanding Secularism

 Last week whilst in Perth I spoke at Vose Seminary’s leadership breakfast about mission in a secular context, I was basically arguing that we misunderstand secularism and thus our mission is sadly often off target. Mark Edwards has written up a summary on his blog. Check it out here

Beckham being booed, the Concept of Hype and the Church

Oh dear, its seems to have gone all pear shaped for David Beckham in the US. Beckham arrived in the States to play for the LA Galaxy with enough hype to power a medium sized country for several generations. His arrival was a media event designed to capture the attention of the US sporting market. All the stops were pulled out for his debut, which was meant to be a a game, but turned into a media event in which the camera spent more time on an injured Beckham on the bench and on the Hollywood royalty who had turned out for Posh and Becks. 

Now here we are two years later and Beckhams own teammates and fans want his head on a platter. What went wrong? How could it turn so sour? The answer is encapsulated in one little word that strongly defines our culture today. Hype.

Hype is the creation of false energy and expectations. In his book  The Image Daniel Boorstin illustrates the rise of hype. Boorstin explains that newsmen at the beginning of the mass media age had a problem, that was that life and thus the news was not all that interesting. Sure there were news worthy events, but they tended to come rarely. So the media began to manipulate or create news. The master of this technique was media magnate William Randoplh Hearst who invented the concept of sensation in the media.

Thus as the news became more entertaining and sensation began to mix with facts. Advertisers and Public Relations firms became adept at layering around events a seeming sense of importance, in order to capture the publics attention. All kinds of techniques were employed for this purpose, from celebrity appearances, lighting, scandal, music, stunts and most importantly, filming and broadcasting the event. Boorstin names these type of events Pseudo-Events, meaning that they had the appearance of being important, but kin reality nothing was really happening. This is the essence of hype, it is an attempt to build up something into what it is not. To add a level of excitement and emotional intensity which is simply not there to begin with. It is a technique of emotional manipulation for the means of acheving a goal or purpose.

However as the Beckham example shows, when we employ hype, we create expectations that cannot be fulfilled, therefore the next step on from hype is disappointment, as people begin to realize that what they are being sold is not what they thought. There is a real challenge when it comes to hype for the Church, there is a tremendous temptation to employ the techniques of the pseudo event, to create levels of hype, in order to achieve our goals. We must remember though that we are called to be people of truth in all that we do. The church or ministry which employs hype, will have to face a tomorrow which will be populated by extremely disappointed, dismayed and disillusioned people.

Why Girls have BFF and Boys hang in packs

New brain research is showing us why teens act the way that they do. Check out article here

Gen X Leaves the Church 2

Steve Said has posted a follow up to his blog on Gen X leaving the Church, well worth a read. Check it out here

The Price of Success

I have been thinking a lot about something since Michael Jackson’s death. Does success destroy us? There is a line in an old Talking Heads song which goes “Watch Out! You might get what your after” There is a lot of truth in that line. Jackson’s obviously talent brought him incredible fame and wealth, but also seemed to contribute to his personal downfall and destruction. It seems that once you have enough money to do whatever on earth you want to do, you slowly begin to disintegrate as a human being.

When you have no responsibility, no limits on what you can do, you are in trouble. Many close to Jackson said that he began to push away anyone who would tell him ‘no’. As I watched the Michael Jackson memorial service, I wondered what Jackson’s life would have been like in Gary, Indiana if he had not found fame, would he still be alive? Would he be happier? I have a sneaking suspicion that he would.

I recently read comedian Steve Martin’s autobiography Born Standing Up. In the book Martin shares about his struggles and desires to make it as a stand up comedian. During the sixties and early seventies, he plays small clubs and writes for TV’s finding solace in his lack of success with other struggling writers, artists, and comedians.

But then in the mid seventies, he finds success beyond his wildest dreams. He becomes a pop culture sensation and goes from playing gigs to fifty people in dingy clubs to playing twenty thousand seat stadiums, his comedy albums sell millions. His dreams have come true, he has found unparalleled success. Yet Martin finds that this success is fantastic from a professional point of view, he can buy what he wants, go anywhere he wants, have anything or anyone he wants, but from a personal perspective it is crushing.

Martin discovers that success tends to surround you with sycophants with agendas, which is a terrible cocktail. Such success means that you are never challenged, you will remains unchecked, and your ego is rarely restricted. Martin finds he becomes isolated, travelling constantly, staying in hotel room after hotel room alone, never meeting anyone who does not want something from him; he is distanced from friends and family and his life is filled with a crushing depression. He recognized everywhere but he still feels alone. Success, Martin finds, carries an incredible price.

John Calvin once said that “the surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves.” At the heart of the success myth in western culture is the concept of gaining enough personal power in which we get everything that we want and dream of. The celebrity is celebrated not just because of their talent anymore but because they have managed to ascend to a social position in which they rarely hear the word ‘no’. 

Calvin’s warning is vital to us today, our cultures tells us that what will make us happy is getting everything that we want, but the reality of celebrities lives paint a different story. This truth does not just apply to the famous, hearing no, not getting what we want, and having our ego’s checked are some of the hardest things we can experience, but strangely the most important for our development as human beings.  

Tech weary Young Adults seek face to face relationships

Interesting article about a survey of 1600 young adults which finds that the global economic crisis is finally kicking in and technology, especially social networking seems to be losing its lustre for young adults, while the reading of good old print based newspapers is up. Who’d of thunk it! The article in the Australian reads,

Communicating with friends online has lost some of its lustre even from as recently as a year ago and they now want to have more face-to-face time.

And they increasingly prefer to do that at home rather than going out to noisy, potentially dangerous pubs and nightclubs, according to the annual Urban Market Research survey compiled by youth marketing agency Lifelounge. The survey of more than 1600 young adults finds those still living with their parents (about half) have noticed the global financial crisis’s impact on the family and pared back their lifestyle in response.

It also shows their love affair with technology is heading for a break-up, with time spent online down 30 minutes a week from last year, while their consumption of newspapers increased by the same amount. Facebook and Twitter are also still on the rise, but losing some of their cachet. Lifelounge chief executive Dion Appel said: “Nostalgia and simplicity … (are) influencing the styles they’re adopting, the products they’re purchasing and their entertainment choices.

“Parents’ vinyl records are suddenly interesting and vintage clothes are de rigueur.

“And they want more connections with their friends that aren’t digital, that are tangible. They’re starting to question the authenticity of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

“They want technology to assist rather than dominate the way they communicate.”

Read full article here

Gen X leaves the Church

For those of you of my vintage and older, you will remember that during the 90′s there was a tremendous amount of discussion about how to keep my Generation, the Xrs, in church. Recently I have reflected with a couple of peers, that despite all of this concern and interest, the Church has failed to hold onto Gen Xrs.  This topic was in my blog mental to write list.

But then I discover a great article written by my old mate Steve Said which tackles the whole issue. Check out the article here

Innovative leadership and dancing alone like an idiot

So much of  leadership and innovation involves taking the first step. One of the keys to innovative leadership is having the guts to break from the crowd and risk looking like a nutcase for a while. So many of us fail to do this because we are afriad. Many of us want to be creative and innovative without the cost, we want to lead but only after there is a small crowd already signed up and ready to follow. Sadly this rarely if ever happens.

We want the power and recognition without the risk of looking stupid. To be an innovative leader, you have to get up, and have the nerve to keep dancing alone like an idiot for often what seems an eternity. Sometimes you may be followed by one or two others who’s sanity you may begin to doubt. But only when you have fully made a fool of yourself, when you feel you are getting nowhere, does that magic moment occur and people take notice of your enthusiasm and join your cause, this is that tipping point when movement and momentum begins.

Free Youth Culture / Global Food Crisis Resources

One of the things that I have been doing lately is writing some bible studies for World Vision for the forty hour famine. The studies are designed to help teens understand the global food crisis from a biblical perspective, and of course I have chucked in some cultural stuff in there as well. There is also a cool widget you can get for your site. You can download them for free here

The Cult of Celebrity, Michael Jackson and Daft Punk getting it right.

Celebrities like Michael Jackson play a key role in our culture today. They offer a framework for how we should behave, like the saints of the middle ages, their lives are held up to be emulated. The culture of the celebrity also deeply influences those who are not famous, it deeply shapes our sense of self, Chris Rojek in his book Celebrity notes that the sheer volume of exposure to celebrity culture that we experience has meant that just like celebrities we “construct ourselves into objects that immediately arouse sentiments of desire and approval in others “However we then fall into a trap that celebrities have been experiencing for years, the split between the public and private self.

“…celebrity status always implies a split between a private self and a public self…The public presentation of self is always a staged activity, in which the human actor presents a ‘front’ or ‘face’ to others while keeping a significant portion of the self in reserve. For the celebrity, the split between the I and the Me is often disturbing. So much so, that celebrities frequently complain of identity confusion…”

This split between the public and the private self creates a situation in which like the star we find a cognitive dissonance between our multiple selves, we find our selves asking the questions, which self is really me? We suffer from identity confusion. What if I get found out and people see the real me? Confusion is created and we feel the anxiety that is so pervasive in modern life. We may not all be stars, but we to an extent feel the stars tension between the public and private self.

You can see in the current media storm around the life of Michael Jackson, the tension and confusion that the self proclaimed King of Pop Felt expereinced between his public and private selves.Rojek notes that many celebrities end up turning on their public selves, just think of Britney’s head shaving incident. This scenario gets played out again and again in the world of celebrities and increasingly in the world of ordinary people.

 

(Which makes me wonder if Daft Punk got it right. They sell buckloads of albums, have tens of thousands of people turn up to their gigs, get to walk around sans helmets like normal people and best of all indulge their boyhood fantasies to dress up in cool robot suits.)

Welcome to your Quarter Life Crisis

Really interesting article in Eye Weekly about the Quarter Life Crisis that so many young adults seem to be struggling with and that inspired me to write the Trouble with Paris. (H.T. Steve H) Kate Carraway writes,

Imagine a day in the life of a couple you probably know. He’s 27 years old, and she’s 26. They wake up beside each other in his downtown bachelor apartment and have sex that neither of them particularly enjoys. They’ve been sort-of dating for a while now, but they’re not willing to commit to each other: he likes her, but doesn’t know if he always will. She can’t decide if she likes him more or less than the other two guys she’s sleeping with.

He bikes to work at an advertising agency, where he uses his master’s in English to proofread ad copy, and spends several hours reading music blogs and watching movie trailers, periodically Twittering updates about his workday to his 74 followers. He doesn’t really hate his job, but feels as if his skin is crawling with vermin most of the time that he’s there, so he has a plan to move to Thailand, or to maybe write a book. Or go to law school.

At her government job, she instant messages her friends and mostly ignores the report she’s drafting because she’s planning on quitting anyway — and has been planning to quit for about a year now. She spends her lunch hour buying boots that cost slightly more than her rent, then immediately regrets it.

He listlessly works through lunch, then goes to the bar after work to meet up with some university friends, where they talk about their jobs and make ironic jokes about other people. Back at home, he wonders why he feels so gross and empty after spending time with them, but it’s mostly better than being alone.

She walks to the house that she shares with three friends and spends a few more hours on celebrity gossip websites, then clicking through the Facebook photos of girls she knew in high school posing with their husbands and babies, simultaneously judging them and feeling a deep pit of jealousy, and a strange kind of loss. “When did this happen for them?” she wonders.

They both eventually fall asleep, late and alone, each of them wondering what it is that’s wrong with them that they can’t quite seem to understand.

This phenomenon, known as the “Quarterlife Crisis,” is as ubiquitous as it is intangible. Unrelenting indecision, isolation, confusion and anxiety about working, relationships and direction is reported by people in their mid-twenties to early thirties who are usually urban, middle class and well-educated; those who should be able to capitalize on their youth, unparalleled freedom and free-for-all individuation. They can’t make any decisions, because they don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and they don’t know who they are because they’re allowed to be anyone they want.

When a contemporary 25-year-old’s parents were 25, they weren’t concerned with keeping their options open: they were purposefully buying houses, making babies and making partner. Now, who we are and what we do is up to us, unbound to existing communities, families and class structures that offer leisure and self-determination to just a few. Boomer and post-boom parents with more money and autonomy than their predecessors has resulted in benignly self-indulgent children who were sold on their own uniqueness, place in the world and right to fulfillment in a way no previous generation has felt entitled to, and an increasingly entrepreneurial, self-driven creation myth based on personal branding, social networking and untethered lifestyle spending is now responsible for our identities.

Read Full article here