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Harnessing mass culture and civic life
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Jul 31, 2006 Posted by Rich HarwoodIf people often feel helpless to change mass culture, can they change public life? I believe they can. But we must first recognize that such change will require that we take a decidedly civic approach, and not merely mimic mass culture, in order to gain people’s attention and engagement.
Last week in his blog, Peter Levine, a truly gifted thinker, talked about the link between what he called civic engagement and culture. He surmised, based on Tocqueville, that a heterogeneous mass culture produces a healthy democracy. As he put it, “truly engaged citizens produce diverse cultural products.”
Peter went on to say, “But it seems clear that people feel powerless to change mass culture; that feeling demonstrates the tension between mass culture and democracy.”
Indeed, as I noted in Open for public business, too, so much of mass culture today has actually become a hyper-individualized culture. Throughout society, we have created mechanisms and opportunities for each of us to create our own individual islands of life – a kind of individual sovereignty in which we act as free-agents in everything from aggregating our own news to creating our own individual social networks. It’s less a mass culture where people cohere around ideas and trends, in the traditional sense, than a mass of individuals doing their own thing.
Thus, when notions of the public good or connectedness are talked about, they are often used in nostalgic terms, or are co-opted merely to present a mirage of community. Our politicians are guilty of this; but so too are many civic groups.
It’s clear that we’re in a really dynamic transition these days. The past is gone and we shouldn’t spend a whole lot of time pining for the community of bygone days (and for many people, those communities were not all that inclusive or healthy anyway). Nor, should we simply lament the potentially fragmenting effects of technology, or simply celebrate its transformative power.
As Peter suggests, there is a tension between mass culture and democracy. My belief is that if we seek to regain a semblance of control over democracy and public life – our very community life – than we must not make the mistake of mimicking mass culture. In doing so, we will only deepen the chasm people face, and push people farther away from the very goal they seek to achieve:- a sense of coherence about the world around them, as they live in an age of hyper-fragmentation;
- a sense of connection to one another at a time, when people increasingly see themselves as free agents;
- a sense of possibility for the public good, when people are told repeatedly that they should concern themselves only with their own good.
To regain control over public life, our task is to bring a decidedly civic approach to the challenge of mass culture. Then maybe people will step forward and we can harness the power of change around us.
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Aug 1, 2006 | Richard Puffer | dpuffer@coker.edu
In the public innovator workshop there was a great deal of talk about creating opportunities for developing civic and social space that would help forge some additional connections in our communities. Thomas' idea of the community calendar is one that is obviously a challenge because so few communities are able to figure it out. What a great place to start. But, those of us who see a purpose to getting more people engaged also have to continue to strive for creating those opportunities to get people beyond their own civic club, their own church and their own blog. Something as simple appearing as a Business After Hours for a Chamber of Commerce is sort of start -- the Chamber, after all, is as heterogeneous as it is homogeneous depending on what lens you use to view the participants. Finding ways to get people talking to those they don't know in such a non-threatening circumstance is another simple way to begin.
BTW, most of you on this list probably have already read this book, but Adam Kahane's SOLVING TOUGH PROBLEMS is replete with insight and a fast, interesting read.
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Jul 31, 2006 | Thomas Camiolo | thomas1950@frontiernet.net
Cultural Involvement and Civic Involvement
Cultural involvements are my interactions with and advocacy for those things that are nearest and dearest to me. This is part and parcel to the "I generation" way of thinking. My political party knows and understands the only right way to carry out public policy. My community service club is the only community service group that deserves and should get credit for its efforts to improve community well being. My faith and religous institution has the "right idea" on how to serve others has a responsibility to listen to other religions but not to advocate for "them". Civic involement means creating an infrastructure where everyone can play nice. An example would a community calendar so organizations could maximize and hopefully not duplicate their efforts for the greater good of all. Establishing this calendar could easily be fraught with problems and we should take off rose colored glasses when developing one.
Others thoughts and comments are appreciated.