New Ideas, Hard Questions and Transforming Culture

Question #1 - Western culture is lurching towards division, Fascism, and disaster. What is critical to changing that course?

I’ve decided to write again after years of focusing on creating original artwork. As an experimental artist much of my work started with a question like, “I wonder what a painter could do with 3D printing that would be interesting?” That set me on a 2-year journey ending with a Santa Fe NM show titled, “Landscapes Reimagined.” The self-portrait is one of the few remaining pieces of a process I had not seen before. It all started with questioning the status quo in light of current technology.

Author Roman Krzaric has boldly shined a light on many of the problems facing in our culture today and offered lessons from history to guide us today. Near the end of his book, “History for Tomorrow”, his diagram gave me a reason to write and a way to organize it. His thesis is that cultural transformation occurs only when three things are simultaneously present: Crisis, Ideas, and Movements. Do read this book! There is no doubt the US is in a “Crisis” when the last 3 elections our political parties have produced choices between individuals who were roundly disliked by a majority of the country and the caustic atmosphere of discourse is increasingly violent. Both sides see us in a "Crisis", a cultural civil war between so-called progressive values and practices rooted in traditional European Christian culture. But the “Movements” that each party has offered are a rehash of old ideas and mainly focused on how "bad" the other side is. The missing part of actual positive transformation is radical, new “Ideas.” In the coming discussions, I will at least ask the hard questions that may force us to consider some new ways and ideas. In answer to Q #1 - we need many things, but none more critical than the generation of creative, disruptive, difficult-to-swallow, vision-creating New Ideas. We must face the hard facts, and hard choices and ask some hard questions with curiosity and an open mind and heart.

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One example that is sure to ruffle feathers on both sides:

A gay couple wants a wedding cake and walks into a bakery run by a conservative Christian family. Both parties want their rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to be protected. Is there a way to resolve this where both parties win? A hard question, yes answered in the courts, but what has that result been? Both sides dug in, demanding their rights. Could there have been another answer that could have produced a different result? What would have to change for it to happen? No easy answers, but that is the point!

What do you think? Let’s discuss this test case some more and see what we find.