Culture
Culture has a lot to offer and so little to give.
Culture is always a reflection of what’s happening in peoples’ minds. It’s the reflection of our “Wants and Desires” Fairy on steroids.
If you gave a child everything they pointed to in the candy store, they would quickly become ill. Such is the case with too much culture.
Advertising is the mouthpiece and drug dealer of culture. It attempts to keep our wants and desires juiced up and whetted so that we convince ourselves that we can’t live without what culture offers. Sadly, culture becomes a way of life – a glitzy, cheap imitation of real life.
I have a Facebook friend that’s so caught up in culture that they wouldn’t know real life if it handed them a business card. It would be amusing to read the postings of this person if they weren’t so sad. Their life is a like a comic book filled with action galore and frustration at every turn of the corner. The continuing message they send is, “It’s out there somewhere and I’m going to find it.” The difficulty is that one empty quest turns into another. They’re not enjoying the step they’re on, they’re just using it to get to the next step, and then to the next step towards the empty promise of culture.
The Grasshopper offered a concise phrase to sum up the cultural trap.
“Going everywhere and doing nothing.”
They have confused activity with life. Because you’re running in place at 60 miles an hour doesn’t mean you’re getting somewhere.
Our current economic situation is the result of too much culture. Yes, the brilliant people who have pinpointed the causes for chaos are all accurate. They all have a piece of the puzzle that lead to the current collapse. The table beneath, which holds the puzzle, is culture gone amok.
People have been chasing rainbows that promise a pot of gold at the end. It’s always been a fairy tale but we just found out it’s not real. Who really needs a Hummer?
The American Dream is collapsing because it’s been turned into a nightmare by culture. We’ve begged, borrowed and stolen to purchase something that will never deliver – culture. We’ve maxed out.
The false promise is always this: That something out there will give you more life.
Many people are being forced to awaken from this bad dream. This is the silver lining in today’s economy – opportunity. It’s an opportunity to notice that you’ve been chasing the horizon, and an opportunity to take steps to find another route towards life. You have enough evidence now to realize the cultural highway won’t take you there.
Yesterday is not returning. Our values are changing. We are at a crossroads.
Reminds me of a story . . .
I was in the broadcasting business when AM radio was dying. We had hints of its demise but we were in denial. Then it reached the tipping point where FM became the norm and AM became the thrilling days of yesteryear. We were resisting change in something we thought was forever.
Culture is cracking and those hanging on will crumble when it falls.
The carrot of culture has been gnawed down to a stub. Real sustenance happens when we discover we can feed ourselves from the harvest that real life provides. Real life is peaceful, internal satisfaction that doesn’t need any outside agent to propel its existence.
Find that internal peace and you’ll find the missing piece that culture has been promising all these years.
All the best,
John
http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan
http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301
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