Culture Of Creation

"Culture is the best that has been thought and said", this was the definition formulated by Matthew Arnold in the 19th century. We select this definition among the others because it is the best that has been thought and said. Anyone who disagrees with this definition must most assuredly be a misanthrope - he doesn't want the best for his brothers.

In addition, Arnold provided a further conception of what Culture is. Culture as the "strictness of conscience" and the "spontaneity of reason".

This definition as above fits into and animates a concept we who are lovers of Mankind love, the 'Creative Consciousness'.

We will return to this concept soon, for we are behooved by our topic to make a detour here. It could have come latterly but we will need what we discuss here to assist us in our midwifery role at the side of our darling Creative Consciousness.

A strictness of conscience and spontaneity of reason are not just concepts defined from abstract terms but gleaned from human nature. It is our nature to have a strictness of conscience and a spontaneity of reason. Strictness of conscience interprets as rationality or control or behavior according to laws and rules (right or wrong, true or false, profit or loss, lawful or unlawful). Spontaneity of reason is what usually classifies as irrationality where rules do not play a role and only the perception of something - an idea or thing - has the priority; whether right or wrong, true or false, it doesn't matter. In the normal human, these two work together so that we can judge an idea or thing we have perceived so that, for the scientist's instance, we know if it works or not.

A Creative Consciousness is oriented towards "bringing out". Bringing out what? is the question. To which we human lovers answer "bringing out what is human". You now see the reason for our little detour? We human lovers are not just seeking to see citizens or roles, we seek to see Men, Best Men. With time, we learn more and more about what 'Best' is because as our working definition says "the best that has been thought and said" which is just a general definition undelimited by time - in 2100, it will be what has been thought and said in the 2100 years, and others not included in our structured calendar, before.

In the context of a culture, the two principles govern synergistically, none is superior to the other and this gives our Creative Consciousness a greater impact because it is defined by a Unity in Diversity. Diversity because the different principles and their sub-principles (which can be deduced from their explanations) produce different thigs or ideas. These unite to produce a composite we all can be proud of as it represents our collective humanity no matter our social or geographical origin - we are humans in a nation aren't we?

In the context of an individual, however, one principle naturally predominates. If one does not, the person will be stuck. This is where we usually say "he's like this" or "she's that type of person".

What does this mean?

We have a people who create according to their talents or as my friend Simple Kay will say, "according to their desire". For him, talent is desire. You produce that which comes naturally to you. You become a tree for the rest of us to eat of your fruits. Some may be against you naturally, in actual terms, but in the context of our collective vision or humanity, we are all eating your fruit. It is contributing to the grand banquet that is the Culture (of Creation). You give us what is special to you, your gift to us.

Be proud of yourself, faith in yourself and give to us.

Some person is dominated by a "strictness of conscience", he goes where rationality is needed, where control is needed. We will call this role 'a controller'.

Another is dominated by "spontaneity of reason", like me, so he goes where what we normally call creativity - which is producing new things - is needed. 'New' can mean unconventional or weird or alternative or non-normal. Spontaneity of reason, as Arnold would say, is dominated by 'free play'. We call this role 'an artist'.

Ultimately, all are really Artists because they all create something, and they produce "from their souls" as the usual artist would say.

This is our Vision for the future and I hope to market it to as many as possible. It is an open vision because it is born from we ourselves, from nowhere but ourselves. It is an all-inclusive philosophy for we human lovers are very soft-hearted. It is not from one person's belief system nor is it from some abstract premise. These premises are from we ourselves. The Vision is Us. Can whatever change that occurs tomorrow occur outside of this Vision, a Vision that already presupposes it? I doubt it.

One will ask "why do we need to know this at all?".

As my friend The Gazer says "we are doing stuff but we are not controlling it". What he means there in colloquial lexis is we are not conscious of what we are doing. In effect, we do not know what we are doing. Two reasons for this are we are purposeless and we have no philosophy guiding us. An unconscious nation is haphazard, inhuman and can never talk to itself because it does not know what to talk about. Take into consideration, my brothers and sisters, how difficult it is to talk to someone with whom you have nothing in common. You don't know what to talk about. It is the same here: we do not know what to talk about to ourselves because we have not presented a common. Until it is presented, you have nothing in common, in objective terms - one cannot see what is in another's head until it is presented in speech or action.

This philosophy makes us do something. Because, we know 'everybody' (since everybody is represented by the vision which everyone supports) supports us.

This philosophy gives us faith, direction and freedom. It is not a nationalistic philosophy, it is a humanistic one, with no barrier to who contributes. We only need contributors to this vision. Our citizens are simply, men.

You, I'm talking to you.. Yes! You! Humanity needs you, whatever it is that you have.

(In the above post, the word 'brothers' is chosen simply because I am male and this is easily accessed in my writing. As I do not wish to be dishonest with you, I write it as it comes to me, the way it makes me feel - the bond of brotherliness. Let it be clear that woman is not left out of this but if a different word made such meaning to me as that word 'brotherliness', I would use it. I know it must be uncomfortable for you, which leaves me in a dilemma for should I give you a lie and please you or the truth and invite you into my experience? I do not presume that woman can be replaced with man in any way by my statement of 'brothers' in the way used, and it is exactly for this reason that I use 'brother'; for it is much more familiar to me than a bond that women feel - I wish not to presume myself familiar with what is obviously foreign to me - and stand in disrespect of our honorable woman)