Why Culture Wars Matter

I get emotional at films an embarrassing amount here I didn't thought enough here [Music] even here ridiculous why is this it's bizarre if you think about it these are imaginary people that I don't know on a screen dealing with issues that I often have no experience of myself why can we be so moved by them even if you don't get emotional you'd probably agree that there is emotion that connects you to the story I think understanding why this is the case can go some way in helping us understand what's at stake in a so-called culture War because what's often forgotten is that culture politics and our own psychological lives are inseparably intertwined how does culture connect to politics there have always been culture Wars battles over values beliefs systems of thought fights over National Consciousness itself culture War issues differ from political ones in that they go beyond simple political debates about economics laws taxes and so on they're about how we relate to one another on a more fundamental level the current conservative complaint is now well known major institutions have been captured by leftist culture Warriors Hollywood TV mainstream news and newspapers universities are all dominated by awoke politically correct mindset Andrew Breitbart was right when he said that politics is Downstream from culture that our values are laid bare and stories songs Arts even games and sports before things get political in other words we focus too much on real politique on the drama of political life on elections on the minutiae of the decisions that politicians make but to understand politics we must understand the culture or cultures that underpins it the way we divide up politics and culture can be seen in part as a product of the Enlightenment division of the world into two a rationalist world and an emotional one on the one hand we have a rationalized modern State and the bureaucratic management of things like business politics War universities and our own lives we apply rules assign roles to each other in the office live by schedules have treaties between countries have court processes School exams recognize qualifications rules for elections standardized measurements and regulations and so on this is the inheritance of Enlightenment rationalism it's the way we do modern life the way we do business and politics but in contrast to this but just as important we have a romantic tradition this tradition acknowledges that reason and rationalism are not all that matters we have emotions passions beliefs personal relationships National identities cultural myths art film poetry and music and the like these two Realms are often kept apart we have the image of the white-coated rational scientist or the corporate businessman with a suitcase involved in experiments or data and calculation then we have the artistic genius the passionate songwriter the national poet the altar filmmaker the insightful novelist but no matter how much they're kept apart in reality they always collide the rational politician relies on Poetic rhetoric and impassioned speeches scientists are often passionate and emotional about what they do and their Pursuits on the other hand artists have to rely on the bureaucracies of universities or things like record labels when they're training or building an audience but as much as we try to rationalize the political process when it comes down to it when we look for the ultimate ground and justification for our values we get into a murkier area one where national identity passions or cultural stories on things like TV shows and data tax benefits and regulations all Collide we make political decisions based not on one or the other but on a strange mix of both it's a reminder politics and the Arts are not separate I think one of the best people to understand this dichotomy through is a giant of the Arts who is somewhat underappreciated in the popular imagination of the anglo-sphere the German writer Friedrich Schiller he was at the center of one of the most important and consequential culture wars in history the enlightenment one that culminated in the French Revolution this culture War absolutely changed the world and it's at the heart of how we think today in the decades before the French Revolution exploded there were wide-ranging debates about what art meant the nature of things like religious feeling the place of the theater and most centrally an outpouring of novels that grabbed the hearts and minds of readers all across Europe voltaire's Candide Rousseau's Julie goethe's the Sorrows of young virta these were stories at the core of a culture War a battle for the values that defined European life for Schiller these works of Arts were obviously political so he asked himself a powerful question how is Art related to Freedom the French Revolution began in 1789 but before it even started throughout the 1780s Schiller had written several popular plays that were conspicuously revolutionary in character he used his plays to discuss themes of Liberty and equality while denouncing the regimes of Oppression across Europe their theme revolt against established order one of the plays the robbers is the story of the son of an aristocrat who leads a band of moral thieves who have codes of Ethics their loyalty to one another is contrasted with the immorality and egotism of those they steal from a minister who sells offices to the highest bidder for example but more than a simple Robin Hood the central character is also a revolutionary but Schiller was skeptical about outright's Revolution he believed in what the Germans called bildung a sort of moral education that improved everyone's character and when the French Revolution turned to widespread Bloodshed he like many lamented over what had happened how could the enlightenment's culture War plea for a new moral order with freedom and equality at its core turn into such a horrifying bloodthirsty moment he said it was a moment of prodigal opportunity met with a generation unprepared to receive it instead of a new ethical Kingdom of Heaven on Earth violent and selfish impulses and passions were Unleashed so many of the period thought the same William Wordsworth The Wider Romantics count and Hegel all looked on the revolution with complicated feelings and in 1795 Schiller wrote an essay that would change the trajectory of Enlightenment thought Inspire the Romantic Revolution and still explains much of why culture wars still happen and matter today in letters on the aesthetic education of man Schiller argues that art and Beauty are fundamental to the politics of Freedom he argues that people talk about philosophy and law and politics but forget about Art's role in our political lives he claims strongly that it's through beauty that one progresses towards freedom look at the revolution he says politics and philosophy have failed we must turn instead to culture but how can culture address the issues we face one problem as he saw it was that our modern society was separating us from each other into different roles and separating us from ourselves by dividing us up into different parts reason and art were becoming divided in the same way division of labor separated us all into different jobs with no connection to each other in the same way that we still separate the rational scientists from the creative artist previous civilizations he thought like the Greeks had a much more balanced approach their culture tried to cultivate to balanced individual he claims that in Beauty the separation between emotion and reason between sympathy and logic between science and art can be reunited he says it's by way of beauty that one approaches Liberty so what does it mean to judge something as beautiful it was a problem that had perplexed philosophers for millennia for Schiller and he followed Emmanuel Kant here our appreciation of beauty could be explained by the way sense and form come together senses involve a diversity of Sensations feelings emotions different qualia in the world form involves structure plan reason and logic when we appreciate Beauty whether in a sunset a story a song a painting poetry or dance Schiller said we play between these two different drives sense and form he describes it as living form it's life and form at the same time a quick Interruption before we continue no adds 10 seconds patreon benefit subscribe hit the Bell leave a comment like share follow on Twitter and Instagram sign up the newsletter all of those things in the description below if you want support then and now then just do one of them let's get on with them in music we take distinct noises and put them in a pleasant order in dance we take the possibilities of the human body and apply form and music we do the same in sport which is often described in aesthetic terms a beautiful goal for example and in a story or a poem we take the contingencies of someone's life and impose a structure of some kind onto it a moral order a lesson a goal a point of some kind Sheila said the play of art encourages us to play with all our faculties intellect healing imagination memory and anticipation this free play frees us up from the narrowness caused by specialization he said that this playful blend of sense and form lifts up in German alphaben but the German word also means to lift up and change but preserve the diverse elements at the same time this makes complete sense if you think about a great film say he's arguing that Modern Life is disjointed but in something like a good story music acting with a plot that shows us life in a completely different country for example we're quite literally lifted up by the coming together of sense and form it's why we can describe art as inspiring up lifting the German philosopher Hegel who was friends with Schiller would be inspired by this but how is this related to politics to understand this we have to think about a link between passion and politics at the time but maybe less so today many believe that we had a kind of moral sense and there was a great wave of what was known as sentimentalism a great outpouring of emotion and passion all across Europe Rousseau for example influentially argued that people should feel more many of the Great best-selling love stories of the period were written within a political frame for a reason that's kind of lost to us but we can probably empathize with nonetheless Rousseau's Julie gertas verta and Schiller's Intrigue and love are all about love being obstructed by the politics of the period love lost in an ancient regime of privilege people ordered into unhappy marriages relationships between the classes prevented between servant and Lord impossible Rousseau's and Schiller's Works were European wide best sellers some reported being so taken by them that they'd faint or weep for days it's easy to see why Rousseau thought that love could be the basis of a universal politics because it transcended those artificially imposed and oppressive differences love and beauty being so intimately connected the question must be raised is there something universalistic in these feelings something that speaks to our equality our natural Liberty even Schiller thought so Beauty Is Timeless he thought we admire Millennia year old statues the best stories are told over Generations the best art hung in galleries if beauty is universal if it's felt universally then there's something in it that can unite us he believed that counts was right when he said we have a moral law within us that law is a simple taste for the universal that morality has its basis in thinking reasonably about whether our beliefs actions and our relationships with others are conformable to a universal moral code whether if everyone acted in that specific way we could all live harmoniously in what can't called a kingdom of ends form structure in music art stories and immorality is Unity Harmony perfection can't ethics living in harmony with one another was a type of form that we apply to our human lives in the same way that we apply form to Sound and Music or to acrylic in painting we all work together to impose rational Harmony onto the world that's what makes us human Schiller talks passionately about how the simple play of beauty can lead to duty and Destiny he said sensual Pleasures we enjoy merely as individuals the pleasures of knowledge we enjoy only as a group The Beautiful alone we enjoy both as individual and as group Schiller's essay has been extraordinarily influential and has been analyzed and cited and poured over ever since it's full of holes and problems and in many ways it raises more questions than answers but I think it speaks to something we do seem to have an intuition for that there's a connection between the beautiful and the good it adds to A Chorus of ideas that were growing in popularity at the time that art is a mimesis it isn't simply copying the world that through ART through expression we mold shift and create new worlds and hopefully Schiller would say that's a moral harmonious and good world he said to the artist that to raise the people wherever you meet them surround them with Noble and great forms and symbols until illusion conquers reality and art conquers nature I think Schiller is addressing this almost mysterious question about how we relate to the other that we don't always know in Modern Life we're meant to be a collective while not knowing anyone past our immediate circles for Schiller we don't just relate to this unknown other politically subject to the same laws and regulations for example speaking the same language but we also relate to them culturally through television shows music and film as in Benedict Anderson's famous phrase an imagined community and I think he's right and that culture wars especially ones about the Arts matter because they're about that powerful relationship between Beauty and politics they're about Liberty artists of all types are engaged in the practice of creating these new moral Horizons writing not long after the Romantic poet Percy Shelley called poets the unacknowledged legislators of the world Wordsworth and Coleridge went on to write simple romantic morality poems in their lyrical ballads in an attempt to connect with ordinary people to lift up our faben their character Sheila said that the end of humanity is to achieve Harmony in knowing doing and enjoying in his book on culture wars Stephen prothero has argued that although it seems like conservatives make a lot of noise during them liberals have always won them because at their heart they're usually about Toleration and if you think about some of the progressive cultural wins throughout history women winning the vote advances in civil rights the sovereignty of the people over monarchs there are clear and memorable works of artistic Endeavor attached to them this this this the gifts that my ancestors gave I am the hope and the dream of the slave and so there I go the theory thinks that culture War advances throughout history have proven that the Arc of History bends a little more towards inclusion and toleration Schiller might add to that that art is essential to that Arc thank you to all of these incredible patreon supporters these videos take a long time to research write and make I do a lot of reading they're always sourced and there's a bibliography in the description below I've written something short on why I think this kind of well-researched long-form content is worth supporting it's through the link below too if you agree then you can support that enable pledging anything from a single dollar per month and get your name in credits access to scripts early and become a member of the Discord server if you can't do that I know everyone says this but please do subscribe hit the Bell like leave a comment these things help with the algorithm so so much I'm also trying out a newsletter I'm going to 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Channel: Then & Now

Views: 164,233

Keywords: culture wars, culture wars in america, culture wars documentary, schiller, idealism, romanticism

Id: g4BZ81zasOo

Length: 21min 7sec (1267 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 05 2023