A pretty common factor in politics today is a growing pessimism about the future, with many pointing to uncertain economic and environmental factors as the reasons behind this. A new article from one of my favourite modern cultural theorists however points more directly at the role of Western culture as the route cause of our growing pessimism.
In his piece Whatever Happened to Western Civilisation Richard Eckersley looks back at a piece he wrote 20 years ago called The Western Cultural Crisis to see what’s happened to Western culture over the past 20 years.
In the piece, Eckersley says that despite some increases in happiness, the last twenty years has seen a growth in pessimism in Western society. He states:
In contrast to people’s high levels of personal happiness and life satisfaction, many studies over the past few decades have revealed their anger and anxiety about the changes in Western societies. The concerns include excessive greed and selfishness, consumerism, too much competition and too little compassion, the loss of community, growing pressure on families, and drugs, crime and violence. There is a common perception that, with individual freedom and material abundance, people don’t seem to know “where to stop,” or now have “too much of a good thing.”
Eckersley argues that these cultural realities in Western culture led to an unrelenting pressure on individuals to perform, and to be selfish:
These cultural shifts toward excessive materialism and individualism are not just a matter of greater vanity, selfishness, and greed (although many people express concerns about these traits), or simply the manufactured desire to “have more stuff.” They lead to an unrelenting pressure to focus on what we make of our lives, to fashion identity and meaning increasingly from personal attributes, achievements, possessions and lifestyles, and less from shared cultural traditions and beliefs.
The drive of selfishness and greed, Eckersley argues, isolates individuals, putting everyone in competition with each other. As he explains:
This emphasis (on the individual) is a recipe for disappointment, depression and anxiety. It distracts people from what is most important to well-being: the quality of their relationships with each other and the world, which, ideally, contribute to a deep and enduring sense of intrinsic worth and existential security.
What Ecksersley’s article therefore is creating a an argument against the growing individualism of Western capitalist society. What’s interesting about this though is that it takes a cultural approach to Western capitalism, rather than using the usual economic (i.e. the exploitation of works, growing inequality) or environmental (i.e. growing materialism, environmental destruction) arguments. This creates an overarching argument that says that whether you are at the top or the bottom of the economic scale, Western Capitalism has a negative impact on your life.
These ideas are not necessarily revolutionary, but they provide an interesting analysis of our current society, but also on how we work to solve the problems we face. Eckersley argues that the only way we can change our society – make the world more equal, increase happiness, protect the environment etc. is to change our culture. As he says:
I believe that we need to change Western culture: the stories, symbols, and metaphors by which we define ourselves, our lives, and our goals – and so our politics.
What’s interesting about this is that this often doesn’t happen in modern social movements – many use an approach of running campaigns that fit within modern culture, rather than trying to change it.
Eckersley takes a look at modern science for example. Science, which many use as a change agent in our society, is also heavily based on the individualist, rational ideas that Eckersley argues is building into our cultural crisis. Science often ignore the cultural elements of our society that many people find so important to their lives – the things they genuinely connect to (i.e. religion). Ecksersley said he hoped that this was changing, but it has gotten worse:
I saw hope in a growing compatibility, a reconciliation, between scientific and spiritual views of the world. Instead, we’ve seen a backlash by scientists and others against the rise of religious fundamentalism, some of it as “fundamentalist” as the religion they denounce. It is “a dialogue of the deaf,” says Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton.
To me, what this is, is a call to understand, accept and work with the cultural realities of our world. To change the world we can’t disconnect people from their culture and their desire for community. In creating change movements based around individual action focused on rational science we are potentially deepening the void between the values that we seek and desire and the people are trying to reach.
Dealing with culture and values is essential to solving many of our problems. Eckerlsey provides a convincing argument for the growing cultural crisis in the Western world and some food for thought on how cultural changes will play a role in solving modern problems.