Educating for a Revitalization of the Cultural Commons (continued)
of our ability to change the meaning of words in ways that account for today’s realities. The “language is like DNA” metaphor should not be extended to the point of making a linguistic determinism argument. The way most of the local cultural commons are tacitly
learned in con- text, as well as the way learning the language of one’s cultural group reproduces earlier patterns of thinking that are largely taken-for-granted, become critically important in determining whether the educational process makes these taken- for-granted patterns explicit or leaves them below the level of conscious awareness. If the educational process does not enable students to become explicitly aware of the problem of relying upon metaphors whose meanings continue to be framed by analogies settled upon in the distant past, or of the civil liberties that can be traced back in English history to 1215, or of the differences between developing one’s own creative talents and being a consumer of the talents of others, then the enclosure of these and other aspects of the cultural commons may go unnoticed. Indeed, if the analog that equates change with progress is taken for granted, the various forms of enclosure will likely be seen as the latest expression of progress. The role of the educator then should be that of a mediator
whose responsibility is to help students make explicit the embodied and conceptual differences between their experiences in different cultural commons and market/consumer relationships and dependencies. Both students and educator are unlikely to have given sustained attention to these complex differences, such as the difference between food prepared and shared in a family setting or among friends, and food prepared by the industrial system; or between face to face communication and technologically mediated communication; or between participating in the telling of a narrative and reading about it; or between developing a skill and purchasing something ready-made; or between assuming the right of free expression and having it monitored by the government’s surveillance technologies, and so on. Given that both the students and educator are engaging in a process of inquiry and clarification that neither is likely to have explored before, the responsibility of the educator is not to give pre-conceived answers. By not privileging one set of experiences over others, the process of helping students become explicitly aware of the benefits and losses may lead in some instances to recognizing that certain aspects of the scientific/technological/industrial culture represent genuine advantages over certain traditions of the cultural commons. Other comparisons between the students’ embodied experiences may lead to an awareness that consumerism of certain products and services undermines the traditional patterns of mutual support and self-sufficiency within the community, and the development of personal talents. While this mediating role does not require, and in fact, pre-
cludes giving ready-made answers, public school and university- based educators nevertheless should have special background knowledge, especially if the students are just learning to examine the differences between their experiences of the cultural commons and of industrial/consumer culture. The mediator should pos- sess a knowledge of the layered nature of metaphorical thinking, especially how the root metaphors of a culture continue to frame
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the process of analogic thinking, as well as how metaphorical language carries forward the moral values of the culture. The me- diator also needs to work at being aware of her/his own taken-for- granted assumptions, as well as examining when students are re- producing the taken-for-granted patterns of thinking they acquired in the earlier stages of their primary socialization. The key to mediating then is the ability to encourage students
to become aware of different aspects of their embodied/conceptual experience as they move between the cultural commons and the market/consumer activities and relationships. To cite a simple example that can move to deeper levels of complexity with older students, asking a student to give expression to the differences between face-to-face communication and technologically mediated communication (e.g., email, cell phone, between avatars), would include asking about differences in associated relationships and emotions, including empathy, non-verbal patterns of communication, sense of solidarity, memory, bodily experience, and so on. Questions that students could address in other cultural commons experiences, such as in relation to being mentored in one of the creative arts, would include the above, but also those surrounding whether the experience fosters a sense of mutual support and awareness of moral reciprocity that is different from being a member of an audience. The mediator’s responsibility also includes bringing a
historical perspective to discussions of the tensions between the cultural commons and the forces of enclosure. That is, educators can provide students with an understanding of how past cultural forces led to the development of important traditions that are now a taken-for-granted part of the cultural commons in the West, such as habeas corpus (which is now being threatened), as well as how other aspects of the cultural commons were enclosed, such as local traditions of healing (which varied from culture to culture) through the rise of scientific medicine, the marginalization of orality through the emphasis on print-based literacy and now computers, the loss of craft knowledge through the introduction of the industrial system of production, and so forth. Each of these changes also need to be discussed in terms of whether they enrich certain groups while impoverishing others, how they impact natural systems, as well as the different forms of dependency they brought and continue to bring about. Through recognizing that the local cultural commons
represent alternatives to a consumer dependent existence with its associated degradation of natural systems, the process of mediating can lead to enabling students to name aspects of their cultural commons experiences that need to be conserved, as well exploring what might be reformed or eliminated entirely. When students move between their cultural commons and market/ consumer culture at a taken-for-granted level of awareness, they often lack the communicative competence necessary for resisting or affirming what contributes to a more community and ecologically sustainable future. Too often they remain mesmerized by the dictates of media and markets. It is only as students can reflect on the ecological and community consequences of what would otherwise be part of their taken-for-granted experience, that local democracy—which has traditionally been part of many cultural commons— can be revitalized.
C. A. Bowers has written 21 books on the cultural roots of the ecological crises. His most recent books and articles are available as part of the cultural commons and can be found by going to
http://cabowers.net. Contact:
chetbowers@earthlink.net
www.clearingmagazine.org/online CLEARING 2011
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