I consider it important to pass my culture on, from central things like faith, to customs like singing Christmas carols in the car. Garrison Keillor once wisely observed "To parents, Western Civilization is just a job. They haven't got enough distance from it to see if it's progressing or eroding in general." I have considered Western Civilisation one of my jobs, with my children, in my conversation, in my learning and writing.
Yet if I look through the other end of the telescope I can't see that it's my parents who instilled this in me. I pushed aside much that they taught because I thought I had a better idea. In many cases I did, not because I invented something clever, but because the other choices around me were deeply rooted in Western Civilisation. If I reject Boston in favor of London I am not harmed and may do better. If I reject both in favor of Athens or Rome I am still on good ground. If I stretch on to Jerusalem, which has as much eastern influence as western, I may do best of all. My mother felt that some of her values were being rejected and they were, and they were also the values of her mother and her uncles and aunts. I challenged my teachers and rejected some of what they taught. Yet I also knew that some of those uncles and aunts and some of my teachers' teachers would see the connection to deeper strains of culture, not the accidents of a generation or two.
Easy to say, and it sounds very wise an noble, doesn't it? We think of ourselves as preserving deep culture, but we often kid ourselves. We spoke this morning about old hymns, but they aren't old. They were the camp meeting and popular religious songs of our grandparents. Old Time Religion turns out to be pretty new at times, compared to 2000 years of Christianity or even to 500 years of Protestantism. I discussed the video and speech "I Am An Englishman" last November, noting that the things the young man appeals to as English tradition are actually rather local and recent. This was part of a series about Culture, Culture II, Culture Tipping Points, and Cultural Continuity. I keep coming back to this topic.
Do we pass on much of anything? We are all different from Gambians and Peruvians, so there must be something.
I just downloaded my German ancestors land grant when they emigrated to the USA. I particularly liked the closing;
ReplyDeleteSigned “Franklin Pierce and others” in the year of our lord 1856 and of the independence of the United States the 81st! When thinking about democratic and self governing principles I noted that my ancestors came to a country that had more time as a democracy in 1856 than modern Germany had total until recently! Since I live in Connecticut now the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were written in 1636 as the first written constitution. So Americans living in the New England had more than 200 years of a democratic culture before the Civil war. Part of this transmission of governing culture was unconsciously transmitted, but there was a constant effort by people to remind themselves of how important it was. Much of that culture was also English non-conformist religion but also other religious refugees to keep this society of independence alive. Preachers regularly had political sermons on the importance of liberty and responsibility.