Culture, Not Culture Wars: Reawakening the Creative Spirit of the West
Dear readers,
Our friend, David Gosselin, who is the creator of the New Lyre poetry journal is proud to announce the release of the fifth instalment of his journal of arts and letters, New Lyre. In this latest issue, the New Lyre discusses Aeschylus’ lost tragedy of Prometheus Unbound, revisits Plato’s age-old war against public opinion, and celebrates the many new creative voices who have chosen to stand above the fray of the culture wars and reap the immortal fruits of our timeless tradition.
All readers are invited to take a look at the New Lyre journal.
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What exactly is this thing we call 'Culture?' How do you define it? And what is a 'Culture War?'
Seems to me if you asked 100 people what those terms mean you'll get 100 different answers.
A fundamental issue I have with all public discourse is the use and misuse of abstract nouns. Unless we define our terms and can objectively agree on those definitions, then we're just talking past each other.
For example, we've recently seen mass media celebrate the 50th anniversary of 'Hip Hop.' Who defined that? Where's the starting point, the stake in the ground that defines where Hip Hop began? Is it part of our 'Culture' or part of a 'Culture War?' I don't consider it part of MY culture.
Is 'Culture' something that government should support, like Canadian content laws on broadcast radio & TV, or funding of 'the arts?' Canadian content is a fairly clear definition, but who gets to decide what 'the arts' are?
Back in the 60's we had something called the 'Counter Culture' which produced some very interesting writing, film and music that was well outside the mainstream. Was that a 'Culture War' and if so, should we have rejected it in favour of mainstream culture? Where's the line? Who gets to decide?