Riding the Culture Cycle

Before getting into this post, I'd like to blame February for the lack of posts. It is a short month, a cold month, and it knows what it did. Moving on.

So! Let's talk about the Culture Cycle! So far I've talked a lot about what influences the individual- subconscious influences and neuroplasticity and whatnot. I'll get back to that subject later, but for now I want to open up the perspective a bit and bring in a concept from Hazel Rose Markus, a Stamford behavioral sciences professor, that's called the Culture Cycle. Here is a version I made of it using Microsoft Word. It took me longer than I'm proud to admit:

Notice the slightly uneven size of the arrows...
that is the product of six years of higher education.

The Culture Cycle has four levels: Foundational ideas are pervasive ideologies and include things like views on what is right or wrong, attractive or unattractive, etc. Institutions are things like laws, organizations, and the educational system that structure society. Everyday practices are habits, material goods, and generally the products of institutions that reflect the individual. The individual consists of one's thoughts, feelings, and actions. 

The process works like this. Ideas, institutions, and practices are nothing without an individual to act as their agent. Even a big corporation like Walmart is nothing without people acting on its behalf; without the individual there is no culture. Because of this, individuals necessarily have a huge impact on all of those other aspects of the culture cycle. At the same time however, each of those other layers has a huge effect on the individual. That is why very few cultures have ever dramatically changed course without outside intervention- the people in it can change things only so much because they too are a part of the culture and are bound by its constraints. As Slavoj Zizek points out- even for those who think they have escaped their own ideology, it is precisely at that moment that they are in ideology.

Here's an example for how it works. Say you are a white Southerner living around the time of the Civil War. You grew up with a few slaves and, while you like them all right, you have no doubt in your mind that you are innately superior on account of your race. That is because the idea of racial differences has been implemented by the institution of slavery to provide you with slaves around you in your day-to-day which has led to this individual belief. Because of this, you buy more slaves which perpetuates the institution and the idea.

Now let's say you hear an abolitionist speech. Suddenly that external force has changed your individual thoughts. So what do you do? You free all your slaves and rail against the institution of slavery and preach that slavery is wrong. Individually, you aren't going to really be able to do very much to change anyone else's practices or slavery in general. The culture remains the same and those ideas, even if you are rebelling against them, will still affect how you think about things (remember the Jersey Shore example about the effect that what you see has on you, even if you don't like it?). While you can't do much on your own, maybe you are a gifted speaker and manage to convince your town that slavery is wrong and it gets outlawed in your town. Now the institutions have changed because of the individual. Maybe people still think white people are superior but they think black people aren't so inferior that they can be treated as property. This changes the daily practices and which leads to individuals in that town no longer growing up with that kind of reinforcement. Suddenly most of the next generation isn't as racist as their parents. The culture changes slowly and the individuals go along with it.

So why am I even talking about this? It's to point out two things. The first is that to make lasting change possible requires sustained effort not just on individuals, but on all parts of the culture cycle at the same time. The second is that culture is never static; nothing has always been true and a major reason we think things have to be a certain way is because they are.

Only 20 years ago most Americans thought being gay was somehow shameful. Due to the concerted action of many, that perception has now changed drastically and our institutions are being dragged along by our practices and ideas. This would not have been possible had it not been for a proper understanding of the culture cycle. First, courageous individuals had to openly declare they were gay, as this changed people's practices by suddenly encountering openly gay people, prominent members of the media began to change that institution. This in turn opened up people to the normalcy of homosexuality which combated the idea that it was shameful. Now, more individuals than ever before who have grown up in this changed culture believe that homosexuality isn't shameful at all but rather something to be embraced in our society.

Slave owner's worst nightmare.

Bad cultural changes happen too. The nation's obesity epidemic is caused by sedentary habits like typing out a blog and by the institutions that feed us. As we get more lethargic, the culture is more okay with sitting in front of a computer for extended periods of time instead of exercising and things like that. "Binge watching" a Netflix show for over six hours a day is something many of us, myself included, brag about.

My real point is that it is important to understand the Culture Cycle. By understanding how it works, we can realize that it takes place and we are affected by it no matter how much we think we aren't or how much we don't want things to change. But once we understand its causality, we can harness that process and put it to use in producing a culture we choose. Want to build a better world? Start by building a better culture.