Evolution, History, Culture and Me

chrisflag500

Some thoughts and reflections on human development focusing on England/Britain particularly (since I happen to be English) and seen through an evolutionary lens.

Here's a link to a  public debate on the subject, ‘Cynicism: the British Disease?' where I was one of the speakers. I unfurled the Union Jack flag during the short introduction, not because I am a rabid nationalist or a member of the BNP, but to prove my point that we British have a weird relationship to our identity at this point. The flag is a symbol  of our relationship to our nationality and we are averse or embarrassed by the sight of it.
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In the last several years I've become more and more interested in the state of our collective culture in Britain, and over these last few months, the subject of why I am as I am, and why we are as we are, in this country, has become a real fascination. I want to set down some of my discoveries and conclusions in several blogs and see where it goes. I realize that I can't separate my own makeup from the cultural milieu that has had such a formative influence on me. It's always tempting to brush this away with the conviction that , ‘I'm an individual who makes up his own mind', but it's ever more clear to me these days that we are far more (infinitely more, to be more precise!) influenced by our environment than our self image prefers to admit.

I had a thought to subtitle this investigation, ‘The Evolution of the English: Predicament and Potential', though I have to admit that Spiral Dynamics maestro Don Beck captures it much better in his phrase, ‘From Rule Britannia to Cool Britannia to Integral Britannia'.

Put simply, and generalizing : As a national culture in the UK at this point of time, we seem to be stuck; we are cynical and indifferent with no real creative cultural story or direction or higher values to aspire to; disconnected from our creative national past and avoiding the history that led us to this predicament. Dystopically reveling in our amazingly developed sarcastic wit, we are not actively and consciously following the national collective evolutionary thread or current nor using our many undoubted highly developed capacities and talents. I feel we need to discover what  evolutionary qualities and contributions can we as a nation, bring to the global table? Despite my critical remarks here, I'm actually passionately interested in how we as a nation can move forward and evolve, and dare I say, I'm proud to be British.

But in order for us to develop and evolve and create a new culture based on deeper values, we need to know where we are now, and also where we've come from. Britain has had an illustrious past, playing one of the largest parts, and arguably the largest, in forming the modern world of any nation. No, I'm not trying to go backwards and dwell on how ‘the sun never sets on the British Empire'. But I'm interested in where we have got to now and why we are here and how we can go forward collectively. Just as there is a thread or current which runs through each individual's life, and which we can become more and more awake to, so there is a creative evolutionary thread in the history of a nation, which we need to connect with and see what new expression that can take in the 21^st century.

As I said, generally we are by and large pretty cynical. I know it's a common feature of all postmodern cultures to be ironical and cynical, but our English version has an extra edge; it's something more than that. I've lived and worked for years in Holland and Germany and the States, East and West Coast as well as Australia, and while cynicism is a definite feature in these countries too, I am struck by the difference back home: we are just more vehement and  negative.

Unless one is such a cynical realist that all this just seems like a rational and balanced point of view, it has to be said that the British are at this point in time, quite slanted towards cynicism as a nation.

 But why? Why do we generally tend to have such a negative slant and take perverse pleasure in pulling  things down;  pointing out so with such sarcastic wit what's wrong with just about everything?

And it's not just ‘that culture out there'; it's me too, heaven forbid! Culture doesn't exist out there apart from the individuals who form and sustain it by our shared views and values. Like myself, most of us don't see ourselves as being cynical. It's just the received cultural conditioning that we absorb unwittingly by osmosis due to being in our particular environment at this point in time.

I would wonder why I tended to downs, "Yes, it certainly was a momentous event when the USA created the Declaration of independence, but mind you, it wasn't much of a celebration for slaves or Native Americans. I don't recall them getting a mention in the said document......", I find myself saying to an American colleague in a discussion about culture, when we happened to be talking about the event which still inspires and informs Americans today.  I wonder afterwards why I said this? Why do I habitually tend to deliver barbed sarcastic put downs?  This didn't seem to have anything to do with anything that had  happened to me in my individual psychological past.

The popularity of British books such as, ‘Is it Just Me or is Everything Shit?' with its fascinating sequel, ‘Is it Just Me or is Everything Shit Volume 2?' strikes a similar chord.

It sounds perverse but I enjoy reading obituaries; not because I'm morbid, but because it is the only socially acceptable literary avenue where the writer is allowed to be uncynical and praise the achievements of the deceased subject;  a rash act which would normally  raise questions about the writer's gullibility, judgment and grip upon his or her rational faculties.

Have you noticed how whenever you read an article about some new gym routine or diet, or yoga class, the writer has to establish their credentials of objective sanity by saying what a lazy slob they personally are, and although they may enthuse about the new routine, they have to end the article by making it clear that they will return to being a couch potato stuffing on junk food and retaining the beer gut.

A feature of British life that I'm not enamoured of, and that I've pondered on long and hard, is how we don't seem to care or be bothered about whether things work; whether we give good service, whether we receive good service; shoddiness and the more benign ‘muddling through' is quite normal and accepted. Yes, we love to complain, but we don't intend to do anything about it, or fix things, so it is all part of the same attitude in the end.  Here's a British experience of what I mean that I wrote down after a recent return from abroad :

"Landing at the busiest and one of the most poorly rated international airports in the world, Heathrow, in London, after  an overnighter from the States, I blearily go to refresh myself in the grey half-light that passes for dawn, in the Arrivals toilets. And above the wash basins, there it is, and I know I'm home: a big permanent and helpful sign bolted onto the wall: Warning: extremely hot water, be careful! And it's true. I know scaldingly hot water will surge out like a fire hydrant if I turn the tap, shooting out of the curve of the wash basin all over my trousers to leave me looking like Mr. Bean

I've been travelling all over the world for decades, and this sign has, been welcoming me home to England for at least 20 years.

Why, oh why, couldn't they just change the thermostat and make the water a bit less ridiculously hot?

But no, easier to engrave a sign on the wall. Yes, I'm back in the U.K, G.B, England, Britain. I know it's confusing to foreigners who we actually are. I'm English, though technically half Scottish, but I think the Scottish part must be a recessive gene. And I'm already complaining; one of our national hallmarks. And already attempting to be witty with a sarcastic edge: yet another characteristic."

As I said, I spent considerable time pondering on why we are as we are, and I suddenly realized one very important reason for our ‘couldn't care' and cynical attitude. This isn't the whole picture, but I do believe that it is a significant element:

 We haven't got over the loss of the Empire. We've gone from a period of around 250 years as the most powerful and influential people and country in the world: the richest, ruling the oceans with the biggest naval power ever; leading in science and technology; ruling about 60 (!)countries; the epicentre of the whole world. And our status now?:

A small rainy island off the coast of continental Europe, a middling power in the shadow of America and other rising super powers. Psychically we unconsciously know that we have reached our zenith and it is all downhill now. We will never be preeminent again, never as rich, influential or powerful again. It's all downhill now so why bother? Why care or stretch to achieve? It's only going to get worse anyway. Far easier to not care and be cynical. We've tried it all, been there, done it; it didn't work You Americans think you can rule the world; Ha, ha! you'll end up like us. It's all a joke anyway. Safer to be sarcastic and always look to what is wrong and to point out how it won't work anyway.

This sounds simplistic, obvious, old hat, I know. But the more I've contemplated this, the more I deeply feel it's true. The loss of Empire is obviously not the only factor, but I do believe it is a key one in our current malaise. Although we've had a number of decades to adjust to our reduced circumstances, we haven't because this is hard to face. The Empire is an embarrassment to us postmodern liberals, so we can't incorporate it and move on healthily. After all, who would now justify colonizing about 60 countries around the world and telling them what's best for them!  And don't get me wrong, I'm no imperialist retrograde. But this is our national history and civilization has evolved by empire building over thousands of years and hopefully we are getting beyond empires now, as we evolve.

I deeply feel that we need to own the fact of the Empire as part of our collective history and then move on. Otherwise we can't reconnect with the evolutionary thread of the nation, and feel a positive self esteem, honouring the creative achievement of our many great forbears who advanced human civilization, and acknowledging and embodying the positive characteristics that we are endowed with.

What is the next step for this post industrial, post colonial country drawing on the potential inherent in so many creative, intelligent, multicultural people?
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