Internationale Kulturwissenschaften International Cultural Studies Etudes culturelles internationales
		CULTURAL  COLLABORATORY

Mikhail Blumenkrantz (Charkow) [BIO]

Crisis of culture as the main myth of 20^th century

In the 18th century the philosophers of Enlightenment aspired for the ascendancy of the Kingdom of Reason and Kindness onto this earth. In the 19th century the positivism-oriented thinkers fostered deep faith in the salutary calling of science for achievement of a just and highly humane society, in the scientific progress that would inevitably displace all acute social issues.

Today, in the 20th century, we were destined to see the collapse of all these sweet illusions, our time has shown to us that human mind and kindness, regardless of Socrates' conviction, are anything but identical and can be deployed for devilish purposes as well.

The advancement of science has not happened to be panacea against pungent social predicaments, it but exposed the fundamental dissention more distinctly to the modern civilization.

One of the principal contradictions to be mentioned is the constantly widening gap between technical abilities and spiritual and ethical level of the man. English historical writer Arnold Toynbee assumed that when examining the history of cultures it would be rightful to speak only of the progress of ethical tasks and not of the progress of the human nature itself. The main parameters of ethical tasks were set for the European culture even 2000 years ago by the Christian religion. And now that we have gained command of technologies of unseen before destructive power, it seems that we are morally unprepared to withstand their appeal. Our disposition to violence and aggression instinct has come on top of our sense of responsibility as has been clearly demonstrated by the great social cataclysms of this century. The means have proclaimed the goals themselves and we have become the hostages of brilliant accomplishments of the boundless technical and scientific thought.

"As we have inherited magnificent cathedrals from the previous generations, so our generation will bequeath solely the glowing radiators which, I fear, there will be no one left to admire," - wrote Alexander Guinness.

When distinguished Western philosophers analyse the eminent crisis events of the epoch, they mostly refer to the uprising of the masses, or the morphological parallels that can be drawn between our time and the decline of the Alexandrine Era, or the disastrous spiritual deterioration ensuing from the secularization of culture - all these without doubt comprise significant help in understanding of the modern world, but at the same time they are but the results of more essential spiritual shifts.

Distinguished psychologist Karl Jung recalls how he was astounded by the assertion of Pueblo Indians that all Americans are crazy. When he asked them why they think so, they answered him the following: "the Americans say that they think with their heads, but all normal people think with their hearts. We think with our hearts."

The Confucian China knew the expression: "sin shu - the technique of the heart." The mastery of sin shu granted trust, sincerity and cordiality between people.

The world that we live in today can provide multiple material goods even to people of moderate means. A working person in well-developed Western countries in terms of living conditions has often more amenities than, for instance, a nobleman of the Middle Ages. However, this ability "to think with the heart" is nowadays waning.

In the harsh tempo of modern civilization, in the world of climatic warming and human half-heartedness we have lived to see the loss of the integral sense of living, the ability to experience existence as the Unity. And like onto boy Kai from the Andersen fairy tale we are trying without success to stack the salutary word "Eternity" out of tiny pieces of ice. But you cannot stack living Eternity out of pieces of ice.

And what remains to us is to somberly repeat after Tomas Elliot: "Where is our wisdom lost for the sake of knowledge, where is our knowledge, lost for the sake of information?"

		Internationale Kulturwissenschaften International Cultural Studies Etudes culturelles internationales
		CULTURAL  COLLABORATORY