A Liberal Arts Education

College students are all choosing business majors and educators are wringing their hands, wondering what will become of the liberal arts education!

The definition of the so-called liberal arts education has long been elusive.  I would define it as a thorough grounding in literature, languages, history, philosophy, theology, the arts (music, theater, painting, sculpture, etc.), math and science. 

But with this definition we would have to confess that a liberal arts education has been rare for some time.  Long ago students began to divide themselves into math/science types and non-math/science types, neglecting any education in the opposite realm after secondary school.  This may have been partly due to the volume of accumulated knowledge in all fields, which made it difficult to become conversant in the full spectrum.  But it also occurred because of a growing chasm between the arts and the sciences, with certain personality traits and characteristics being ascribed to each group that made it difficult to bridge the gap.  The ‘renaissance man’ archetype, once a common aspiration of many intellectuals, became a relic, discarded on the dustbin of history. 

One of the things I am proudest of in my life is that I made a big effort to avoid this distinction, getting both a B.A. in German Studies and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.  Now admittedly, this was partly because I have never been able to focus very well, but it has proven to be one of my best decisions and has provided my intellectual life with a rich diversity of passions.

But the current economic conditions have sent tremors through the university system, and everyone is trying to identify ‘practical’ majors that will ensure a job upon graduation.  The liberal arts major is seen as a monument to irrelevance, and its adherents are viewed as useless intellectuals with nothing to contribute to the heroic efforts of ‘job creation’ that have become the mantra of modern business.

In addition to the lemming-like movement to business and management majors, now there is a growing urgency in education to teach everyone to ‘code’.  This is a reaction to the ubiquity of information technology, which is built on software.  But the fad of teaching programming skills to every child seems as misplaced as an effort to teach everyone how to design machinery in the industrial age.

Education is not ‘one size fits all’!  Germany, one of the few nations that has been successful in avoiding the loss of middle class jobs in the globalization time, long ago instituted a state-funded spectrum of educational paths that has served it well.  A university education is only available for a minority of students.  The rest have a cornucopia of options, from highly hands-on technical to purely administrative, and everything in-between.  Students pay a modest fee for this training if they pay anything at all.  The system is not perfect, but what system is?  The decision to prepare for various paths is made fairly early and it is not a simple matter to change once that decision has been made, which leads to some frustration and wrong choices.  But overall it seems to be a much better system than ours, especially for the non-university students.

The U.S. has long had a rather absurd goal of sending every person to a university.  This is foolhardy.  How many college students truly have the desire to immerse themselves in deep study of literature, political science, economics and the like?  Certainly only a small percentage of those that actually attend.  But because a college education is seen as a pre-requisite for any well-paid career, legions of students spend their parents’ or their own hard-earned treasure to pay their dues in uninspired academic languor, all the while focusing most of their energy on the serious business of partying and watching college sports.

As jobs have become more scarce, the masses of students in university have become more utilitarian, choosing job training subjects that were not even options a couple of decades ago.  The most popular choice is the so-called business major – emphasizing accounting, organizational behavior, marketing and other business world topics.  Formerly, these topics were only taught in business schools, and typically to students who had already been out in the real world and returned for an MBA.  But now, in the desperate quest to gain advantage in job searches, students have turned away from traditional liberal arts subjects in the belief that this more practical knowledge will give them the edge.

This is precisely the type of education that Germany has put in a separate category from university education.  There is no need for a four year university education to learn business fundamentals.

Many will argue that a classic liberal arts education is no longer relevant, that majors such as history or literature do not prepare one for the workplace.  But I strongly disagree.  The skills that one obtains by deep study of history, literature and other liberal arts are exactly the enduring skills that allow one to become a profound contributor to society – critical thinking, complex logical analysis and writing, a sophisticated understanding of the nature and progression of civilization.

These are skills that are still immature at the end of high school.  It is a sad fact that most people read their last piece of classical literature or philosophy in their senior year of high school when they do not have the intellectual depth or foundation to truly understand or incorporate its message in their lives.

Similarly, many people never pursue a rigorous study of history or the evolution of political and social thought because they equate it to the memorization of facts, figures and dates that they abhorred all through high school.

Ideally, a liberal arts education in college gives a person a basis for lifelong learning and a capacity for deep inquiry and comprehension that will contribute to success in any endeavor.  This can certainly be acquired outside of the university, but it rarely is.

Many students will not have the passion to continue liberal arts studies.  They should not be encouraged or required to do so.  Having large hordes of indifferent students attending universities taking courses that hold meager interest for them is a waste on many levels.  And perhaps the transformation of many universities into ‘trade schools’ that focus on business majors is simply a way of backing into this realization. But the simultaneous disparagement of the liberal arts education and the associated decision by many parents to pressure their kids into ‘practical’ majors is indeed a sad trend.

Are we living vicariously?

It seems civilization moves ever more rapidly toward voyeurism.  Modern man spends much of his life watching someone else do something or immersing him or herself into a virtual reality that bears little resemblance to real life.

We watch people act in movies, on television or at the theater.  We observe as entertainers sing or play instruments; we view dancers on stage.  We pay handsome sums to be awed by athletes performing their heroics on a dozen different fields of play.  We spend hours and hours entranced by social media and video games.

Before television, the cinema and mass communication; before the computer and the Internet; before organized professional sports; before video games and facebook and twitter and snapchat – there was a communal life: creative social, artistic and athletic activity that demanded local organization and participation.  People came together to sing, dance, play sports, create art, even make skits or plays. 

It seems there was a time when one didn't have to be a Pavarotti to sing in three part harmony with a group of friends.  Everyone was familiar with folk and popular songs and took every opportunity to join in song with their neighbors, whether in church or for celebrations, or whenever people came together. 

In those days every person who was fortunate enough to own an instrument found other musicians and contributed whatever talent they had to any social gathering.  Now, how many people study a musical instrument in their youth only to abandon it, the instrument rusting away sadly in a closet or attic? If one is not good enough to make a profession of it or compete with the virtuosos, then why continue goes the thinking.  But is watching a talented performer even half as fulfilling as participating, even if the standard is much lower?

There was an age when men and women danced for the sheer joy of movement and romance, rather than on the rare occasion of a drunken grinding ritual.  How many men past the age of 22 can one get out on a dance floor today? Where are the folk dances or even the parlor dances of yesteryear?  It is a sad indication of our cultural decay that a wedding is the only event these days that will inspire most people to leave their seats for the dance floor.

There was a time when weekends were an opportunity to go outdoors for walking and exerting oneself physically; to explore and experience nature amid the companionship of friends or family.  All too often now, the weekends are spent in stubborn isolation, anchored in front of a TV watching sports or a movie, or trapped in the addictive grip of video games or social media.

And where has the art and joy of communicating via the written word gone?  Letter writing, once an important component of any educated person’s social life, has now completely vanished.  Well-developed ideas and thoughts are rarely encountered.  In their place are the quick witticisms and the endless superficial patter of facebook and twitter quips.

Part of our addiction to voyeurism can be laid at the feet of the media – the insidious manipulation of Hollywood and Madison Avenue.  How can our trifling efforts to create and enjoy an active world of our own compare with the exotic super-lives that the rich and talented lead, or that movies and magazine conjure up, or a virtual reality offer?  And of course it is partly due to sloth.  It is so easy to watch - to sit and vicariously experience all that life and the world have to offer.  But what kind of ‘experience’ is that?

The true joys of living cannot come to us secondhand.  They must be experienced directly through a deliberate participation in the everydayness of life.  The glamorous lifestyles and the virtual realities that are offered up as wishful fare for spectators are spiritually hollow - a self-deception and a sham existence, where at best our voyeurism is self-indulgence and at worst a kind of living death.

On Happiness and its Relative Nature

It is cliché to say that our happiest times were our student days – unencumbered, full of vigor, health and good friends.  But what does it really mean to be happy, and why does happiness seem so elusive that many of us feel compelled to state wistfully that our best times were in the distant past?

Happiness is a multi-faceted state of mind, with influences from many different aspects of our lives – family, health, occupation, and so on.  In this essay I will only concern myself with the happiness that appears to be associated with our experiences and material well-being.

For many years I have been convinced that happiness is a ‘relative thing’.  Clearly, happiness is in the mind.  Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet ‘There is nothing either bad or good but thinking makes it so’.  The pleasure we find in life depends on the highs and lows we perceive, and these in turn are measured relative to our life’s circumstances.

As our life circumstances change, so do our ‘thresholds’ for pleasure.  A trivial example is food.  In my student days, just going out to any restaurant was a joyous event.  My palate was undeveloped, and my expectations were low.  But I have been fortunate to eat in many fine restaurants since that time and my ‘threshold’ for good food has risen commensurately.  Going to a marginal restaurant brings me no joy these days, and I must be careful not to become so snobbish about food that I lose my ability to enjoy that simple pleasure.

A similar situation occurs in play.  As children, we are enchanted by the simplest objects and ecstatic over the most basic elements of play.  We see children all over the world smiling and shrieking in joy in the most impoverished of circumstances, making good use of an abandoned tire or a few sticks and rags, so long as they are not hungry or sick.  Are they any less happy than the little princes and princesses of our own culture with their endless array of electronic devices and playthings?

As we grow older, our play becomes more sophisticated and complex.  A game of hide and seek will no longer send us into a state of unbridled glee.  Pleasures become hierarchical, more nuanced, and we are manipulated to desire more grandiose titillations.  But is there any reason to believe that a simple walk in a beautiful forest produces less pleasure than a cruise on some tycoon’s yacht?  Only thinking makes it so!

As our circumstances change, so do the thresholds of our pleasure. The wealthier and more experienced one becomes, the higher the thresholds of pleasure. One might even argue that a rich person has a narrower range of thresholds and thus a more challenging task to avoid boredom and depression than a poor man does.  But then there is the problem of envy and its negative effect on happiness!

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins and is a logical adjunct to our egos.  Envy has been with us since the beginning of time.  But the modern age with its ubiquitous information and advertising seems specifically tuned to creating perceived needs based on envy.  We buy things not because we know that they will make us happy, but rather because we want to feel better than, or at least equal to, our neighbor.  Of course we also are seduced by the idea that these things will make us happy, but I believe that is secondary.

The problem of envy would seem to favor the rich man (if I were a rich man . . .), and perhaps it does ever so slightly, but ironically envy is an equal opportunity affliction.  No matter how rich or successful one is, there is always someone richer or more successful or more famous, and again we have the situation of thresholds.

Now I am not saying that being poor is a happy state, nor am I trivializing the tremendous disparities in our world.  True poverty brings a host of burdens – debt, creditors, poor health, lack of opportunity, etc. – that can indeed weigh upon a person and create misery.  But I would argue that some poverty occurs because of a perceived desperate need to acquire material things that do not actually produce their desired effect.  And more importantly, I am arguing that there is no need for anyone to think they have less joy in life than the movie stars and the global business elite, and thus waste their invaluable time in frustration and envy, and the pursuit of phantom pleasures.

We are all creatures of our culture and time.  It may be naïve to think that people can resist the temptation to scratch and claw their way to ever higher thresholds of material and experiential pleasure based on the riches and toys they see around them.  If the scratching and clawing is pleasurable, then by all means have at!  But beware the great equalizing effect of pleasure thresholds, and do not be dismayed if your success is not accompanied by an equivalent measure of happiness!

The Culture Wars - American Sniper

The Culture Wars – American Sniper

I haven’t seen American Sniper, nor have I read the book.  I haven’t yet decided whether I shall do either. But I have read a lot of interesting articles and comments from both the right and the left.  American Sniper seems to have become a symbol of the tremendous chasm in American society.  Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper have tried to de-emphasize the film’s political aspect, protesting that it was only ever meant to be a study of a single man’s experience in war.  But in a nation that seizes upon every cultural event to express its outraged disgust with the other side, American Sniper was tailor made to be the newest front in the culture wars.

From the right’s perspective, Chris Kyle was the type of warrior that made America great; the type that we especially depend on in this time of terrorism and threats from multiple extremist groups.  His loyalty to his country and his comrades, and his willingness to sacrifice his life if necessary, is the noblest expression of the American spirit.  His simple religious faith provided the strength and courage that he needed to see him through the extraordinary challenges he faced.

From the left’s perspective, Christ Kyle was a remorseless killer in a war that never should have been waged; a bigot who speaks disparagingly of a people he only saw through a lens of hatred and propaganda; an egotist who was so full of himself that he invented heroic events to embellish his reputation.

So who was the real Chris Kyle, and what does American Sniper tell us about ourselves and our country?

The uncomfortable truth is that Chris Kyle was probably all of those things – a human being with the myriad contradictions, and good and bad qualities that we all possess.  He was both a hero and a fraud, a noble warrior and a cold-blooded killer.

Any of us could have been Chris Kyle’s friend, and we would probably have loved him.  We would have been in awe of his accomplishments, but possibly also a bit cynical about his motives and some of his outlandish claims.  We would know that if the chips were down, Chris Kyle would be the guy we would want backing us up.  But we would also not want Chris Kyle to be making decisions about foreign policy or helping us understand a complex world and how to deal with it.

Chris Kyle was a warrior, and apparently about as good a warrior as one can be.  We put him in Iraq and gave him a mission that he executed with incredible success and skill.  To revile Chris Kyle is to make the same mistake we made with soldiers returning from Vietnam – to blame the soldier for a war that may have been a huge mistake, but was certainly not his mistake.

But Chris Kyle was only a warrior.  He was not a saint or a prophet or a symbol of what we want Americans to be.  We will always need Chris Kyles, because there will always be wars and terrorists and dangerous threats to our country and ourselves.  And perhaps we will always need to celebrate their accomplishments - even though it is a celebration of death and tragedy - to ensure that we give them the psychological support necessary to deal with the horror of war and to thank them for their sacrifice.

There is anger and the potential for violence in all of us, even the most ardent pacifist. The rage provoked by the smallest slight on our highways is strong evidence that human beings will never live totally at peace with one another.  This anger in our psyche seems to find expression in a fascination for violence, whether in war or crime or horror, and we flock to the theaters or settle ourselves in our TV rooms to indulge our insatiable appetites.

Men are particularly enchanted with the special ops mythos.  The challenge of overcoming incredible physical and mental obstacles is seductive to us, probably reflecting primitive instincts and genetic pre-dispositions.  Most men also ponder the question of how they would fare in combat – whether they would find courage and perform heroically or be gripped by paralyzing fear.  Movies like American Sniper allow us to fantasize with no danger or consequences. 

We cannot in good conscience blame the Clint Eastwoods or the Bradley Coopers of the world for exploiting our love of good violence and our Walter Mitty-like fantasies, even if their specific rendering may offend our political views.  Was it helpful for world peace to have a movie that more or less glorifies the clinical killing of numerous simplistically portrayed Muslims, even if the producers were probing a more subtle issue?  Probably not.  But then we are right back into the culture wars again . . . .

On Race

Karen and I went to see the movie Selma this weekend.  It seemed to be the right thing to do for MLK Day.  At various times in my life I have looked closely at the history of the civil rights movement and have always found it to be a powerful experience.  Who can watch footage of the Freedom Rides, the sit-ins or the marches and not be awed by the courage of the participants, outraged by the hatred and violence of their antagonists and shamed by the pathetic cowardice of the ‘good citizens’.

Like every nation, our nation has a legacy of disgraceful deeds.  Slavery and our treatment of Native Americans are at the top of the list.  The sad travails of our Native American citizens are not often brought to our attention, so our misdeeds in this area are more or less hidden from view.  However, the ramifications of slavery are ever present.

For many years the legacy of slavery was expressed in clear outright unlawful treatment of blacks – segregation and the active prevention of voting being the most egregious.  The civil rights movement and the resultant legislation (Civil Rights Act and Voting Act) had dramatic impact in these areas.  Blacks in great numbers have now achieved financial success, education at the best institutions, and prominence in politics, business, sports and entertainment fields.  Most of my baby boomer friends have shed the biases of their younger years, if they had them, and the generation of my children seems to have completely rejected racial stereotypes.

Will race ever not be an issue?  Will the world ever be color blind?  I would say no, just as the world will never be blind to height or beauty or hair color.  One’s race is a human feature that is noticeable.  The best we can hope for is that the recognition of race does not carry with it stereotypes, especially not negative ones; that we will judge each person individually.

But the effects of two hundred years of slavery linger on in many ways, and these are not ameliorated nearly as easily as basic rights were.  African Americans still lag behind the rest of the U.S. in education, income, home ownership and lifespan.  Additionally, negative attributes like the breakdown of the family, incarceration rate and single parent rate are much higher in their population.  Other race issues such as racial profiling, unequal treatment under the law and more subtle forms of racial discrimination are certainly still occurring.  The problem is that all of these are generally not issues for legislative action, but rather involve a cultural evolution on both sides that is progressing very slowly and not always in a positive direction.

The recent series of police shootings of unarmed black men, along with the Zimmerman shooting in Florida, have spawned a new militancy in the long dormant civil rights movement.  There is a strong perception among blacks that the lives of their young men are somehow considered disposable or at least less important than those of other citizens.  These events have also resurfaced the nagging questions of why blacks are still looking in from outside on many of the desired opportunities in our society.  Black voices are demanding fairer treatment by law enforcement and better opportunities in education and the workforce.

Many people are sympathetic with these voices and wish that something ‘could be done’ to fix these problems, but generally don’t know what that ‘something’ could be.  Others feel that blacks are ‘playing the race card’ and using it as an excuse for their own failings.  They believe that the culprits are the breakdown of the black family, drugs and a youth culture that tends to celebrate violence, misogyny and a rejection of societal values.

The police shootings are an example of how polarized our society is in danger of becoming.  Is there hope for a slow reconciliation of these views and a positive move toward better understanding?  Is there hope that the frequency of such tragedies will decrease?

Clearly, no reasonable person wants an unarmed man to be killed by police even if they have committed a crime.  But can we say that the police are never justified in shooting an unarmed man?  No, of course not.  The policeman’s job is very challenging with a constant potential for injury or death.  Historically, the benefit of the doubt has been given to the police, though it should certainly not be done without careful consideration of the events.  It is a dual responsibility of both the citizen and the policeman to avoid situations that escalate out of control or that cause a policeman to believe he is in mortal danger.  There are certainly cases where policeman have provoked that escalation.  But there are also times when unarmed individuals have made poor choices that resulted in their deaths.

Are young black men treated differently than any other group?  Yes, probably so.  Some would argue that there is justification for this profiling, and it is also difficult to know how much different the treatment of blacks is than of any other group in a high crime area.

No law can completely dictate police behavior.  Rules of engagement are already in place and must continue to be refined.  But in the end, there is an unwritten social contract between the people and the police that must be respected by both sides.  Heightened awareness on both sides due to the recent cases may contribute to a better future result.  And certainly the continuing integration of police forces will also help.  Let us hope so.

On the subject of how much racism and prejudice still exists in our society and how to eradicate it, I must again point to how polarized the existing views have become.  Are there racial stereotypes?  Of course!  Are blacks treated unfairly in the workplace and in education?  That is a more difficult question.

There is no doubt that predominantly black schools are more likely to be less ideal for education than predominantly white ones.  Is it because they receive less funds?  Funding is provided by the school district, and certainly school districts that are poorer will have less funding.  But is this a major disadvantage?  It is likely that the vicious cycle of poverty begetting poverty is more to blame than actual funding differences. Poor families, and especially single parent poor families, have less time, resources and education than wealthier families.  Less family support and resources, more violence and disruptive behavior in the neighborhood and in the school, and all of the other crushing burdens of being poor conspire to create a very challenging environment for education.

In the area of income and job opportunities, it seems to me that the black community is again at a distinct disadvantage because of the legacy of poverty and slavery.  But social and economic justice is a complex matter that cannot be corrected with the stroke of a pen.  Every impoverished community struggles to find a way to advance out of poverty, whether white, black, Hispanic or even Asian.  It is a sad truth of our 21^st century world that the gap between rich and poor is growing even in developed nations.

Do black Americans still face discrimination?  It would be presumptuous of me to say no, and I am sure that discrimination still occurs in both direct and subtle ways.  But I do not believe that discrimination itself is the most daunting barrier to progress, and more importantly, an activism that focuses on racial issues will increasingly receive a skeptical hearing and a deaf ear from the American public.  The battle must be fought on the field of economic gains for the working class – better vocational education, more jobs and higher paying jobs.  This is an agenda that can be embraced by every American of every race or ethnic background and both ends of the political spectrum.

Thoughts on Charlie

 Like most of the rest of the world I was horrified and terribly saddened by the events in Paris.  It is difficult to comprehend the motivations behind such heinous acts, but sadly the propensity in the human race for violence is a long established fact.

The first question is whether Charlie Hebdo can in any way be held responsible for its fate because of its highly irreverent and often mocking cartoons.  I categorically reject this idea and I cast my lot with those who declare ‘Je suis Charlie’.  One of the pillars and best accomplishments of modern civilization is freedom of expression.  There are, of course, certain limits such as child pornography or incitement to violence, but the great majority of censorship is a slippery slope to the type of society that we spent centuries evolving away from.  One may be disgusted, incensed or insulted by the written, spoken or visual, and it is only human to react in outrage or pain or anger, but there is no circumstance that justifies violence as a response.

The second question that will resound in the coming weeks and months will be whether a free, open and diverse society can maintain its principles in the wake of such threats.  Can those who are susceptible to the appeal of jihadist violence be identified and deterred without compromising the rights of innocent people?  Of course there is no such thing as absolute freedom, and the requirements for providing security will ultimately prevail over the protection of some rights, though certainly not without a tinge of sadness for what has been sacrificed.

There will be many who will condemn Islam itself for the acts of some of its followers, pointing to various sections in the Koran or to polls or to the Fatwahs issued by certain Imams over recent years.  I do not agree with this overall condemnation.  Any student of history or religion can point out a multitude of violent and brutal acts committed by Christians and Jews over the centuries or in the biblical past.  The Old Testament (or Torah) is full of violence, wars and even genocide.  Much like the Koran, it dictates brutal punishments for a broad spectrum of religious and sexual crimes.  For example, false prophecy, blasphemy and breaking the Sabbath were all punishable by death under the laws of the Torah.  In Christianity, those who were perceived to be blasphemous or heretics were burned at the cross or worse.  Be assured that Charlie Hebdo would not have survived its first printing in the Europe of medieval times or the Reformation.  The Crusades and the killing fields of the Thirty Years War are an example of how easily religion can be transformed into an excuse to kill and pillage.

What is different between Judeo-Christian religion and Islam is that for the most part, liberalizing influences have caused Judaism and Christianity, much older religions than Islam, to reject their violent orthodoxies.  That is not to say that Jews and Christians have lost their penchant for violence, but merely that it is no longer justified in religious terms, other than in the ‘just war’ theory.

Will liberalizing influences have a similar effect on Islam in the long run?  No one can predict the future, but certainly a good argument can be made that eventually Islam will also abandon its more radical laws and re-interpret the Koran and the life of Mohammed.  Indeed, there is an excellent book that does just that and gives a very illuminating view of the impact of Mohammed and Islam on the world – No God But God by Reza Aslan.  The general condemnation of the Paris acts by a great preponderance of Muslim leaders is also a good sign that for many Muslims there is a desire to move forward to a more accepting and peaceful coexistence with the liberalized west.

But unfortunately there are many complex underlying problems that may perhaps curtail the liberalization of Islam.  The sense of Islam being persecuted and the travails of the Middle East and Israel/Palestine create an environment that tends to radicalize rather than liberalize.  A group that feels it is being maligned and oppressed often finds unity in dogma, patriotism and fundamentalism rather than in openness and thoughtful dialogue.  Young men and women who are seeking identity and romantic ideals have always been susceptible to the cynical manipulation of radical leaders.

In this sense it is important for the international community to energetically address the alienation of Muslim youth in western countries as well as the continuing strife and chaos in the Middle East.

In the short term must have hope on two levels:  One, that our combined efforts in international intelligence and cooperation will deter future attacks of this nature.  And two, that the Muslim world will unite in its efforts to divert its youth from hatred and violence.

Das Ewig-Weibliche Zieht Uns Hinan! Or does it?

I became fascinated by German literature and philosophy in college, spent my junior year at a German university and ended up getting a B.A. in German along with my engineering degree.  I enjoyed reading many different German authors and poets, but Goethe is my favorite.

Goethe’s opus magnum is the poetic drama Faust, the classic interpretation of the Faustian bargain with the devil.  It is a complex work that spanned much of his life.  He completed it shortly before his death.

At the end of the drama, Faust’s soul should have been given over to Mephistopheles according to the pact he made, but instead he is redeemed and ascends to heaven as a mystical choir sings the final lines:

Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis

Das Unzulängliche, hier wird‘s Ereignis

Das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist‘s getan

Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan

In English:

Everything transitory

is only an allegory;

the unachievable

here comes to pass;

the indescribable,

is here accomplished;

the Eternal Feminine

draws us aloft.

There are of course many interpretations of this final quatrain, but perhaps the most intriguing part of it is the concept of the Eternal Feminine.

I believe that Goethe, as a romantic, was convinced that the best qualities of humanity were exemplified in women - nobility of character, self-sacrificing love, gentleness and strength of spirit, forgiveness.  Indeed it was Gretchen, the young woman whom Faust had seduced and ruined, whose love and forgiveness intercedes on Faust’s behalf in providing for his redemption.

The romantic ideal of womanhood has been a common thread in literature and poetry.  Its contrast to the brutal masculine world provided an image of purity and compassion that could be offered as a goal in the savage reality of a world filled with wars, disasters and merciless competition.

But the sad irony of this romanticism was its tendency to keep women in ‘their place’ as symbols, protecting them from the brutality of normal life by preventing their participation in any meaningful way.  To keep the feminine ideal pure and unsullied, men put it on a pedestal, but rarely allowed the ideal to have any influence in their lives or habits.

There is condescension and hypocrisy inherent in the creation of ideals and symbols.  The ‘noble savage’, for example, was supposedly a respected symbol of a simpler world where men were untainted by the corrupting influence of so-called civilization.  Native Americans were glorified by some poets and writers in this way, but we all know how that story ended.  Mankind has a long history of paying lip service to ideals but totally ignoring them or even opposing them in day-to-day living.

A similar fate awaited the romantic concept of the ‘eternal feminine’.  Women were treated with great reverence, but little respect.  Their honor was protected at all costs, but their opinions and contributions were rejected or belittled.  Rather than seeing their opportunities to influence society grow, women found that their exalted state bound them in ever tighter bonds of irrelevance.

The romantic spirit began to fade by mid 19^th century and unsentimental, materialistic philosophies began to dominate the thought landscape.  Marxism and capitalism spawned their own ideals with antithetical goals, but very similar hard edges of idealized behavior.  Strength, ruthlessness and cunning were paramount - hardly the eternal feminine ideal!

By the beginning of the 20^th century, women began to vigorously claim their own place in the evolution of society, demonstrating their capacity for scholarship, labor and political influence.  In order to achieve this equality, women found it expedient to shatter the romantic feminine ideal and compete in a man’s world, embracing the masculine ethic.  If becoming an executive or a political leader required a remorseless competitive spirit, then so be it.  If an inclination toward compassion or diplomacy was seen as feminine weakness, then it must be abandoned.  If emotional expressions were not acceptable at the top, then a cold, controlled demeanor must be adopted.  If being the vulnerable victim in sexual affairs narrowed one’s options, then the answer was to switch the tables and become as emotionally indifferent and manipulative as the males.

So as we enter the year 2015 instead of the eternal feminine drawing us upward, we find that women, to some extent, have been coopted by the masculine reality. The romantic in me hopes that this is a temporary cloaking of the ideal rather than a true metamorphosis of the feminine into the masculine, and that the eventual equal, interaction of men and women as true partners in our civilization will produce a spiritual awakening of love, compassion, forgiveness and cooperation.