Culture and anti-culture

There are two opposite tendencies in the development of culture and human spirituality. The very definition of spirituality implies that it will expand the sphere of human assimilation in the world, and make humans more universal. However, this development cannot always be straightforward, and certain stages of economic development assume relative dominance of the trends aimed to destroying culture, and even subjectivity itself, in humans.

Unfortunately, the general under-development of the human race makes much to support those self-destructive tendencies. People are still half-animals, and their primitive instincts can be enhanced using a few special tricks, so that any traces of spirituality would be neglected, or even erased.

Thus, a book containing the episodes of exaggerated violence, demonstration of force or the ability to survive in extremal conditions wakes the old survival instincts, and hence may be much more attractive for an average person. The permanent instability and fear characteristic of the capitalist society adds to this desire to merely survive - as a result, the person becomes too engaged in such mental exercises to be able to rely on one's spirituality, and foresee a future without that animal struggle for life.

Journalists' rage for sensations is of the same ilk. To sell better, a newspaper has to wake the base instincts of the humans and pretend that there can be nothing else, rather than show a way to the normal, cultivated existence. The news are replete with crimes, wars, dirty politics etc. Books and movies propagandize the cult of crude force. There is no attempt to show a normal person living like a conscious being, in a really human society. Is it because such stories would be too dull to sell? No, the reason is that they will be too dangerous for the traders, since they would undermine the very idea of the struggle for life, and virtually annihilate the very social system based on it.

Mass media and the major part of the arts cultivate a specific sub-culture, that could be called anti-culture for its hostile attitude to any spirituality. However, this sub-culture should not be identified with culture itself, and the artists, writers, scientists etc. should not be thought of as promoting culture, or being cultural, just because of their profession. Today, most culture is in the underground - not the official underground, which is nothing but one more variety of anti-culture - but the underground formed by the hidden traces of spirituality present in many things and deeds, maybe without their authors being aware of that.