What Does It Mean To Be A Whole, Fully Alive, Experiencing And Choiceful Human Being?
… culture is the opened, read and understood pages of the “book of life”, pages which when assimilated by the individual become his selfhood (Spirkin, 1983)
At the Centre for British African Caribbean Studies (CBACS) here in London we are opening up the pages of the ‘book of life’ and reading for deep understanding so we can learn how to live choicefully and not automatically. We are choosing to be conscious creators of culture.
The majority of people when they think and talk about culture fail to appreciate that it is the human being who is the maker of culture: i.e. each one of us. Although many respondents to the earlier Race for Life article failed to see a problem with ‘black’ and ‘white’ identities, it is popularly stated that ‘identity is destiny’! Our transformational and self-renewing emphasis at CBACS is based on this idea because, if the black identity attributed to us and with which many of us self-identify, is our destiny at least we want to know where it is taking us!
Our inquiry-based explorations have confirmed that the black identity although normalised in the modern global world is a dysfunctional inferiorised identity which exists relative to its polar opposite, the white identity. These identities developed on slave plantations as power differentials between enslaved Africans and slave-owners were forcefully and dynamically established securing the creation of black and white cultures and identities as established facts of life. Fixed black and white identities contradict yet another idea of great significance to us: life is a creative process and finds itself in changing forms. In the biology of transcendence Joseph Chiltern Pearce posits culture as violence, an idea which correlates well with the development of cultures on slave plantations. From this intelligently reasoned, as well as emotionally and intuitively felt process, we came to understand that to get rid of one of these two identities/cultures facilitates the disappearance of the other! In achieving this we have simply gone along with Buckminster Fuller’s idea of using our lives as a social experiment in creating a new model – a British African Caribbean model.
Having dropped the black identity as CBACS members we find ourselves left with the question: what does it actually mean for us to be whole, fully alive, experiencing and choiceful human beings? This is necessarily so since the stock answers once provided by black and white cultures are no longer satisfying. We are choosing to no longer live within the constraints of an externally imposed cultural disorder. We also reject Bales’ claim of ‘new slavery’ – in line with the evolution of culture old slavery has simply taken on new forms!
Having lived within the limited boundaries of black culture we now realise we have not been actively and consciously engaged in the human task of being conscious creators of culture in our own right. Instead, we were unconsciously living out and reacting to the cultural dictates of the more powerful ‘other’. In this way the most fundamental of the human freedoms, our right to be ‘free within ourselves’, was lost to us albeit we lived in a ‘democracy’.
Given this realisation we have taken on the challenge of ‘starting again’ culturally as British African Caribbeans. We are not starting from scratch but utilising the building blocks of existing knowledge to inform our choices. In the process we have also come to realise that this is not just a requirement for those socialised into dysfunctional cultural inheritances, as we have been. All cultures have their generative and non-generative elements, as learning with a range of people reflecting the diverse cultures of the global world reveals. We share Mumford’s view that:
Man’s principal task today is to create a new self, adequate to command the forces that operate so aimlessly and yet so compulsively … such a culture must be nourished not only by a new vision of the whole, but a new vision of self capable of understanding and cooperating with the whole. In short, the moment for another great historic transformation has come …
It seems, therefore, this question about what it means to be human is one we all need to be engaged with given the challenges of modern life. We welcome your contribution to this project in helping us find answers to this very important question:
What does it mean, in your understanding, to be a whole, fully alive, experiencing and choiceful human being?
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The article brings to view a very important and brilliant point. That is a person cannot be fully human being if he/she is being dictated to, in matters regard to identity and culture. For one to be fully human being he must know he is, what's good for him, and not to accept what others thinks he is, and what they think is good for him. In the case of black and white identities, I believe people cannot be identified by colour but rather, what they think and do. Therefore, superiority of any colour should be rejected completely without reserve, and I believe the path taken by the Centre for British African Caribbean Studies (CBACS) is good one and I support it. Have a nice weekend. Thanks and stay blessed
A compelling question and an insightful worldview. Having read both the 'Race for Life' post and some of the further content at your CBACS site in conjunction with this entry I can clearly see the reasoning in your assertion of racialised 'impostor' cultures. This is something that needs to be debated more openly in democratic societies that claim to be post-racial. I look forward to reading further on this topic!
Dear Flora I appreciate your response, and particularly the time you’ve taken to read content from the links contained in this article. We have found this willingness to engage with other experiences to be an inherent feature of what it means to be a whole, fully alive, experiencing and choiceful human being! I absolutely agree that the subject is one that needs to be debated more openly in democratic societies that claim to be post-racial. However, we found that the black-white duality operates as a strong and deeply embedded social force working to prevent this debate from occurring because of the racialised emotions that underpins it. In countering this force we found it necessary to adopt Gandhi’s maxim of ‘being the change we want to see’ enabling us to take responsibility for the problems we face in our own lives instead of looking outside of ourselves for the solutions. To be able to place the topic on the table, for wider debate as we are now doing, we have had to work with our own inner world at deep levels including our internalised silences and therefore reluctance to engage with this debate ourselves. To support this inner work and the necessary wider debate we launched The Metanoia Project 2007-2034 in 2007 (the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. The Metanoia Project is a social movement focussed on bringing together people who support the vision of transformation and self-renewal and who want to engage with the issues. The dates of the project (2007-2034) are poignant as we are striving to achieve a significant shift in how race is understood in Britain by 2034 which is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery itself. Our goal is that by 2034 there will be a significant number of people who having understood the rationale that underpin CBACS’ work contributing to the transformation sought. In achieving this we will be contributing to the achievement of Wilberforce’s second, and less well known aim, the reformation of manners (culture). We are always delighted when we are joined in the vision that underpins The Metanoia Project 2007-2034. Please do watch this space as we share more on the topic, especially of the means we are identifying in supporting the shift in consciousness required to open up the debate!
A compelling question and an insightful worldview. Having read both the 'Race for Life' post and some of the further content at your CBACS site in conjunction with this entry I can clearly see the reasoning in your assertion of racialised 'impostor' cultures. This is something that needs to be debated more openly in democratic societies that claim to be post-racial. I look forward to reading further on this topic!
Dear Flora I appreciate your response, and particularly the time you’ve taken to read content from the links contained in this article. We have found this willingness to engage with other experiences to be an inherent feature of what it means to be a whole, fully alive, experiencing and choiceful human being! I absolutely agree that the subject is one that needs to be debated more openly in democratic societies that claim to be post-racial. However, we found that the black-white duality operates as a strong and deeply embedded social force working to prevent this debate from occurring because of the racialised emotions that underpins it. In countering this force we found it necessary to adopt Gandhi’s maxim of ‘being the change we want to see’ enabling us to take responsibility for the problems we face in our own lives instead of looking outside of ourselves for the solutions. To be able to place the topic on the table, for wider debate as we are now doing, we have had to work with our own inner world at deep levels including our internalised silences and therefore reluctance to engage with this debate ourselves. To support this inner work and the necessary wider debate we launched The Metanoia Project 2007-2034 in 2007 (the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. The Metanoia Project is a social movement focussed on bringing together people who support the vision of transformation and self-renewal and who want to engage with the issues. The dates of the project (2007-2034) are poignant as we are striving to achieve a significant shift in how race is understood in Britain by 2034 which is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery itself. Our goal is that by 2034 there will be a significant number of people who having understood the rationale that underpin CBACS’ work contributing to the transformation sought. In achieving this we will be contributing to the achievement of Wilberforce’s second, and less well known aim, the reformation of manners (culture). We are always delighted when we are joined in the vision that underpins The Metanoia Project 2007-2034. Please do watch this space as we share more on the topic, especially of the means we are identifying in supporting the shift in consciousness required to open up the debate!
You bring up some very interesting tips. Worthy of a read. I've sent the website onto friends
Thanks for sharing the website with friends Sherwood. You must watch out for when we publish our findings in answer to the question posed!
You bring up some very interesting tips. Worthy of a read. I've sent the website onto friends
Thanks for sharing the website with friends Sherwood. You must watch out for when we publish our findings in answer to the question posed!
Ola Amigos, I have to read this blog often
Hi Domofony. Thanks for your encouraging response! I am wondering what it is about the blog why you intend to read it often? I am sure your answer will include answers to the question posed that we may not be yet aware of? One thing we have learned at CBACS is that it is in authentic dialogue that we find the answers to our question!
Ola Amigos, I have to read this blog often
Hi Domofony. Thanks for your encouraging response! I am wondering what it is about the blog why you intend to read it often? I am sure your answer will include answers to the question posed that we may not be yet aware of? One thing we have learned at CBACS is that it is in authentic dialogue that we find the answers to our question!
Lovely sunday afternoon read!
Lovely sunday afternoon read!
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