On the Struggling Classes Being Robbed of Beauty and Goodness and What Can Be Done (a response to Iain McGilchrist’s conversation with Zak Stein)

This conversation reminded me of the street so hideously ugly it MAKES ME WANT TO SCREAM. It was Iain McGilchrist and Zak Stein discussing the idea that goodness, truth, and beauty are aspects of a kind of essential quality of reality that humans evolved to perceive (as opposed to those things being creations of the human mind). More on my city’s arterial of horror below.

First, here’s the replay of the conversation.

And I confess I am not a great student of McGilchrist–I do own a copy of The Master and His Emissary but only ever actually finished this 90-page essay.

I have watched a few videos of Dr. McGilchrist discussing his ideas with other influential thinkers and I am inclined to think that this discourse, as a whole, could benefit from greater awareness of the experience of people outside the intellectual elite, especially people who are financially struggling.

Ugliness as a Problem of Social Injustice

In Dr. McGilchrist’s conversation with Zak Stein, some question came up about how to teach greater “valueception” (the direct perception of goodness/truth/beauty) or encourage it in society, and what came immediately to mind for me is the way that people who don’t have much money are constantly and unavoidably confronted with the hideous (and I mean stupefyingly ugly) consequences of our dysfunctional social/political/economic system. People at the lower levels of society may not be thinking about it like this, but they are directly experiencing the painful absence of beauty, goodness, and truth in their personal lives. As our society plunges itself off a cliff, the perception that goodness/truth/beauty is being sucked out of all our lives is surely becoming an increasingly pressing experience for large numbers of people, with those in the struggling classes most deeply affected.

I thought of that street, so horrifyingly aesthetically displeasing that driving on it literally makes me want to scream, cry, and ask how it is possible that human beings could create such a monstrosity–and then allow it to continue to exist. I may be more aware than most of having a sensitivity to these things. But other people are also affected by ugliness in their environment, even if it doesn’t register consciously.

People who are more financially comfortable have greater ability to avoid ugliness and surround themselves with beauty–in their home environment and by spending time in “nature.” Having less money generally means less ability to beautify one’s living space and maintain it in good condition, and having access to less greenspace in proximity to one’s home, less ability to travel to places of “natural beauty.”

And urban blight is not just visually offensive. It’s a reflection of the hideously ugly economic system that we have created for ourselves: a system that is “ugly” insofar as it forces the majority of people into jobs they find meaningless, depressing, and degrading; a system that fails to provide adequately for the needs of people who are making a good faith effort to contribute to it; a system that is actively destroying its own biosphere. In the same way that people are thoughtlessly ignoring a big picture view of the economy we create, they are ignoring the visual obscenities which are a byproduct of that economic system.

So, my first thought about how to encourage valueception is that people in the financially struggling classes are increasingly feeling the painful and distressing absence of beauty, truth, and goodness in their lives already–it’s written into the ugliness of cities and of the social systems that are failing people left and right.

This did almost come up in the Q&A, when the question was revisited and McGilchrist said it’s going to have to get worse before it gets better. That certainly sounds correct to me. I see increasing dissatisfaction and restlessness among the economically disenfranchised, especially young people. It may be that people get so fed up with the current system, they will be ready for leaders to arise who may channel their dissatisfaction into powerful political action.

So perhaps the real question is how do we contribute to raising up leaders who recognize how things have gone wrong, can speak to the pain of the masses, and also envision a way forward that is as wise as possible? Because of course, we could as easily see the rise of a movement directed by foolish and/or unscrupulous leaders as one led by genuinely caring and competent individuals. How do we nurture the kind of leaders we would like to see? How do we support people’s formation in virtue?

Religion as a Pathway Forward

Religion is designed to do exactly what McGilchrist and those talking about his ideas want to see happening in the world. Religion is about disciplined, applied learning, in community, sustained over a long period of time, in service of bringing the right and left hemispheres of the brain into harmony. The world’s great religious traditions offer pathways designed to support people’s formation in virtue.

I currently work at a community center that serves families living in government subsidized low-income housing. I was just mentioning above that people with less money tend to be forced into housing that is ugly, poorly maintained, relatively devoid of greenspaces, etc. Well, the low-income housing connected with the community center where I work is exceptional in this respect. As someone remarked with surprise upon visiting, the units look like middle class condos. Well, they were built by a Christian organization. Religion, when it is functioning well, has the potential to train people not just in recognizing the good, the true, the beautiful, but in working to bring greater beauty, truth, and goodness into the world–and especially to people in underprivileged segments of society.

Consider for a moment that when the Christian religion was more socially dominant, in early American history, the educated elite were mostly pastors. Pastors were typically the most highly educated individuals in their communities and they were not studying in ivory towers, removed from the cares of the masses–on the contrary, their job was to speak to ordinary people about their everyday problems and to pray with people who were sick or grieving or otherwise in need. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most celebrated leaders of modern day protest movements was a Christian pastor, an heir to this tradition.

As a former Presbyterian pastor myself, I was trained to consider questions such as those posed by McGilchrist and those in dialogue with him from a perspective of virtue formation in a community setting, with a particular focus on social justice. Yes, social justice–not because I studied at progressive institutions–I did not. I went to a moderate evangelical university and then a moderate evangelical seminary. But there was a powerful emphasis on social justice because my professors took the Bible very seriously.

To me it seems there are many circumstances where people are so blind to the real potential of traditional religions to address current problems, they just don’t even think to look to religious traditions for answers. But there are real answers to be found here. Not simplistic ideas to be adopted as comforting beliefs. But answers in the form of practices which can bring about personal transformation and, from there, societal transformation as well.

Gaining Skill at Valueception

So, from the perspective of my religious training, I ask the question, what practices might I adopt and recommend to others, for training the mind in valueception? As a religious person, I have experience with using practices of remembrance and realization for mental/emotional/spiritual transformation.

To my mind, some practices are suggested by the question of how beauty and goodness are related to each other. McGilchrist pointed out that beauty and goodness do not have an exact correspondence. What is good may not be beautiful and what is beautiful may not be good. And separately, Zak Stein also spoke to the issue of how someone’s perception of goodness may be distorted, including by intentional manipulation, especially of advertisers.

So to me, a practice is suggested here of asking myself: How am I influenced by perceptions of beauty in my relationships? How am I being influenced by others’ intention of presenting a beautiful or desirable image?

I might remember to ask myself this while watching ads. I might ask myself while walking through the grocery store. I might ask myself this in my interactions with people as I observe not just their personal appearance but what image they present by their words and facial expressions and other behaviors.

By asking myself this question repeatedly, in different situations, I may hone my ability to recognize when my perception of beauty is being manipulated and increasingly become immune to inappropriate influences.

And a parallel practice which suggests itself to me is to ask myself: what deep needs are behind my desire for beauty? (Or, instead of “beauty,” one might say, “aesthetically pleasing experiences.”) Well, being Enneatype Four, this is a particularly dominant experience in my subjective awareness. But everyone feels it to an extent.

So, when I find myself drawn to particular aesthetic experiences that may be considered “indulgent,” like eating junk food, watching movies or t.v., reading fiction–I might ask myself: what is the deepest meaning of my desire for an aesthetically pleasing experience, what do I really want or hope to find?

If I dig deep enough, what I find is the desire for right relationships. Why do I crave junk food? Because my body wants to feel good–I want the experience of how my body feels when it is functioning properly and has all the nutrients it needs, isn’t tired, isn’t stressed–and junk food temporarily simulates an experience of physical well-being. But what I really, truly want is a right relationship of my body to the world–a relationship of appropriate intake of nutrients, movement and performance of physical labor, visual stimulation, etc.

And why do I really want to watch movies or t.v.? Well, it’s actually something about wanting to connect with others in relationship, to listen to their stories and learn from them and bond with others through empathy and shared understanding.

So, recognizing the desire for beautiful experience as essentially a desire for right relationships can help me recognize my true motivation and better direct my actions toward a higher purpose.

And each of these practices–recognizing how I am influenced by beautiful but manipulative presentation and recognizing the deeper purpose of my need for beauty–can help me to understand my experience from an evolutionary perspective.

I can see how my subjective experience of beauty is shaped by evolutionary pressures–and yet also points toward something more objective, a reality greater than my personal self and its survival needs. As a result of the random and chaotic nature of evolution, my experience of “beauty” may include things that are not actually good, as is the case when I am manipulated by advertisements. But my experience of beauty points toward a more objective reality, that of goodness itself, which I understand in terms of “right relationships.”

And I can bring this awareness to a social/community context, and let it guide my thinking and decision-making, such that the influence of this practice extends beyond my own life. And here you can see the potential benefit to society of a religious community that includes individuals at both higher and lower levels of social standing and power. People at all levels of power and privilege in society need help building right relationships. And folks at either extreme have particular things to contribute, especially to one another.

So, in any case, I hope this gives the beginning of an idea to people about how we might work toward a greater perception of “the good/true/beautiful” and how to create a society that better manifests that which is of real value. Perhaps another time I may explore the relation between goodness and truth.