This week I am going to let a Mr. Sydney Ross Singer take the glory for this blog. He submitted one of the most eloquent letters-to-the-editor for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that I have ever been fortunate to read. Mr. Singer and his partner, Soma Grismaijer are Medical Anthropologists and reside in our humble and time warped town of Hilo, Hawaii. Besides running the Center for Self Study, they have written several books on how our culture and everyday lifestyle practices including Western Medicine, are making us SICK. Who knew we had these national treasures working, living and studying right here in our remote and inconsequential wind and rain drenched town (and lately very COOOOOOOOLD, brrrrrrrrrhhhhh)! Someday, I hope I can sit and talk story with them to see why they have chosen Hilo for their home, but I am sure I will not be surprised by the answer.
I copied this brief summary from their website that describes this special field of study called "Culturogenic Diseases. " Really, everyone, this is just plain garden variety common sense. We all know this is the absolute truth yet somehow we continue to con ourselves daily that "It's all okay, don't worry, just BE HAPPY!" (especially if we are popping prescription M&M's with a Zanax or Prozax stamp.) Sometimes it takes very learned, astute scientists to tell us whatz up with all that. All, I know, is that I must have been drinking their brand of "Koolaid" for some time. I am all aboard with their studies.
Culturogenic Disease
We are born into the world as human animals –wild and free, and endowed with the power of Nature. Yet, we must develop into social beings, with “acceptable” thoughts and beliefs, practices and customs. The process of human domestication takes place in all human groups. It is the process of transforming the human animal into a respectable member of the culture. It requires that we package our natural selves into culturally acceptable forms.
This means that our culture modifies our nature. The culture defines how we dress, eat, play, work, sleep, communicate, think, and feel. This provides us with some cultural benefits, but there is usually a cost when you alter human nature. That cost is our health.
A disease caused by the culture is a “culturogenic” disease. The roots of such a disease are embedded in damaging personal attitudes, biases, and habits promoted by the culture, as well as in the industries that become financially and politically invested in certain damaging lifestyles and/or their consequences. Unfortunately, the culture reinforces damaging lifestyles if there are industries that profit from such lifestyles.
As soon as I read Mr. Singer's letter the other day, I recognized a kindred spirit. I immediately found his phone number and called him to let him know that he has an instant fan of his work. His philosophy would be considered left field, subversive and ridiculous by most. When you check out his website Self Study Center you may have heard about his work, such as the one that bras are a cause of breast cancer. I know many of us have heard this type of "urban legend" many times over the years, but tend to dismiss such lore due to vanity and fashion pressures. ( Just as we know in our depths that excessive cell phones chronically attached to our heads and hormone/antibiotic laden GMO foods are bad for us but we still do it. And don't even get me going about Gardasil, the vaccine for cervical cancer!) I could go on and on about all of the hundreds and thousands of things that are part of our modern day living but that is not what this post is about. If you are into natural healing, organic, waste and debt free living then Mr. Singer's message is right in line with everything you know and feel is true in how mankind is meant to exist.
To all of my precious and dear friends who enjoy my blog, I will be buried under a pile of Kane Kahiko costumes for Halau Kahikilaulani who are competing in the annual Merry Monarch Festival (the olympics of Hula no less)! A HUGE INTERNATIONAL BIG DEAL IN Hilo town in April, its televised for 3 nights statewide and nearly everyone who calls themself local or Kamaaina watches it. On top of that pile will be the usual seasonal assortment of fluffy, multilayered satin prom gowns and wedding dresses to hem, alter and embellish. I don't expect to have an excess of creative energy to devote to this blog for awhile, but with the continued daily assault of bad economic news I may be compelled to at least comment on the "2009 Prediction" post. Things seem to be unraveling at a cataclysmic speed. I expect the Dow will fall below the 7000 mark next week and then it might just freefall down to 5000. Who knows. The opposite could happen just as well, too since there are persistant rumors that Obama is going to shitcan Turbo Timmy Geitner out the door and replace him with the once Fed chairman Paul Volcker, who served during the Carter and Reagan years. (hopefully he won't up and croak, since he's 82 years old now, before he can save the world from the decades of debt, greed and sheer stupidity). We'll see what transpires. Again, it is just a rumor. If I were Volcker, I would say "Hmmm...lemme think about this for a second........umm......NO!"
So here is the Mr. Sydney Ross Singer letter. Enjoy.
"In No One We Trust" -- a Cultural Cause of our Current Crisis
If our culture can be thought of as a single human being, it would be in an intensive care unit hooked up to an IV dripping money. To a consumer culture whose identity is defined by money -- both making it and spending it -- the remedy for illness seems to be more money, and more consuming. Unfortunately, we can't spend our way out of this crisis, since it is only a symptom of a deeper disease. Our culture is actually having a nervous breakdown. As a people, we are now drugged-out, porned-up, ripped-off, freaked-out, dumbed-down, screwed-up,...and we don't trust anyone anymore.
There is nothing more paralyzing to a culture, or to its citizens, than a lack of trust. Trust is the glue that binds us. It is our deep belief and faith that we are all in this together. To be mentally healthy, we need to trust that people are not out to hurt or kill us, that our leaders are not corrupted, that we can truly trust one another. Without trust, we cannot function as a culture, and our system fails.
It would be hard to define when our national trust began to fail. Over the past decade, we have had 9/11, WMD's, Enron, mailed anthrax, the Patriot Act, waterboarding, phone taps, corrupted officials, tainted food, failed banks, investment fraud, and more. We trusted, but in vain.
As our old world becomes replaced with a new one we now fear, our trust in the very future itself is being shattered. As a nation, we would not have embraced candidate Obama's message of hope had we not already felt despair.
We trusted that the last bailout would work, but it didn't. We are supposed to trust that the new bailout will work, but it can't. The cure is not more money. If our system is corrupted, if greed and dishonesty and lack of trust have so tainted our system that the entire world's economy is on life support, then we can't trust the same corrupted system with more money.
To deal with the disease, we need to invest in virtue, and learn to again trust one another. We need to get over our consumer identity and instead become human beings who hold honesty, integrity, compassion, and trustworthiness as the cornerstones of their character, rounded out with some tolerance, intelligence, and a host of other virtues all but lost in these alienated, distrustful times.
As a culture today we have a right to be depressed. But we don't need more money to recover. We need a cultural epiphany, and a reawakening of our higher humanity.
About the Author: Sydney Ross Singer is a medical anthropologist, author, and director of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease, located in
