Weber State College Comment, April 1989. Page 7 : 4 | new definitions of what it means to ~~ emale or female. pen choices —_< What is new here is the very open— ndedness of choice itself. It is something » owhich we must pay special heed. This new open-endedness of choice ‘) ppears as a powerful undercurrent in +) many of the troubling issues now facing wst-industrial societies. We live in such a society. Lacking keply embedded conventions and a trong sense of tradition, the disinvention inecessity is perhaps more pronounced ‘athe United States than in most other N Nestern societies. But gender-based roles are not the only sxample of a disappearance of the non_ poken canons of our society. ))isinventing childhood Modern childhood is a relatively new Mocial artifact” of the industrial revolu‘ion. As Neil Postman notes, pre-indus“mal societies made only two significant « distinctions: infancy, which ended at ‘pout seven years, and adulthood, which -Jegan thereafter. These two categories yyere inherent in pre-industrial societies ~Jecause everyone past infancy had to work joensure the group’s survival. _ As the industrial revolution raised the -ievel of both productivity and the skills iequired for employment, young people ~yere gradually excluded from the work “lace, and childhood, a new social cate> gory running from ages seven to seventeen “Same into being. Today, however, Postman argues that childhood is disappearing, and at a daz‘sling speed.” Ironically, the values of «individualism and personal worth which ofelped legitimate childhood now work to undermine it. A democratically inspired ‘children’s rights” movement is striving 0 invest children with the same legal Hights as adults, while the electronic media spire rapidly breaking down the control of owledge which Postman and others seurgue is necessary to protect the innocence jo f childhood. _ Inaddition, urban life and the demands ) f two-career and single-parent families tend toward a devaluation of childhood a } “itself. Thus, in the face of post-industrial orces, childhood, an invention of indusrialization, is in decline. Unless some ‘whew necessity is invented to ensure its @pecial status as a period of protected de»vjelopment, it may disappear altogether. ading Americanism Early in the history of the United States, yeople in this country began to move away ‘tom their many and divergent origins ‘oward a single unifying ideal, a national identity. Most immigrant groups desired ojo become more American, and in the " mocess subordinated their other group identities to create a common sense of community. Today, however, American society displays a different dynamic, one that is much more fractionated. Newer immigrant groups do not aspire in the same way to the old unitary ideal. Instead, they seem intent on maintaining the character and qualities of their ethnic, cultural, and racial identities. Once held together by a common, although often unspoken creed, America is becoming increasingly multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-linguistic. This newer expression of the fundamental democratic values of equality, individuality, and success runs counter to the traditional ideal of E Pluribus Unum— ”one out of many.” And it tends toward the disinvention of America itself as a social necessity. Such a process may be inevitable. But it is also ironic. The very values which required us out of necessity to forge a community, which we have held in common, and which have bound us together in the building of our society, are themselves now at risk. Difficult questions The post-industrial societies of the West now find themselves confronted with questions that were once answered with little hesitation. In a past that is still not so distant, there was seldom the occasion to pose questions, the unspoken “rules” of society provided answers before the questions rose to the level of consciousness. Yet few of us would welcome back those earlier answers: “A woman’s place is in the home.” “No work is to be done on the Sabbath.” “Don’t question authority.” Seen from the broad spectrum of alternatives now available, these answers are not very appealing to the modern eye. But while they may not now be attractive, they were then at least certain. Here is the hard post-industrial paradox. As individuals are freed from social constraints they have to exercise many more choices. They are supplied with more alternatives without the saving—and often salving—guidance of necessity. The modern individual is existentially “thrown” into the universe. In Sartre’s phrase we are “condemned to freedom.” A new necessity The fact is that on the eve of the 21st century circumstances have conspired to challenge us to invent a new and compelling set of social guidelines, and to do so deliberately and conscientiously. At the disquieting forward edge of human history which we momentarily occupy we are finally thrust face to face with the problem of human awareness. We humans are highly interdependent creatures; in the modern world this is more true than ever before. Yet we also recognize that human beings still require either Faculty present centennial lecture series Everything from truth telling and socialism to female ovulation and ethical dilemmas were covered in a 10-part lecture series sponsored by the WSC honors programs. The series was designed to evoke thought and discussion as an academic part of the college’s centennial year. The lectures were by Weber State faculty members, and presentation titles included “Marxist Method and Physical Geography,” “Why Do Human Females Hide Their Ovulation,” “Truth Telling and the Public Good,” “Learning to Say the ‘S’ Word: Putting Socialism on the American Political Agenda,” and others. “This is the kind of thing that we ought to have happen all the time. The series provided opportunities for faculty and students to come together and have some discussions that were thought provoking,” said Ron Holt, director of the Weber State honors program. “We want to provide anything we can to raise the level of discussion on campus, to give students and faculty a time to discuss important issues that maybe they don’t get a chance to do regularly,” he added. Organizers are compiling the lectures into a book that will soon be available through the Weber State bookstore, he said. “One of the major things we try to provoke is dialogue. Hopefully we can train students to be more than just stenographers, to do more than just take notes,” he said. the reality or the hope of some common guideline. : Thus we know what is needed: A new kind of social necessity that would fully reflect the freedom of our present situation, and yet still provide the comforting guidance toward the fulfillment of human possibility. But how do we do that? The decline of social necessity seems to me to have been fostered by three factors: size, change, and connection. In terms of size, we live much of our lives in social entities that are too large for truly human habitation. In terms of change, we increasingly have to try to get our bearings while too much is changing too fast. And in terms of connection, we find ourselves interacting with other people in ways that are too brief and impersonal to foster sustained, felt connections. In order to recreate any social necessity we must counter those elements. We need to invoke and celebrate the qualities of smallness, stability, interdependence, and cooperation. These dimensions of human existence have become especially important in a world in which two dangers now eclipse all others: the threats to our planet of ecological catastrophe or of nuclear annihilation. The twin prospects of ecological catastrophe or nuclear annihilation, as terrible as they might be, show us the way out, because they have something very much in common: The finiteness of the planet. rent rate of destruction of natural resources by both the impoverished Third World and the over- developed West; given the existence of over 50,000 nuclear warheads; given all this, itis stunningly clear that we have, in fact, reached a new limit, the final social necessity of the earth itself. Planet Earth is much smaller than ever we thought. It will survive only if change is brought under control and managed wisely. We will prevail only if we recognize that there is but one commons—our one common earth, and neither we nor the commons will survive unless we do so together. The guiding vision we need, the one which must compel social necessity now and in the future, lies directly beneath our feet. We must lock it in our imaginations, embrace it with our love, and come to believe in it with an abiding faith. Spaceship Earth Planet Earth has now become one ecosystem and one social system. Ecologically and socially, the earth is a closed system, with fixed dimensions and upper limits to her carrying capacities, natural and human. Given a world population of over five billion, increasing at a rate that will result in six billion people by the year 2000; given the grossly unequal world-wide distributions of wealth and poverty; given the cur- Dr. Toth originally presented an unedited version of this article at the Honors Program Centennial Lecture Series. \_4 al \