Beware of Academic Conformity

“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

As we continue our attempt to blaze a trail toward the Promised Land by way of the poetic genius, the project will necessarily have to attract participants of varying abilities, talents, and gifts who can act creatively in an attempt to change their world. But a problem arises in legitimate pressures towards conformity. On this subject, the poet John Keats states as follows, excerpted from an 1803 letter:

The Genius of Poetry must work its own salvation in a man: It cannot be matured by law & precept, but by sensation & watchfulness in itself -- That which is creative must create itself -- In Endymion I leaped head long into the Sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, & the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea & comfortable advice.

But as we attempt to blaze a trail, who wants to run into quicksand? To take such a chance, one needs a cause greater than their self, and this project strives to provide that -- and great art may come out of it.

Speaking of quicksand, beware the ossified academics who're guarded of their status and position at the university feeding trough -- as Rimbuad put it -- and intent to conform the budding poet or artist into a mediocre image of their own self in an attempt to shore up their own self-image. But this is not to say one can't learn from them (though some of the lessons may not be the ones they'd intended to teach). It's granted that those who've achieved status and recognition in their field have done so legitimately. No one should feel threatened by the Promised Land Project because, as it's closely tied to Whitman's vision, it validates. Its aligned with the integral philosophy mantra of "transcend and include", as articulated by the contemporary philosopher Steve McIntosh.

Calling for a New Brood of Bodies and Souls

In the previous blog I spoke the appearance of a crisis but I hope to avoid sounding alarmist. In a complex society such as our own, it can be difficult to ascertain the level of resilience in our society. The term crisis depends on one's sense of urgency.

In this blog I've tried to articulate a synthesis that demonstrates where we need to go as a society in the course of human evolution and how we can get there. But as I stated at the outset, I recognize the limitations of the written word and assert that some kind of spiritual movement must take place. Beyond paper and types, or paper and ink, or (computer)screen and types, we're trying to create a poetry of bodies and souls.

Short of a spiritual revolution, however, the project can be broken down into more tangible parts, such as "keeping up one's spirits" or simply promoting community spirit within the greater context of the human spirit.

While perhaps too presumptuous to claim patronage from the dead, I’ve correlated my approach to follow Whitman’s call as reflected in the poem below. Calling for a "new brood" of bodies and souls, the poem lends itself toward a festive approach, as reflective in the poem, "Poets to Come" (somewhat misconfigured):

Poets to come! Orators, singers, musicians to come!
Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,
But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater
Than before known,
Arouse! For you must justify me.

I myself but write one or two indicative words for the
future,
I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the
darkness.

I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns
a casual look upon you and then averts his face,
Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
Expecting the main things from you.

Going to the Mythos in Times of Crisis

As noted in a previous blog, I reiterate the value of cultural diversity. Cultures have evolved over time and have withstood the test of time. When a crisis appears on the horizon, it is to our benefit to be able to draw on the vast array of human experience to meet the challenge. That said, a crisis has appeared on the horizon in our democratic society. Entrenched narrow interests (to include self-interest and "special interests") and a divided political sphere threaten our society as a whole. This can be described as a crisis of the spirit. To meet this crisis we should not fear to go to our mythos, the dynamic of our moral culture. As demonstrated in previous blogs, under the auspices of poetry, we can make vital use of the symbols capable of inspiration.

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34)

While such symbols can lend themselves to the ascetic and the didactic, the Promised Land Project, grounded in poetry, strives to make use of them inspirationally. To simply state, didactically, "What would Jesus do?" is of limited value and easily can create a negative affect. Self-interest is human nature and the use of moralizing and shaming in an attempt to transcend entrenched interests in a complex society is more apt to degenerate the public discourse.

Yet while recognizing self-interest is part of human nature, we must also recognize the dynamics of our collective nature, such as our capacity to love. By differentiating between the mythos and religion, we can draw on such symbols and frame them poetically, yet truthfully, then interject the arts as a means to inspire.

The essential function of art is moral. Not aesthetic, not decorative, not pastime and recreation. But Moral. The essential function of art is moral. But a passionate, implicit morality, not didactic. A morality which changes the blood, rather than the mind. Changes the blood first. The mind follows later, in the wake. -- D.H. Lawrence

Art can be many things -- it's not worth arguing about -- but I believe Lawrence was on to something. The promotion of a collective narrative aligned with the truth can erode the foundations of false ideologies that excuse self-interest and harbor a deep sense of shame, propping up falsely one's sense of self, and causing the occlusion of sympathetic love. Yet it ultimately validates because it restores one's sense of self through a truthful level of self-acceptance towards self-interest and enables one to see more clearly one's own contribution to the greater good. Well, that's how it's supposed to work, as I see it.

Something of My Odyssey

As we make our way toward a precipice I'm hoping will afford a better view, here I'll relate some personal history about your guide. How I came to promoting a poetic approach toward human progress is a long story but a short introduction is in order at this point. I began my adult life as an agnostic exalting science and reason. After a stint in the Army and four years of college, my dreams began to overtake me, eventually eclipsing what had been a careful, practical approach into adulthood. Like any American, or human for that matter, I'd intended to secure a measure of wealth and status; but driven by irrational forces, reminiscent of some of the themes of Dostoyevsky, I simply failed to live up to my existentialist reason.

After a crisis point in my life, as my existentialist reason came to an all too literal dead end, I came to the poetry of Whitman and became fascinated by the American poet that exclaims Of physiology from top to toe I sing,/ Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the/ Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far

As I came to appreciate the soul, or primal soul, in time I would strive to create a progressive approach that taps into the totality of our human nature, beyond mere reason, and the Muse seems to have obliged. That's only part of a long odyssey evocative of Dante as well as Homer. And I might add that I, too, consider myself to be something of a poet:

I am the poet that rides the waves
cresting high
and crashing low.

A poet in the wake of your Walt Whitman,
a poet of the body,
a poet of the soul.

The pleasures of heaven ascend me
and the pains of hell descend me.

If you knew how much I missed the mark
of that ideal
you might shake your head and go.

But wait my countrymen and women
my weaknesses can be made perfect in you.

Where I'm Going With All of This/The Importance of Cultural Diversity

To give a preview of where I'm going with all of this, after I've established the project's roots in poetry, we'll then be moving into the realm of the prophets. There we'll try to bring Jesus down to earth, so to speak, in the more grounded sense as a poet. Those believers who're more comfortable with Jesus amongst the clouds as a prophet, the messiah, the Christ, are going to have to have faith. For nonbelievers, I expect they'll find there's plenty of room for them as well as I continue to talk poetry and the use of symbol and metaphor in relation to the dynamics of human nature.

Before that, however, I'll have to underscore my sincere belief in the importance of cultural diversity. Much like the benefits of biological diversity, whatever challenges that present themselves in the course of human history, it's to our benefit to draw on the vast pool of human experience to help meet these challenges. In this blog, I'll be citing some aspects of the Native American culture, for example, that I believe will help enable us to be more Christlike.

By establishing the project in poetry and making creative use of both deductive and inductive reasoning, I believe we can successfully engage these issues cross-culturally and among believers and nonbelievers alike. But where I think this is going is the creation of what nonbelievers might call a conceptual metaphor in which to engage the world. But the last word I'll leave is taken from the Roman Catholic theologian and Dominican priest Gustavo Gutierrez, who is considered the father of liberation theology. Speaking on the University of Oregon campus, in 2005 I believe, he remarked that to him, the language of God is poetry.

Analogy to the Manhattan Project

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein

I can be a real dreamer and even to myself, aspects of The Promised Land Project can seem rather, shall we say, far-fetched. There are significant obstacles to overcome and though I see no impasse, still, my vision is limited. Furthermore, I've had my share of failure in life. But if one can learn from failure, whether it's one's own or from others, it's not in vain.

As the American Scientists gathered for the Manhattan Project, some hoped that the atomic bomb wouldn't work. No one knew unless they tried. But the atomic bomb did work and with the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, nuclear weapons continue to proliferate around the world to threaten our destruction.

While the Manhattan Project strived to tap the power of the atom for military purposes, the Promised Land Project strives to tap the power of the soul for peaceful purposes.

In this blog I try to articulate as reasonably as possible why this can work. The project provides a collective narrative that will have to be picked up by others to be promoted in various forms. But to work it must capture the imagination, it must engender inspiration to be sustained and renewed on some level, and it must be the truth -- as much as we understand that to be. Ultimately, like the scientists of the Manhattan Project, we can only know if it will work by trying it.

As it was American scientists that unleashed the nuclear weapons into the world, let it be American poets to unleashed an imaginative disposition that renders the use of such weapons unimaginable.

The Problem of Nationalism and False Prophets

Coming through the collective movements of the twentieth-century, it's understandable we'd be suspicious of collective movements and collective mindsets. We are suspicisous of top down coercive policies that suppress individualism to promote the power of the state. Communism, Fascism, or National Socialism enacted such policies with horrific results. But there's no denying our collective identities because there's no denying our collective nature. The problem of nationalism in the modern era, as the the end all of collective identity, is that it separates ourselves into an "us" and "they" and leaves us susceptible to false prophets.

To me, Hitler is the classic false prophet: in the wake of defeat and humiliation in the Great War, promising to restore Germany to great heights, in fact, he led it to its destruction and other abysmal lows. The Nazi regime provided the German society with a false collective narrative, or ideology, to initiate an agenda of war and conquest. To a defeated country in dire economic straits, the collective narrative went something like this: their humiliating defeat at the end of the first world war was due to a “stab in the back” implicating the Jews, and that the Germans were a “master race” destined to assert their superiority and required “lebensraum”, or living space, and thus destined to rule Europe, if not the world.

While the Nazi ideologues provided this collective narrative that successfully restored a sense of national pride among a critical element of the German populace, it was necessarily backed by the use of coercive power and suppression toward those reluctant or unable to go along with this narrative.

A national spirit should fall under the greater context of the human spirit: the encompassing ‘we’. The Promised Land Project provides a collective narrative aligned with the truth -- as best we understand that to be -- to promote the human spirit and what I call the cross-cultural divine law to love each other as you love yourself.