By Ron Baker
I always wondered why there were three “R’s” that were to govern my life when I was younger. Especially when I saw them spelled out: Reading (that works), Writing (not so much) and Arithmetic (not at all)!
The point that was pointed out to me was that these were the basic of a good life. Learn them and you are set.
Some would say that is the old society’s way of looking at things.
Let’s start with the old society. You were expected to be logical in your approach to things (Arithmetic was to be the way to understand the language of logic). You also needed to be able to understand what others were saying and to be able to communicate back (Reading and Writing). A society was to be based in a sense of objectivity with deliberation between each other leading to a consensus on action, or at least a civility between each other.
Of course, we now are living in a “new world”. If there are three things that would seem to be the new three “R’s” they are: Seeing, Sensing and Celebrity (OK, the three “S’s” – which works if we allow for our spell checker to use an “S” on Selebrity).
Is there a big difference?
The new “threes” approach life differently.
We are called on to live in narrative, learning to see and sense. We are a visual culture that uses stories to guide our understandings. Whereas the old society sought to have dictionaries to outline the understanding of words and conversation, we now constantly revise word meanings to suit our own bias and often commandeer words from “the other side”, changing meaning but living off the sense of “good” that word has held in the past.
The matter of sensing really comes down to “How does that make you feel?”. I remember distinctly in the 1980s as radio interviews began to move away from “What do you think of that?” to “How does that make you feel?”. Our society was thrown into a completely subjective mode with no objective “truth”. Not only were you able to define words to fit “you”, but you defined the greater ideals of life to fit “you”.
And finally, celebrity has become the byword of communication and social presence. In losing the idea of being a servant, a cancel culture began to rearrange power. The best place to be was on top. Rid yourself of oppressors – to unfortunately become the new oppressor.
Proud becomes the suggested word of the day. Happiness becomes only about me and not others. And Art becomes only about my own story.
If I could characterize the new “threes” I would come down to possibly one word.
Selfishness.
Not my favourite word.
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