preserving tradition in a disintegrating culture

[Guest guest]

I found the following article relevant to the recent discussion of how to

preserve knowledge of Chinese medicine when general academic ability is

declining and accredition battles seem to have more to do with political power

and control than quality of knowledge.

 

http://www.hermes-press.com/triumph_civ.htm

The Triumph of Civilization

By Norman D. Livergood

 

Livergood is right on target. He is a philosopher, and I believe that much of

modern education has suffered for lack of connection with the greatest thinkers

in Western civilization - Socrates, Plato, Virgil, the Enlightenment

philosophers. If students and even teachers no longer have any connection to

these thinkers, how can we expect the knowledge of Chinese medicine to survive

and be preserved?

 

Livergood presents answers, but they are not what most will wish to hear.

 

 

---Roger Wicke, PhD, TCM Clinical Herbalist

contact: www.rmhiherbal.org/contact/

Rocky Mountain Herbal Institute, Hot Springs, Montana USA

Clinical herbology training programs - www.rmhiherbal.org

[Guest guest]

I agree that the " dumbing down " of United States citizens is occurring in all

realms of our society, but I don't believe this can be ascribed to losing

culture, per se. I found Ulf Hannerz's book, Transnational Connections, to be

useful when thinking about the preservation of cultural knowledge.

 

http://www.ebookmall.com/alpha-authors/Ulf-Hannerz.htm

 

" Transnational Connections provides a lucid account of culture in an age of

globalization. Ulf Hannerz argues that, in an ever-more interconnected world,

national understandings of culture have become insufficient. He explores the

implications of boundary-crossings and long-distance cultural flows for

established notions of ''the local'', ''community'', ''nation'' and

''modernity''

Hannerz not only engages with theoretical debates about culture and

globalization but raises issues of how we think and live today. His account of

the experience of global culture encompasses a shouting match in a New York

street about Salman Rushdie, a papal visit to the Maya Indians; kung-fu dancers

in Nigeria and Rastafarians in Amsterdam; the nostalgia of foreign

correspondents and the surprising exeriences of tourists in a world city or on a

Borneo photo safari. "

 

 

rw2 wrote:

 

 

I found the following article relevant to the recent discussion of how to

preserve knowledge of Chinese medicine when general academic ability is

declining and accredition battles seem to have more to do with political power

and control than quality of knowledge.

 

http://www.hermes-press.com/triumph_civ.htm

The Triumph of Civilization

By Norman D. Livergood

 

Livergood is right on target. He is a philosopher, and I believe that much of

modern education has suffered for lack of connection with the greatest thinkers

in Western civilization - Socrates, Plato, Virgil, the Enlightenment

philosophers. If students and even teachers no longer have any connection to

these thinkers, how can we expect the knowledge of Chinese medicine to survive

and be preserved?

 

Livergood presents answers, but they are not what most will wish to hear.

 

 

---Roger Wicke, PhD, TCM Clinical Herbalist

contact: www.rmhiherbal.org/contact/

Rocky Mountain Herbal Institute, Hot Springs, Montana USA

Clinical herbology training programs - www.rmhiherbal.org

 

 

 

 

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