The feeling edge of culture

Journal/Book: J Soc Distress Homeless. 1995; 4: 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013-1578. Human Sci Press Inc. 163-202.

Abstract: During the 1960s, the new generation changed the American Creed by deemphasizing sensitivity to evidence, emphasizing feelings and deductive thought, while assuming an adversarial position against the sociopolitical order and embracing the American Black's struggle against racism. Driven by pain fueled by fear and anger and oriented by existential values of being, the Civil Rights Movement, sought to actualize political values of justice and equality As peaceful demonstrations dwindled, violence increased, converting individual anger to social rage. Anger's cognitive structure changed the concept of society into a dichotomy of Black victims and White oppressors, forming an ethic of sensitivity with victims occupying the moral high ground. Pain and tragedy were banished from view and blamed on oppressors as individual identities divested civil traits and acquired cultural identity, disuniting the civil society. Rubbing against the American Creed, the ethic of sensitivity produced a feeling of malaise posing a threat to mental health.

Note: Article EC Stewart, 12528 Montclair Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA

Keyword(s): American cultural changes; cultural identity; ethic of sensitivity; mansions of anger

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