Astral Facts, October 2009

Hidden Values

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

One of the characteristics of the Humanities Sciences is its interdisciplinary nature. Much of what is expressed through the various branches of Humanities Science has its roots in cultural and social issues. It is through literature and the arts that views on cultural and social behavior and attitudes can be exposed, expressed, examined, and extirpated, exonerated, exhumed, extinguished, etc.

Through the philosophical and theological arms of the Humanities Sciences, moral and ethical questions are often at the forefront. Values clarification is a key concern, especially when the concept of absolute values has been discredited.

I have observed this recently both in the classroom and out in the community on the issue of social justice. In my classroom we have been discussing the one act play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell back in 1916. The basic plot could be viewed today in an episode of CSI, Law and Order, Boston Legal, etc. A man is found strangled in bed, with no signs of forced entry. Only his wife, who found the body, was in the house during the night. She is the obvious suspect, and she is in the jail. Several males go out to the farmhouse to investigate, and a couple of their wives go along to get clothes for the suspect. The play’s main scene is in the kitchen with the women while the men busily come and go in their investigation, ignoring the trivial things in the kitchen. However, in the kitchen, the women observe clues that lead them to understand the emotionally abusive relationship which had driven the wife to kill her husband in the night after 30 years of marriage.

The real issue comes in examining the concepts of law, crime, and justice. Has a terrible criminal been justifiably executed by his victim, or has a terrible crime been committed against a hardworking man? The women must address the issue of how much, if any, should they report to the men investigating the crime. Just as entertaining as some things in the current entertainment media, the text asks very difficult and complex questions. As the plot unfolds, Glaspell offers her response to the situation, in that time and place, whether or not to let the “criminal” get away.

Another approach to the issue of social justice has emerged with the recent arrest of Roman Polanski. Many have complained about the “law and order” attitude of the Los Angeles district attorney, and the original victim in the case has been quoted as saying she does not want the experience dredged up again.

What is the “right” choice?

Many people who are practitioners of humanities science in the “real” world have seen the arrest as a kind of social injustice itself, perhaps Whoopi Goldberg most notably in saying that Polanski’s filming his sexual relations imposed upon a 13-year-old “was not rape-rape” (meaning it was a kind of rape different from criminal rape). Perhaps "performance art" has moral values that supercede civil restrictions? Is this a "reality show" that came before its time? Debra Winger has called it a “three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities,” and Woody Allen, no stranger to the situation himself, has objected to the unfairness of Polanski being arrested while traveling from France to attend a cultural event.

How long will it be before the "TV Movie" hits the cable and dish (and the fan)?

Much of the discussion has asked us, the sensitive public, to put ourselves in their shoes. We are reminded of the adage, known as “the golden rule” and present in nearly every culture, to treat others as we would expect to be treated by others ourselves. In combination with this, we may be reminded of the Christian story of Jesus suggesting that “those without sin” should cast the first stone. Of course, the moral is to be forgiving and compassionate toward those who are in difficulty (involving moral straits or constraints).

However, some observers have noted that the motivation seems to be more of an attitude that says, “I won’t judge you for what you’re doing, and then you won’t need to judge me either!” Thus, in the emphasis in our current culture on uplifting one’s self-esteem, the mantle of forgiveness, which used to be followed by “go forth and sin no more,” is now being replaced by the reassuring attitude to “go forth and continue to sin if you like but with a clear conscience”!

Perhaps I could close with a poem published last spring in the award-winning campus literary journal, Espial:

Slant on Life

I lost my standards in the woods
Of mights, and coulds, and shoulds and woulds.
That take me on a pleasant trip
Beside, beyond, or some such slip
Down a slope that seems so nice
That I forget to check the price
To pay to exit and get back
On my route’s good upward track
That now has faded in the woods
Of mights and coulds and shoulds and woulds.

By McArthur Gilstrap.

[McArthur and Gilstrap were the maiden names of my two grandmothers.]

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.