Preston Grissom

Outside Reading

To Change the World: James Davidson Hunter

            In this book the author spends about 100 pages attempting to layout what “culture” really means.  I have had the idea that to influence the culture you must address the questions they have.  This is certainly true but it is not the end means of cultural understanding.  Hunter says, “culture is as much an infrastructure as it is ideas.”  This leads me to wonder “How am I supposed to engage something when I have no idea what the infrastructure is?”

This is exactly the point he is trying to make.  He is saying that to “change the world” (he uses this ironically) we must understand the many factors that make up the world and humbly enter into each arena separately.  He later says, “ideas are not free-floating in consciousness but are grounded in the social world in the most concrete ways.”  This gives us hope that “culture” is not just the prominent ideas of the society at a given time but they are actually practically applied. 

We see that a culture may have laws against marijuana consumption but there is weed in the movies and no one thinks anything of it.  This is the concrete view of marijuana in America.  This helps anyone who is struggling with the idea of cultural engagement see passed the BS that can confuse and cripple a well meaning man or woman.