In his book, “Dear Colleague,” geographer and cultural
polymath Yi-Fu Tuan writes:
“Culture, to the extent that it is quaintness and
superstition, has rationality as its enemy.
Let me illustrate with the emperor T’ai-tsung. An enlightened man, he found many of the
beliefs and practices of his time tiresome.
One day in the ninth month of the year 628, it happened that some albino
magpies built nests in linked pairs on the palace grounds. Officials, believing this association of
white birds with paired nest to be auspicious, congratulated the emperor, who
far from being pleased, exclaimed in anger, 'I have always laughed at my
predecessors’ fondness for speaking about auspicious omens. A worthy man is an auspicious omen. How are white magpies beneficial to our
affairs?' He thereupon ordered the nest
thrown down and the birds released.
The emperor wiped out a quaint belief and replaced it with a
rational viewpoint that could be accepted by enlightened individuals anywhere
in the world. His rationality deserves
cheers – but perhaps only two, for, on the downside, it tends to undermine our
lovableness as human beings, which depend on having just these nonrational
peculiarities. Look at it this way. No one will throw an affectionate arm around
me because I am intelligent. If
affection is shown me at all, it is because I am the sort of guy who believes
in the auspiciousness of white magpies.
Pride in these cultural peculiarities, which are types of error, is
stupid. The proper attitude is affection
– the kind one feels toward adult peccadilloes and the charming mistakes of
young children.”
Comment: I think it is well for anyone who takes it upon themselves
to be a debunker of myths or popularly held beliefs to understand what Yi-Fu Tuan is
saying here. Humans adorn the naked body with jewelry, tattoos,and cloths. They adorn their world with myth, art, and other symbols and beliefs. Adherence to unadorned reality is one kind of virtue. Being able to create a more lovable reality is another. The adherent of unadorned reality will think that creating a more lovable reality simply means providing a lie; but for a human, reality is always partly a construct. Why construct an ugly reality?