Lewis and the Done Manifesto

If you haven't read The Abolition of Man just do it. Really, do. It's one of those books which is so short it's almost embarrassing not to have read, and is constantly applicable in discourse. But anyway. Lewis plugs aside, this book is full of thoughtful cogitations (is that redundant? probably) and excellent examples. This time around, one of the most interesting ideas for me was Lewis's thoughts on the mentality of debunking, and in particular a few images which he used to outline this discussion.

No doubt the world in which we live is full of just such debunkers as “Gaius and Titus”. Men and women who mistake harsh criticism for wisdom and intellect. This is a product, of course, of the fact that it is so easy to dismiss things and incredibly difficult to create them. Amateurs and young people especially seem to be guilty of this (though I may simply notice them more because they are my peers). Sure things are imperfect, and indeed some things ought to be heartily dismissed, but if we live in a world where the only thing people know how to do is tear down imperfect things nothing would stand on the face of this earth. I believe that.

It has honestly been a revelation to me over the past few years of my life that there are actually human hands and minds behind the remarkable complexity of the my car, my doctors office, the laptop I'm typing this on and nearly everything around me. And further I have a hand and mind and heart such that I could create these things too. This is why I love knitting and crafting so much, I still marvel at the fact that I could make something and use it. The bowl in my cupboard doesn't have to come from the store shelves, in can also come from the spinning clay in my hands. The remarkable words I read from the books on my shelves didn't land on the page in perfection, they were crafted there, and I can craft them too.

There's a fascinating movement of sorts that I came across online a few years ago which often springs to mind. It is called The Cult of Done Manifesto (http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html) and it deals with this idea of creating things and getting them done rather than waffling in the editing stage indefinitely. One of my favorite points, number 9 on the manifesto says “People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.” Now it's a decidedly questionable idea, particularly the second half which could be quite dangerous were in not being used primarily by a group of people for whom “doing something” really means making art. (Not that art isn't an earth-shaking endeavor, but it is less likely to result in bloodshed and massive inequality than many other pursuits.) However the image of that first part is quite important. “People without dirty hands are wrong.” If you're not willing to step into the fray and try to build something with me, if your intention is not to improve but simply to tear down, I do not want to hear what you have to say. It is those who are out there doing: the makers, the builders, the writers, architects, educators, researchers, chefs, these are the people whose voices I want to hear. It is Lewis's poet I want to see crafting our language, and not the theorist.

Which brings me around, at last, to the quotation from Abolition which resonated most with me. (And it actually is one of the ones I posted from last Saturday! Go me!) Lewis writes,

“A theorist about language may approach his language, as it were from outside, regarding its genius as a thing that has no claim on him and advocating wholesale alterations of its idiom and spelling in the interests of commercial convenience or scientific accuracy. That is one thing. A great poet, who has 'loved, and been well nurtured in, his mother tongue', may also make great alterations in it, but his changes of the language are made in the spirit of the language itself: he works from within. The language which suffers, also inspires the changes."

This example, for me, was perfect. An appreciation of tradition, of what has come before, does not mean that you wish it to remain unchanged. The choice is not between stasis and destruction, accepting or rejecting completely. The one who cherishes tradition must build upon the history they are given and grow that tradition. To prune a tree so that it can grow is a world away from chopping it down and planting a sapling by its upturned roots. It's true in science, it's true in politics, it's true in each discipline. A chemist rooted in the knowledge garnered before her equips herself to make important new discoveries. Likewise, a leader who loves his country will serve it far better than a dictator who does not. Just as the branches of an old tree grow upward, toward the sun. Keep pruning, keep reaching, keep growing in the light of the sun.

TL:DR Get your hands dirty. Go make something.