[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Mike]
I think the shift can be examplified by the fact that a typical person a hundred
years ago would, when entering a public space such as a bar, expect to make
friendly conversation with complete strangers. Now, while some people still do
this today, the overall trend is that this person will enter that public space
with a few known friends and talk only to them, or if this person is alone, he
or she will order a drink, and then sit and fiddle with his or her mobile
phone.

Am I on the mark, Arlo?

[Arlo]
Hi, Mike. And yes. It's worth emphasizing that this expectation was/is
culturally demanded. It's not that people back then did not have private
conversations in taverns, but the overal expectation was that the tavern
provided a "public forum", which balanced the "private space" of the home.

The article I mentioned referred to "public-private spaces" in both the physical
and metaphorical. That is, on a physical level, our feet touch ground that is
considered "private" nearly throughout the totality of our day. From our
private homes, to our private cars, to our private work space, back to our
private cars and then back to our private homes where we have our private home
threatre, gym and library. We go out for evening drives in private cars, or
venture outside onto our concealed private rear decks. At the time of the
"moral pilgrims", people spent a great deal of time on public sidewalks, and in
public squares and marketplaces.

On the metaphorical level, perhaps due to the overwhelming change in where we
spend our physical time, we have significantly decreased the amount of time
spent in metaphorical public space. This is given example by you above. The
tavern is, of course, private space on the physical level (that is, it is not
community or public space). However, the activity within was mostly expected to
be, and encouraged to be, public space engagement. Today, the expectation and
demand is that this space be metaphorically private as well. By "private", of
course, I'm not talking about abject solitude, but control over the potential
interlocutors. A "private space" is a controlled space, where only certain
others are allowed in/to participate.

In your example above, you show one of the aspects of public space engagement
that has profound resonations on us as individuals. Public spaces, being
uncontrollable, force us to negotiate/discourse with strangers of unknown
background, beliefs, ideologies and stories. It is "expansive" in that it
increases the potential repetoire of our experiences. Private spaces are
"reflexive" in that they provide either time for self-orientation or
self-confirmation of experiences. When taken in balance, when BOTH are valued
and part of daily activity, the individual experiences both expansive and
reflexive engagement. This was the "norm" of the moral pilgrims.

Today, public-expansive engagement in de-valued to the point of an ideological
language telling us it is not only "unimportant", but "bad". There is nothing
wrong, we are told, with demanding we spend our time insultated and among
people who are "exactly like us", in a controlled, private space that is
exclusively self-orienting and self-confirmatory. I believe that this can be
traced to the emergence of mercantilian language within our culture, for
reasons outlined in my "blathering sermon".

Arlo