Week 1 Barker, Chapter 2 Central Problems in Cultural Studies

What began to resonate most with me in this chapter was the idea of rationality and the way that plays out within culture. Barker writes on page 46 that Western culture has seen a rise in addictions...self centered behaviors....These 'diseases of meaning' stem from our reliance on rationality as we live in a post-Enlightenment culture. Barker writes that we have become emotionally unbalanced and need to develop love, empathy, care, and artistic creativity. I would agree with him that there needs to be a push back to placing less emphasis on reason and more emphasis on encountering feeling-love, empathy, care. However, I'm not so sure that I understand or agree with Barker about how artistic creativity fits into a more emotionally balanced culture. I would contend that our culture has more artistic creativity than ever before given the effects of globalization and the advancements made in technology and newfound outlets for artistic expression and distribution. Therefore, while I believe in the benefits of artistic expression whole heartedly I can't say as I agree with Barker that this should be a focus in realigning culture.