Marc Mullinax

ìDesign as a political movement [is a] substitute ... a relatively cheap way of appearing right-on, and of achieving the unquestioned goal of social responsibility.î
ó James Woudhuysen
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MARS HILL ó What kind of world would you like to live in? This depends on how you think today.

A noted hip-hop scholar, Tricia Rose, Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, recently visited Mars Hill College and spoke about her scholarly work in rap music, her engagement with African-American pop culture, and passion.

Rose spoke (actually, ìpreachedî) against the cultural tendencies to look at our world and lives in instrumentalist kinds of ways. That is, we choose our leading ideas and channel our energies for reasons or purposes driven by ends that are already pre-chosen. The worth of our ideas/energies are entirely based upon how effective they are in explaining an already-concluded process or phenomena, NOT by their truth or falsity.

Here are some examples of instrumentalist mythologies that seek to conclude and not understand: (1) capitalism and democracies are the best ways to organize financial and societal values (because these seem to fulfill our goals best); (2) animals are ìlowerî than human beings and thus can be farmed for human consumption without moral consequences; (3) a gender or a race are inherently (fill in the blank with the reigning prejudice), and even (4) seeing in the Jewish book of Genesis a grand Christian plan of salvation. Utilitarian theories all, that close out real dialogue.

These plausible but untested folk theories are based on common, everyday experience, not subject to the rigors of testing alternatives. Forget truth; only the objectís usefulness matters. What an unwelcome failure to use our brains!

There is no question that passion drives these utilitarian-based beliefs. We need passionate people, arguing for their causes without hindrance from thought-police. But we must also practice critical reflection, joined with passion at the lip and hip.
A person who is passionate without critical reflection becomes a fundamentalist for a cause, sacrificing means for ends.

Likewise, one who only reflects critically without passion can only deconstruct. Each alone is a nightmare.

But if integrated, one discovers in passion what one is meant to do, and use reflection to stay true without the crusading mentality. We donít have to be violent in our passion, nor intellectually sterile.

Many people are passionate about Creationism, for example, and use (exploit) Intelligent Design as a means to the end of establishing a Christian culture in every way possible. What this preset belief denies is plausible alternatives because the end (God as designer) is already predetermined. Evidence from creation is culled and marshaled to that one approved, preset procrustean bed.

Letís be clear. Passionate religious faith is good, but we give in often to its demands to see the world in deterministic ways. Thus, from a purely academic point of view, this instrumentalist view of creation is intellectual suicide. As a society, because of anti-intellectual trends in faith, we may not be smart enough to understand Darwin. Are we really interested in hearing a full range and voicing of realistic alternatives to faith-based initiatives?

Were we more interested in truth than instrumental utilitarianism, we would not be so blindsided by global warming. Our religions can, but may not encourage us enough, to live responsibly in this world.

Clearly, faith can hold us back. Maybe our founding white communities were too interested in faith matters to recognize other truths, and we are inheriting their legacy of limitation. Faith contributes so much good to the world and is an irreplaceable provider of meaning, but if it categorically denies observable and rational facts to make its points, whatís the point? We need to think responsibly in this world, for the quality of our thought informs the question: What kind of world would you like to live in?

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Dr. Marc S. Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.