Designing Culture
The first Seven Up documentary was made by Michael Apted in 1964. The British documentary's premise was to follow the development of 14 children from different socioeconomic classes from the age of 7 onward. They would interview the kids every 7 years for the next 55 years. The idea was to see if the kids’ personalities and opportunities at age 7 might indicate how they would evolve into adults. The ninth film in the series, 63 Up, came out in 2019.
The arc of the documentaries shows people growing up and changing as the complex individuals they are, while also showing how the impacts of social class remain strong throughout their lives. It turns out that the design of the environment around them determines a lot of this future behavior and possibility; the people they interact with, the signals supplied by culture, and their class all affect each person in the series deeply.
Culture is designed, like our cars or our buildings. But unlike objects, the decisions that shape dominant culture are reproduced over time and the only way to change the culture is to redesign it completely, not just to change the outcomes but to change the mechanics of how it works.
I recently watched a clip from Bill Moyers’ documentary featured in the New York Times article “A Racist Attack on Children Was Taped in 1975. We Found Them.” It shows how a group of young Black children ran into a white supremacist rally right in the middle of Queens, New York in the ’70s. They did not expect it, but there it was. It is heartbreaking to see and hear the stories of these children who were attacked by this rally, and how that event still affects the adults they are now.
Yet, what also keeps nagging at me is that not a single person in the crowd of anti-Black protestors could be traced. Culture is formed by what you see and who you talk to, and when you are young that is powerful. There were many white children and teens participating in that white supremacist rally and all of them are now adults with kids of their own. Raised in, and having perpetuated, a culture of racism, have they redesigned a new culture for themselves, their kids, and most importantly their wider community, or is it the same design pattern repeating itself today?
As we think about how to redesign culture together, creating new spaces for conversation seems more important than ever, let me leave you with this thought and method for doing that from the excellent book Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg:
“When … someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good!”
