Beginning To Discuss Creativity

Creativity is a difficult area for discussion to say the very least. Especially these days when it is being removed from schools in all of its forms (art, music, shop class, etc.) and the strange affiliation with political misnomer of it being a part of “woke” culture. It involves too many myths and legends about its purpose, its origins, and its place in our world. It is a subject matter that is a constant contradiction. It can be both awe inspiring and respected in as much as it is unvalued and trivialized. Companies are calling for more creative solutions yet our educational system is busy removing it from access. Our institutions prize conformity yet will hire persons on the fringe socially who are highly creative to spur profitability. Our society demands being “just like everyone else” but then celebrates the creative, the unusual, and inventive if they can make money from it.

So, with that kind of friction taking place, creativity is a scene of constant battle, hype, and misunderstanding by all involved. There has been study upon studies all done on creativity by the economic sectors, religious institutions, governmental agencies, and academic centers. All proving the vitalness of it being at the very core of human existence. They are available for the asking, but little is done with this mountain of data that virtually sits unused. Why?

I believe this has to do with the way in which the institutional elements of our society functions. You really must look at what brought this all about. (Now before we start this journey let me first state that this is not a blame game but rather a quest to find the source of influence(s) that started the ball rolling.) You see with any problem there is a point at which an error was made. At that point (or points) is what some have called the tipping point when things turn in an opposite reaction.

When you find the source of the error, reaction, and assumption; you then can begin to unravel the series of events that have led you to the situation that you are in. You might go as so far to say that the power structure of institutions makes it so that only a very few would be privileged in being allowed to venture into this territory of creativity. It is then a matter of the old axiom of keeping what works and then getting rid of what does not. We are all a part of the problem so with that we all need to be a part of the solution. None of us has a corner on the market for being absolutely right, partially right or even close to be nearly right. If we look at it in the proper light, it will tell us that we are all interconnected and are a part of the bigger picture. To use a more general term it would be a cosmological view.

The major influence of our age has been the industrial revolution. It has changed the way we look at everything in our lives. This has shifted our focus from the achievement of producing one quality object to being able to produce goods inexpensively for mass consumption. It has taken uniqueness out of the equation and put in its place the readily replaceable and consumable. This has had a tremendous influence on our way of thinking. It has changed the way we measure ourselves and others. It has changed the context of the individual in society. It has affected all the aspects of human existence from the arts, the sciences, philosophy, politics, ethics, religion, and education.

The Industrial Revolution did make more products available to more people by being able to centralize means of production for easy replication. It made goods more affordable to a broader base and has led to great advancements in health and the standard of living for some. However, as with all human movements there is a negative aspect. There is a price to pay if we chose to ignore the many factors. The major point is that it did something to how we see each other. It changed the psychology of how we see the individual – not as human beings, but as parts of a human machine. It took us from being individual craftsman and workers to become part of a flesh-colored assembly line. At that point we became replaceable parts. We were no longer unique entities that added value to a larger collective because of unique vision, insight, and expression of our perceptions of the world around us.

With that new perspective parts were needed that could be easily replaced and replicated. You did not need a host of individuals who could think and make. Thinking was un-necessary or extremely limited on the production line. All you had to do was perform one desired task to produce a desired result. Thinking beyond the immediate task at hand was not needed nor encouraged. Basic skills of reading, writing, and math were all that were required to track and report what you produced. Thought was not valued, welcomed, or required. Regurgitation of production information was all that was required.  We went from skilled craftsman who designed and made a complete product, to someone who placed a part on a product and performed a job – a task. These ideas are even present in farming which has become an agri-business and commodities producers.

If you look up the word job it is not a very positive item. Webster’s Dictionary tells us the origin of the word comes from the old English word that meant lump.   A lump by definition is “1: a piece or mass of indefinite size and shape 2 a. aggregate, totality <taken in the lump> b: majority 3: protuberance: an abnormal swelling 4: a person who is heavy and awkward; also: one who is stupid or dull”.  This is the root of the meaning of the word job. Yet we have turned this word job into the definition of our lives. We define ourselves by our job. Ask a person who they are and they will tell you what their occupation/job is. The emphasis has shifted from a human being to a human doing.

When you look at what evolved into the word job the definition does not get much better. It takes a distinctive nose dive into the abyss from there. The first is “a piece of work; especially: a small piece of work undertaken on order at a stated rate.”  There is nothing to indicate that this is a creative effort. It is something that is simply done without thought but mere reaction to an order. This is not something that we would normally want (when given thought to) to aspire to, yet here it is. This is what we do. We go to our jobs every day. Most of us do not go to work we go to a job. Work and job have become interchangeable in our society. This is not the truth of what work is supposed to be or mean.  

When we went to work it was different. Even the definition is different: “1: activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something: a: sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result b: the labor, task, or duty that is one's accustomed means of livelihood c: a specific task, duty, function, or assignment often being a part or phase of some larger activity”.  This shows the involvement of the total being – not only physically but mentally and yes in some cases a spiritual interaction. This is in sharp contrast to what a job is. A job is something to get done not necessarily to be involved in. It is the effect of some undefined effort to get an order done. It then becomes an issue of not what you are doing but how much you have done. Quality has become interchangeable with quantity. This is evident in our fast-food society where “super-sizing” is the key and how quickly it can be produced with the net results of those who consume want more through manipulation to crave (even though the initial was not good for them at all.)  It is the attitude of a person who is little more than a machine and therefore the job is de-humanizing.

This de-humanization is widespread. It has become a part of our language, and our thought patterns, as well as our reactions. We are human doings whose job function is to consume. Thus, our lives become a series of events and patterns that we no longer have control over.

"The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. True enough, robots do not rebel. But given man's nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become "Golems," they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life.” Erich Fromm – The Sane Society

(A Golem is a being that is created from the mud that has just enough mind to follow instructions exactly as they are stated.)  

To further illustrate the point, look at the concept of the assembly line, a major portion of the industrial revolution. Previously a series of workers would put together a product growing in skills and capabilities. As you arose through the skill levels of apprentice, to journeyman, to craftsman, you assumed more and more responsibility for the product and its eventual outcome. You were involved with the total aspect of what was being produced. The skill that was acquired had a reciprocating value. The individual added value to the skill in as much as the skill added value to the individual. Now you are lucky if you even know what it is that you are producing and for whom. You are not connected to the product nor do you even care. As long as you get your pay check so you can consume the next latest commodity and fund your version of the American Dream that is all that matters. Quality of your life is based upon what you posses and consume.

The assembly line removes the value of the individual worker and replaces them with an entity that does a job. You may never get to assemble the entire product or know what the product is. Your task is to place one part or series of parts on something that is passed along to another to add their parts to the product. What is required of you is not necessarily your skill but your ability to rapidly put parts on the product. Your position on the line is to function the same way throughout your day. It is a mindless routine. Numbers are the outcome – not quality for everyone. Just as a machine function you are to function. Just like a machine that becomes too expensive to maintain or no longer functions rapidly, you are replaceable. You are reduced to a machine-like function.

Production methods went from the factory floor, to the office complex, health care systems and then into our educational systems. Thought was unnecessary, production and results had taken its place so that we could simply get it done. It is not what you know or how skillfully you made the product, it is what you produce. It is not what you could apply but the results.

Grades were an indicator as to what you might possibly have learned and have become an indicator of how you could succeed in getting a job to produce.  This is evident in the schools today. The individual is not valued. What is valued is the test scores that students produce. Teachers are not really allowed to educate but rather are required to teach to a standard that all must attain to be deemed competent to get a job to produce. These are industrial testing terms to ensure that each part is identically functional to a particular purpose.

We have even gone so far as to name a department of the government the Department of Labor. The original meaning of labor as a noun is a task, a project; later exertion of the body; trouble, difficulty, hardship. This became the identifier of a class of humans known as laborers. Within the origins of labor as a verb it meant to perform manual or physical work; work hard; keep busy; take pains, strive and endeavor.

So, these terms have become the words that define what it has become to be a human being. But it just does not stop there.

Teachers are required to teach to the test (as much as everyone says they do not – they do) so that the results can be measured and replicated to produce the desired results for the students to enter the work force. The direction of education is no longer to help the individual attain better understanding to improve the world in which they live. The direction of education is to check off a list of requirements that will produce someone with the ability to fill a position within a large organization for the purpose of producing goods (whether intellectual or physical) – a job. It becomes just another thing to be done.  So creativity is not valued. It has a minor role in modern society as that society becomes more mechanized and industrialized.

Now that we have gone beyond the industrial revolution, we find ourselves in an age of information where those principles no longer hold value. Therefore, you have large bloated mega-industrial corporations who no longer add value but consume it. They have become obstinate, refusing to change and watch as their world slowly crumbles in front of them. Corporate leaders moan at the lack of creativity of the workers but foster a system that demands duplication, replication, and conformity. These are the very leaders that are in fact the cause of their own demise. Industrialists have created a system of support that cannot flex either in goods or in those responsible to produce their goods – because it was not a part of their culture to do so – it is not their job to do so. Their job is to make money.

But if you look at the beginnings of corporate rise to mega-industrial giants – the very thing that fueled that incredulous growth – is the very thing that they do not value in their culture. They have confused the machine and tools of production with the means of the existence of those items. They have reduced man to machine rather than elevating the position of man above machine as its causation. They have reversed the roles. That is why these institutions buy innovation rather than make it – then make it conform to their production models. They not only crush the competition in doing so but they crush the very spirit of innovation that would have kept them alive. Their mantra and religion are production at all costs – even to self in chasing just a little bit more profit. 

The opposite of creativity is consumption.

Once you have reversed the roles you negate the very thing that makes all of humanity different from the other creatures of the earth; the ability to be creative; the ability to think, and reason beyond a herd mentality. Uniformity is the very antithesis of human existence which is by nature diverse. Remove diversity and you have extinction. Nature shows us this at every turn. When you limit the gene pool, that part of nature becomes diseased, distorted, and weak. It can no longer produce so it dies out completely. 

“Have you ever met an unimaginative five-year old? Probably not. And when you were five, you probably had a dream. Maybe in the still of the night you thought you heard God or an inner voice speaking to you – calling you to a certain type of life and a special kind of work.

So, what happened? Well, life happened. Along the way, in our desire to be responsible, practical, and realistic adults, too many of us wildly imaginative kids lost touch with our creative abilities and gave up a commitment to translating our dreams into enjoyable and fulfilling work.” (From the introduction of No More Dreaded Mondays – pages 2-3)

What in fact does this all have to do with creativity? It points us in a direction that begs the questions: what is our purpose and why were we created? This is the elementary question that all humans ask. For most, this leads most to a belief in God (source) or some sort of philosophical and scientific approach to existence to find a purpose.

The very basis of our formative conception of a god/source is that the god/source is in fact – creative. In that act of creativity, according to the Judeo-Christian take on things, is a part of the image and likeness of God in whom we are supposedly made. Therefore, as logic and definition would have it – we are in fact creative by our very nature. We are by creation created to be diverse and creative. The problem is that we do not see God/Source as an active creative being in our world. We no longer see God/Source because we have negated the creative image of God into a controlling, vengeful entity for the purposes of controlling a population by those who have seized power. By allowing this to occur, we are destroying our own creativity. We have made God/Source into a religion rather than an experience that we come to begin to understand.

We have created a god in our own image and likeness – void of all creativity accepts in an extremely limiting profit-making enterprise, and we have created the means of our own destruction by the elimination of creativity in all the aspects of our lives. This contradiction is the outcome of trying to put a human being onto an assembly line process for replication.

 The problem is that a human is not programmable to function in the same way. It is by nature diverse within itself. It learns and considers experience differently from the human next to it. Humanity relates differently to all its experience not only from position but from influence of that position. Even to continue in the insistence that humanity is nothing more than a high functioning machine that is controllable through emotional manipulation, is to deny the fact that humanity has all the aspects of individual thought and assimilation of knowledge according to the design - intellect. Intellect and emotion are balancing conditions which when function together make for better existence. Therefore, it is impossible, though we continually try, to deny that humanity is creative and must be so by its very nature. Creativity is the fulcrum for emotion and intellect.

There is the infamous saying of Pablo Picasso “Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once they grow up.” Creativity is trained out of the child in order to make that ensuing adult into a controllable and obedient automatons that will perpetuate restrictive societies of profitable machines. 

If you follow the Judeo-Christian world view, and continuing in that same path of logic and reasoning we have begun to establish; it would then be logical and reasonable to say that to deny our creativity – or narrow it down – is to in fact deny God/Source and deny our very nature. In as much as God/Source is love and we are then supposed to be love – God is creative and we are supposed to be creative. 

The very act of creation is an act of love in that it holds nothing back from any entity. It is available to all without condition.  If we deny this then the only recourse for us is to have been created by a vindictive and harsh god. Since we believe that God is unconditional love, this cannot be true. Creativity is an act of love in that it allows one or the total society, when confronted by obstacles, problems, and/or unforeseen matters, the ability to come to solution or solutions to rectify those issues that confront us making for a better existence for all of creation. Can we pervert those solutions? Absolutely, have, and continue to do so.

We have been given all the ability, nature, and/or instinct by the very divine/source nature within us to affect the world creatively in love for love. We are not to lord it over the world but in love become creative forces so that the very source of our origin will become apparent to us all. If this then is the case, then Christians have an absolute obligation to be creative and imaginative. In the words of Francis A. Schaeffer that he used in the beginning of his collection of two essays in one volume called "Art and the Bible" - "The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars." Unfortunately, this is not what we find. Imagination is more than often mired in the mud or confined to an abysmal dungeon.

Creativity begs the question “why not?” It could be considered a case of willful ignorance in not wanting to know or being trained and constrained in maintaining the status quo that we do not plumb the depths of creativity. Because it at times can be an unrestrained process that makes individuals uneasy. It then lends itself to the very horrible words of “we have never done it that way before.” Fear plays a large part in those words. Creativity can be the unknown factor in that we are venturing into new and novel territory.

The new and novel should at times be approached with caution because we are just learning and not familiar with these sets of circumstances. It is part of the condition of humanity to preserve itself and thus has a fully functioning fight or flight reaction. Part of creativity is to begin to know so that we can move on to a better existence. Creativity is therefore an integral part of the scientific process of discovery.

 It would be too easy to point fingers at doctrinal admonitions against musical styles, worship patterns, dance, and ornamentations. Governments throughout history have fallen into the restrictive use and abuse of the creative to ensure its perpetual survival at all costs. But really that has little to do with the totality of creativity because creativity is at the heart and soul of human existence. It goes on even though it may be highly condemned and contained. Creativity is a form of communication and community.

The problem is that we have narrowed down the creative to a small segment of the population. We have intentionally made it a fringe element concerned with what we would mistakenly call leisure activities and non-essential elements. This has happened over many years and many generations. Historically there have been significant changes that have aided in the marginalizing the creative. There are historically many iconoclastic movements that violently limit creativity. My point of experience and reference is from the Christian perspective so that is where I will focus. I will at times refer to other religious, societal, and economic factors because they have needed insight into the subject.

Christians have abandoned creativity and imagination and in doing so have abandoned the driving force of the universe. Much like the parable of the prodigal son, Christianity has asked for its’ inheritance and has abused and misused it. Christians have become (for the most part) creatively bankrupt. We have yet to recognize we are feeding ourselves with far less than the animals (corporations/governments) we tend. Christians do not realize that everything that we do in some shape or another is creative. It is dismissed as nothing special. Useless arguments of words such as the Latin ex nihilo in assigning definitions of from nothing or out of nothing to again limit the creative aspect of humanity. Arguments that only God/Source can be creative and humanity cannot because humanity cannot make something out of nothing are misplaced.  

God/Source has placed within humanities hands the ability to come along other things and help them become what they were made to be. This through combining things in unique ways as to bring all of creation to higher levels of existence. That is the purpose of the phrase let us make humanity in our image and likeness.

Humanity was made from the dust of the ground and then breathed into. It was combining something that already existed into a unique entity that had not existed that way before. That is the example of creativity that we are to follow.

This is the other problem - failing to recognize the precious gift of creativity in the muck and slop of life. We are the ones that have devalued ourselves (with the help of others who have passed down the wrong thinking). We have thrown away the very thing that was given to us so that we could make life better for ourselves and others.

Creativity is the spark of life. It is how we were created to be. The key to this is revealed in the biblical account of the creation of man. It found in Genesis chapter 1, verse 28 states that God finished creating humanity by giving them specific instructions. God said to be fruitful and multiply. God said to fill the earth and take responsibility for all the living things of the earth. With that, God gave us the power of creativity. Creativity is a multifaceted tool that enables us to shape the things of earth for all our benefit. You cannot make use of anything without being creative in some way, shape or form. You must interact with it in some way. You act upon it and it reacts. That is creativity!

There is more to be said and more to be explored. This is the purpose of Imago. To find help find and realize the creative solutions for the betterment of all of creation.