On Cultural Bias and Misperception

There is a tendency in us all to follow the "mental map" we have drawn from past experience without any "reality testing" against what is before us in the moment. A friend of mine has pointed out repeatedly to me how the media, military, politicians, et al., when they consider life in the Balkans, and Serbia in particular, persist in repeating and reinforcing the same cultural misperceptions over and over again. While some call this "media bias" when they are talking about other things, like Republicans and Democrats, right wing/left wing domestic politics, my friend sees this as a more culturally encompassing bias that affects us all, not just the media.

As with Serbia, I see this same kind of "media bias" -- really a more widespread cultural/civilizational bias -- in many of the stories about places like Russia and the Middle East, as well. I'm sure, if I had more experience of China and South East Asia, I'd see it there too. It's like when a detective in real-life watches a detective show on TV. He's invariably disappointed by the lack of realism. The rest of us eat it up.

As Levi-Strauss (the literary critic, not the blue-jeans maker) would want to point out, there are some "deep structure" archetypes at work in our fallen psyches.

And look at what people in "the East" say about us, likewise. These deep archetypes also exist quite evidently in many Russian, Middle Eastern and Serbian views of America and "the West," too.

This is the mixed-blessing of being an adherent of Orthodoxy in North America, we have a somewhat privileged perspective into matters on each side and yet we are truly bound to no side. Witness the 1978 commencement speech Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (of thrice-blessed memory) delivered at Harvard. He spoke against the West as he had against the Soviet State. The result: nobody listened to him anymore.

The Lord Jesus quoted Ps. 110 (KJV) "The Lord said to my Lord ..." in answer to the Pharisees question about whether the Messiah was Son of David; and the Pharisees resolved not to question Him any more. And not only were they silent, but their silence proved fatal. They devised how they might put Jesus to death, since His teaching did not fit with the "mental map" of their righteous convictions. And Pilate asked, "What is Truth?" He wanted to know, but his question was wrongly phrased. Not "what" but "who."

The Lord, for His part, made no such renunciation of their being, and reminded His Roman judge that all power is "from above,"; and ultimately He said, even as He Himself was in the throes of dying on the Cross, "Father, forgive them."

His "culture" and "civilization" was that of the Heavenly Kingdom, it seems.

God grant us also such grace in the name of His longsuffering Son!