Louisville Process Theology Network

Why We Need Cultural Translators

The economic situation of the last decade “was almost
akin to that of the European medieval church. Although almost nobody in the
congregation really understood the financial Latin in which (financial) service
was being conducted, few rebelled, because they were receiving blessings. The
congregation was mystified, but it accepted that the priests were the keepers of
the faith …

Therein lies a larger lesson of the financial crisis.
The modern world is littered with pockets of specialist knowledge. Indeed, these
silos are proliferating, for as the pace on innovation speeds up, and spreads
farther and farther around the globe, our world is becoming more technologically
complex by the day.

Just think of the advances begin made in genetic
engineering, environmental science, telecommunications, and energy to name a
few. In theory, as these innovations spread, we are all being connected more
closely to one another. In practice, though, innovation is causing as much
fragmentation as unity.

After all, only a tiny pool of people today have the
educational training or technological knowledge to truly understand the details
of some of these silos; ever fewer have the ability to hop between silos.

Alongside the need for technical experts, therefore, we
also need generalists who can act as cultural watchdogs and translators. The
world is critically short today of these cultural translators. Of course, the
media might appear to be charged with this role, but in practical terms, the
media’s resources are increasingly squeezed, limiting the time reporters have to
do the kind of in-depth digging that is required. As for the politicians and the
regulators who are tasked with oversight, they are too often compromised by
conflicts of interest and are at any rate dangerously thin…. 

How far (reform) measures will go is a question the
public must ask…..

The story of the 2008 financial crisis is not only a
story of hubris, greed, and regulatory failure, but one of these deep troubling
problems of social science and technical silos. If we do not use the crisis as
an occasion to seriously tackle these problems, then it is a crisis we may be
doomed to revisit, albeit in a new innovative form.”

 From the Preface to “Fools’ Gold” by Gillian Tett.