Importance of Culture

[loseyourname]

How much of an influence does it have on your life? How much say do you have in it? Are you simply going to be your parents and your grandparents, or are you going to forge your own path and be your own person?

I think you all know my feelings on this. Culture is a trap, a brainwashing device that is divisive and factionalizing. If you must factionalize, at least do it based on personal preferences and viewpoints, not on a nearly unidentifiable genetic resemblance. I say learn everything you can, and experience everything you can. Never limit yourself in any way, and don't force your identity to fit in with tradition - create your own identity.

[spiral]

Individual identity is the most valuable possession of man. It is the essence of who a person is. One who does not have an individual identity, is not YET a “whole” person.
A person’s culture and religion form a great part of the person’s identity, however, it is the person’s grounded beliefs which make a person WHO he or she is. Our beliefs are what we live by, what we take actions and make choices upon. By “belief” I don’t necessarily mean religious belief. By “belief”, I mean what a person knows himself to be, and what a person knows/views the world to be.

[loseyourname]

Religion, culture, and politics are all indoctrination techniques that detract from a person's individuality and make you a little more like the crowd.

[spiral]

so you shun everything except for yourself?

so what do you have left to play with?

I'm not saying that these things make up who you are, but they allow you to excersise who you are.

[loseyourname]

I don't shun anything. I give all things equal opportunity. I don't simply stick with what I was born with and what I was taught by others. I learn for myself and I make my own choices.

That said, I don't identify with any religion, nor any culture, nor any political belief system. I don't need a spelled-out codification to pidgeonhole my worldview and make it neat and tidy to pass on to the kids.

And about that. I don't give a xxxx if my kids are anything like me. They'll have my genes; from that point forward, they can be whoever they want to be and they can be with whoever they want to be. They can believe whatever they want to believe.

[Anonymouse]

Re: Importance of Culture

Originally posted by loseyourname How much of an influence does it have on your life? How much say do you have in it? Are you simply going to be your parents and your grandparents, or are you going to forge your own path and be your own person?

I think you all know my feelings on this. Culture is a trap, a brainwashing device that is divisive and factionalizing. If you must factionalize, at least do it based on personal preferences and viewpoints, not on a nearly unidentifiable genetic resemblance. I say learn everything you can, and experience everything you can. Never limit yourself in any way, and don't force your identity to fit in with tradition - create your own identity.

What you are referring to as "culture" is more like a group. Culture is more than a group. No two people in the group are alike. Everyone knows that I am a freak for individuality. I love my culture since it has made me who I am. While I recognize my past, it does not hold me back from any future. No culture is ever isolated and all rely on interaction, but for the most part each takes some thing from others and adds it to his own. With that said, it is of my choosing to marry within my culture, not because I have to, but because I want to. There are many Armenians who do not necessarily abide by this, nor should they, it is only a matter of individual choice, precisely maintaining our individuality, which you are so fond of.

Such blanket generalizations such as "culture is a trap" ignores the fact that even you are a part of a certain culture, whether you might be conscious or not. Language, music, art, they are all culture. Different races have different cultures for cultures are simply an outward manifestation of any given people. If a certain people create a certain culture, then that culture is a reflection of those people. If those people disappear so does their culture, it is only logical. You stating that culture is a trap is tantamount to what Marx believed that our thoughts are merely a product of our class, and culture and family are nothing more than divisions holding us down. This ignores the fact that culture did not make man, but man made culture, for culture and ideas to exist there must be someone to think of them and express them, and culture is nothing more than the creativity of the human individual. The masses do not make culture, individuals do. There people who are culture creating, and there are people who are culture bearing. Most of the people fall in the latter category.

Language was just never adequate for anyone to express their ideas so culture takes other forms, of music and art, and certain myths and folklore, which contain morals and traditions handed down. The past, present and the future are riddled with culture and fused into one and man always finds a way to express himself within that given culture, through language, art forms, science, technology, customs. Expression is equivalent to culture.

Your assertion if taken to its logical consequences would make man nothing more than a silent dupe not able to express his individuality and just a grazing animal that eats and xxxxs.

[loseyourname]

I'm not denying the importance of culture in general as a tool for identification. But culture as indicated by literary and musical tastes, asthetic preferences, and political views is far different from culture as determined solely by ethnicity. It is that which I have a problem with, because it is not individually determined; it is based entirely on circumstances of parenthood and geography. I'm not naive enough to believe that all culture can be escaped, or even that all culture is a trap. I will admit that I am guilty of hyperbole in saying that. Even so, I am right to say that culture based entirely on ethnicity, as well as parentally indoctrinated political and religious beliefs take away from individuality and furthermore, encourage factionalization and are divisive. They lead to segregation that is ill-informed and to hate and vitriol.

Look, I know I've been awfully hard on you, and I know that you aren't that bad of a guy. I really don't care who you marry, and I'm glad that you are proud of what your ancestors did. You should be; just don't let it dominate your thinking. I'm sure it doesn't.

[Anonymouse]

Originally posted by loseyourname I'm not denying the importance of culture in general as a tool for identification. But culture as indicated by literary and musical tastes, asthetic preferences, and political views is far different from culture as determined solely by ethnicity. It is that which I have a problem with, because it is not individually determined; it is based entirely on circumstances of parenthood and geography. I'm not naive enough to believe that all culture can be escaped, or even that all culture is a trap. I will admit that I am guilty of hyperbole in saying that. Even so, I am right to say that culture based entirely on ethnicity, as well as parentally indoctrinated political and religious beliefs take away from individuality and furthermore, encourage factionalization and are divisive. They lead to segregation that is ill-informed and to hate and vitriol.

Look, I know I've been awfully hard on you, and I know that you aren't that bad of a guy. I really don't care who you marry, and I'm glad that you are proud of what your ancestors did. You should be; just don't let it dominate your thinking. I'm sure it doesn't.

Of course when you say "culture", you can say the same for family. It is nothing but a tool to divide and factionalize. Actually, perhaps the most violent thing to divide and factionalize humans is politics, not culture, and we come to believe that culture can't be free from political matrimony. Politics is the pastime that thrives off dividing people into races, cultures, ideologies, genders, and religions. Is it any wonder why minorities vote Democrat? Or Christians vote Republican? Divide and rule. I see politics and culture as two different things.

My parents have never told me to hate other people or other cultures, they never raised me that way, and I'm sure neither did many other Armenian families. I don't deny some hardcore nationalists would, but that would pale in comparison.

For the most part, our culture shapes us as individuals, and certain attitudes and mentalities are conveyed in langauge, which I consider to be sacred. I don't see it as haphazard words, but as certain things expressed as a peoples' consciousness. When you learn to speak the language you learn something about those people, for example, romance languages, you learn that Spanish are a very warm people and that warmth is conveyed in their language.

Prior to Rome overrunnin the barbarians and creationg the factional groups and such, Athanaric of the Visigoths stated, "I have authority, not power".

[loseyourname]

There are warm Spanish people, and there are cold Spanish people. The same is true of every race.

Of course I agree with you about partisan politics. Nothing angers me more. But much of that is based on culture. Here in the US, there are very deep undercurrents relating mostly to religion and to what are referred to as "family values" that republicans have pandered to and democrats have largely ignored. There was a decent piece about that in the opinion section of the Times today.

I'm not trying to accuse the Armenian people, or any people, of narrowmindedness or ethnocentricity. I would never stereotype like that. There are individual who suffer these maladies, and there are individuals who do not. The ethnicity of these individuals makes little difference, though certainly there are some, notably Jews and Muslims (note, a religious distinction, not a racial one) that are typically more insular and divisive than others.

[Anonymouse]

Originally posted by loseyourname There are warm Spanish people, and there are cold Spanish people. The same is true of every race.

Of course I agree with you about partisan politics. Nothing angers me more. But much of that is based on culture. Here in the US, there are very deep undercurrents relating mostly to religion and to what are referred to as "family values" that republicans have pandered to and democrats have largely ignored. There was a decent piece about that in the opinion section of the Times today.

I'm not trying to accuse the Armenian people, or any people, of narrowmindedness or ethnocentricity. I would never stereotype like that. There are individual who suffer these maladies, and there are individuals who do not. The ethnicity of these individuals makes little difference, though certainly there are some, notably Jews and Muslims (note, a religious distinction, not a racial one) that are typically more insular and divisive than others.

Problems between ethnic groups never existed, since prior to the rise of nation-states it was a world of interaction.

Jews and Arabs are in conflict due to politics. Prior to World War I there was no such problem there, but when you introduce politics, which is really mass mindedness, then you have the problems you have, therefore making their problems not religions, but political which uses religion to deceive. You go there and ask any Arab why they hate Jews, and most will say because they bulldozed their homes and shot their fathers.