Friday, July 23, 2010

Kissinger wisdom

“Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.”
-Henry Kissinger

Monday, July 19, 2010

Cultural contrast offers a form of redemption

Wherever you live there's a predominant culture--a common system of values, beliefs, and behaviors that informally govern people's living. This culture can be your national culture, regional culture, city culture, religious culture, racial culture, academic culture, or even family culture. The less people travel, study, and otherwise interact with different ideas, the more their cultural beliefs become reinforced. And even for those who do enjoy the benefits of travel and intellectual development, such people are more likely to socialize, work, and live with others who hold their beliefs. For example, the Washington DC metro area is full of educated, experienced, well-traveled people who do those things because of what they value and/or how they were socialized. Many of these people live in the same neighborhoods and have similar work, vacation, shopping, and leisure patterns. Nevertheless, being influenced by different cultural systems does not necessarily equate to adopting their beliefs and behaviors. But the stronger the influence and the longer the exposure to the culture, the more likely we are to begin adopting the thinking, the attitudes, and the practices of that culture, for better or for worse. A person who works with cynics, has cynics for neighbors, goes to college with cynics, and socializes with cynics on the weekend will likely develop some cynical tendencies, unless deliberate efforts are made to the contrary. And that's why living a multi-cultured life can be very beneficial for helping one to retain his/her values.

Let's consider three different cultures: work, church, and home. Within each of these systems there are different norms for what is considered good behavior. There are different philosophies for how to appropriately interact with others, spend your time, participate in the political sphere, and basically anything else you can think of. If you have no existing beliefs or concepts about a particular aspect of human experience, these systems will certainly try to influence you. And when one of these systems conflicts with your personal beliefs, it can require a great deal of effort to counteract the effects of that system. For example, if you work in an aggressive and abrasive environment, it will require significant personal commitment and effort to not become like your aggressive and abrasive co-workers. One of the most effective resources in combating unwanted cultural influence is active exposure to different cultures. An aggressive work culture can, in part, be countered through active exposure to a patient and peaceful religious or family culture. An intolerant family culture can be countered through a compassionate religious culture. We can temper our natures by keeping company with the people who we wish to become like. And entertaining multiple circles of association also helps us to avoid the group think that occurs from consistently being surrounded by people who believe the same things.

So if your work culture, your religious culture, and your family culture are relatively similar it's likely that you'll spend your time in those systems being reinforced and re-indoctrinated over and over again, with a decreased capacity to realize what elements of those systems are not founded in truth...Then again, if you've left your own cultural cradle and gained a glimpse of something else that permanently opens your eyes, you may never again be completely comfortable with swallowing your own culture in its entirety.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Our human experience is fleeting and our perspective so limited, but we can know love.

"Again and again, however we know the landscape of love
and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,
and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others
fall: again and again the two of us walk out together
under the ancient trees, lie down again and again
among the flowers, face to face with the sky." 


-Rainer Maria Rilke