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"Our culture" really means "the ways in which we've become accustomed to doing things (because reasons), and which we believe everyone else should recognize as
by dctoedt 2y ago
"Our culture" really means "the ways in which we've become accustomed to doing things (because reasons), and which we believe everyone else should recognize as an entitlement for us."
Likewise, "our culture is dying" seems like an overly-dramatic catch phrase for, "we don't like it that circumstances are changing and reducing our ability to do things in the manner to which we've become accustomed and are now entitled."
EDIT: As another commenter correctly says, it's not a great idea to drive vultures into extinction. My comment is about people whinging about it in a way that suggests it's all about them.
- exe34 2y agoThis point of view isn't common, get used to it!
- amenhotep 2y agoPeople in valuing intangible things for not obviously rational reasons that can be easily dismissed if you approach the entire world with an attitude of smug cynicism shock
- dctoedt 2y agoValuing intangible things ≠ whinging when those intangibles are no longer adaptive to circumstances.
- b112 2y agoOne thing that really bothers me, is a frozen culture. For example, Native Canadians would have a changed culture by now, 500 years after we showed up. Before our arrival, there was war between Native nations, cultural change due to trade and new inventions, and so on. Unless people believe that Natives didn't have new ideas, this is clearly so. And Native history shows change! To imagine that 500 years later, no music, language, culture, technology would have changed, is a massive disservice to both the intellect and capabilities of those peoples. Yet we enable things such as unrestrained hunting, and even whale hunting, for cultural reasons. As if a healthy Native nation wouldn't stop hunting endangered species! Come on! So yes, static "this is the way it was" is a load of hurtful outcomes. For all we know, Natives might have invented our tech by now, had we not intervened.
- bobthepanda 2y ago> As if a healthy Native nation wouldn’t stop hunting endangered species! The North American megafauna didn’t disappear all by themselves. More recently, the Maori certainly made some species go extinct in New Zealand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Zealand_species_extinct_in_the_Holocene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Zealand_species_ex... If you’re going to recognize that natives/first nations/etc. have agency then we have to accept the good and the bad instead of infantilizing them according to some fantasy ideal.
- b112 2y agoThat wasn't my meaning. We have hunting quotas, and attempt to mitigate over fishing, and so on. Yes, we aren't perfect, but we try. My point was, if a contempary Native nation existed, had modern agriculture methods, and was able to subsist without hunting? I suspect they would self regulate as we do.
- pbj1968 2y agoWell, given as they couldn’t come up with a functional wheel on their own… highly doubtful.
- b112 2y agoYou need a few things to care about wheels. Some sort of idle class with free time, domesticated draft animals, and an industrial base. Basically, people need to stop moving around and hunting to live, which means crops and domesticated food/work animals. And large cities for a strong industrial base. There were few places where all that came together. Maybe the Incans? But they also has waterways and slaves. But I agree, the timing was short.
- sungho_ 2y agoYou seem to think that the only value of something is its practicality
- drawkward 2y agoMonocultures are fragile.
- ericd 2y agoIf you read the article itself, it's probably also just generally not a great idea to drive vultures into extinction.
- dctoedt 2y ago> it's probably also just generally not a great idea to drive vultures into extinction. On that we definitely agree! My comment is about people making it all about them.
- i_am_a_peasant 2y agoThis tbh
- Boogie_Man 2y agoCultural and religious traditions bind us to the past and the future.
- geraneum 2y ago> "Our culture" really means "the ways in which we've become accustomed to doing things (because reasons), and which we believe everyone else should recognize as an entitlement for us." This could be the laziest definition of culture that I’ve read so far.
- dctoedt 2y agoIt's a translation of the word as used in context. I suppose I could have added "Here," to be more clear that it's not a definition.
- geraneum 2y agoRight, this could be the laziest translation (to English?) of the word culture in any context, that I’ve read so far. There, I fixed it.
- dctoedt 2y ago"Laziest" — you misspelled concise, right? Or I guess you meant succinct.
- dctoedt 2y agoToday's Pearls Before Swine comic is relevant concerning "translation": One of the characters has a "magic translation box" to translate "politicianish" into "the truth." I did something similar in my original comment above. https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2024/05/05 https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2024/05/05