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When did we all start agreeing that some amorphous force called 'culture' is out there compelling individuals to act badly? It seems like an extremely convenie
by clavalle 13y ago
When did we all start agreeing that some amorphous force called 'culture' is out there compelling individuals to act badly?
It seems like an extremely convenient gremlin. It can mean almost anything in any context and can act as both a sink and a fountain for blame.
- andrewflnr 13y agoMost people are mostly products of their culture. It's very possible to rise above it, but it takes work, and you first have to figure out which of the values and attitudes you've already absorbed, from culture and other sources, need to be changed. This doesn't compel anyone to do anything, but if culture makes a certain behavior the low-energy path, that's worth some blame. Individual responsibility to get out of the low-energy path is a separate concern.
- clavalle 13y agoI don't buy it. I think 'culture' was, at one point, a convenient label, a shorthand, for very complex phenomena. A label that only had significant meaning at a macro level where individual variables are smoothed out and even then should be suspect as a concept sturdy enough to build other ideas. It is as if we conveniently labelled something 'x' and then ended up talking about how the angle of the two lines crossing affected the underlying idea we're actually referring to. A word that can mean anything has no meaning.