Culture (Part 2)
Chapter from “Culture Is Not Your Friend: Sex, Death, Drugs & Madness”.
Culture And Privilege
“What is all this fuss about? Our culture is just fine. Maybe not perfect, but what is?”
And do you know why some people still think this way?
Privilege.
To some, culture is like a mother’s hug – warm and comforting. Chances are that these people enjoy a high level of privilege within their culture. These are the rich and the powerful.
To others, culture is a straitjacket. Sometimes the straps are too tight, and at other times they can move rather comfortably in it. You could say that these people enjoy a medium level of privilege. They are the middle class.
For those with the least amount of privilege, culture is a fibreglass condom suit – highly restrictive, uncomfortable and itchy as hell. These are the poor, the outcasts and the pariahs of society.
Conservative Cultures
“Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.” – Timothy Leary
Conservatives either have privilege, or they believe that one day they might rise to a position of privilege, which is why they seek to maintain culture as it is.
A conservative culture will resist change and treat progress as a virus. New thoughts and new ways of doing things are perceived as a threat to the established order. Share on X You do not have to go further back than the 60’s hippie culture and the massive backlash that spawned to see it action.
The privileged conservative classes will occasionally under heavy pressure allow upgrades to their culture, but not without a fight. The end of slavery, voting rights for women, equal marriage and so on, are but upgrades to a faulty system.
Trying to rescue a conservative culture is like trying to plug the holes in a sinking boat, where the captain is enthusiastically shouting, “everyone get on board”.
The privileged are seated on the top deck and giving their orders to the captain. On the main deck, the middle classes are either frantically running around fixing leaks or climbing over each other to get to higher ground. Below deck, the underprivileged are drowning.
The upgrades – the plugging of holes is but a temporary solution. Eventually the boat will sink. The culture will vanish. Just like these did:
The Khmer Empire of Cambodia
The Anasazi in New Mexico, United States
The Olmec Civilization in Mexico
The Aksumite Empire of Ethiopia
The Minoans in Crete
The Nabateans of Jordan
A living culture is a progressive culture. It not only allows change, but actively encourages it. For to be alive is to learn, grow and evolve. Share on X For some reason this path of progress seems difficult for a culture to maintain. Maybe because culture, however progressive it may seem at first, has a built in kill switch that collapses it into conservative mode.
Or, as I have hinted at earlier, maybe culture is not your operating system, but a bug. A virus infecting your survival-empathy-logic operating system, which is why we keep getting all these contradictory and confusing messages.
Addiction To The Culture Virus
Culture is a virus. It distorts your view of the world and destroys your capacity to think independently. Share on X
Most carriers do not know how badly they are infected. Even when they become aware of the infection they will defend the virus, rather than fight it, as fighting a virus is notoriously difficult. Especially when one is still under its influence.
Personally, I like my virus. I like democracy, human rights and personal freedom, but I also know that these are ideals which the virus has installed in me. If I had contracted another culture virus I would probably think differently about these things.
So the trick is not to defend the culture or become attached to it, but to see beyond it.
Is Culture Harmful?
You are born into a culture and raised within a culture. The culture virus that you contracted at birth, and that has been breeding in you for decades has left its mark on you, whether you like it or not.
You can tell yourself that you do not like how you have been raised, or what you have been taught to believe. You can leave a highly disturbed and oppressive cult which preaches that they are the true believers and that all others will go to Hell.
But the cult will not leave you. Because whatever you do, and wherever you go, there will still be a nagging little doubt in the back of your mind that asks,
“Did I do the right thing by leaving, or am I going to Hell?”
Also, the words cult and culture share the same root.
from the Latin word ‘cultus’, meaning:
“care, labor; cultivation, culture; worship, reverence”
from the Latin word ‘cultūra’ (“cultivation; culture”),
from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia)
The keywords here are cultivation, worship and colonisation. Our minds are colonized by the culture virus and cultivated into worshipping certain ideals and values. Share on X
© Merlyn Gabriel Miller
