I think it is important that I talk about the pros and cons of any culture. But first I think we need to look at some definitions of culture to outline our perception of it so that we are on the same page.
Culture (Noun): the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group.
Culture (Noun): all the knowledge and values shared by a society.
Culture (Noun): the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization.
Culture (Noun): a highly developed state of perfection.
All right, let us see if we can condense this a bit. Key words that pop out to me are: tastes (opinions), knowledge, values, attitudes, behaviors, and perfection. I think a good way to look at this is from a small to large scale. On the most basic level there is what you have as your unique set of beliefs, attitudes, tastes, and general ‘youness’ that resides in your brain. Then you scale out a step and there you have the groups that you belong to, work, family, one of possible many stereotypes i.e. surfer, gamer, or ditsy blond. And each one of the groups that you “belong” to has its own set of beliefs, attitudes, and tastes. Then you scale out another step and you have location that plays a part. All of the people and groups from Georgia will be different from the people and groups from Oregon. They will have different beliefs, attitudes, tastes from their stereotypical counterpart from a different area. Then you step out to a scale of country and you have one more group called America with its own set of beliefs, attitudes, tastes. Things that we all (most) share in common with each other as Americas like, freedom of speech, same federal laws, same television channels, and same love of football. Then you can still zoom out even further and see that on a Philosophical level many people from Canada, America, Mexico, and Europe all think with a distinct “Western thought” born from Greece. Yet again we can see grouping people together on a larger scale. Then to end with, there is what we as humans like to think that we all agree on. Most if not all societies on earth today do value human life. We have that in common. There are other things that as humans we would and do agree on and have the same beliefs, attitudes, and tastes in.
Why are we so different? Yet why are there so many “eternal truths” that can and do bind us together? I think that there are two things battling each other. One is the eternal truths that do exist such as math, love, guilt, and kindness. The other is our (as humans) linernessness. We as humans can only be in one place at one time. Each thing that happens to us shapes us and prepares us to make another decision only based on previous experience and knowledge. Everything that happens in one day directly affects the next. Since no two people are in the same place at the same time, we are all inevitably different from each other. Then you factor in the difference in our genetic makeup and how we react to each said experience we even further diverge in our uniqueness and choices. The eternal truths are in my mind the essence of making the best decision and emitting a general attitude of truth.
The problem is that when we are affected by our previous decisions and choices so we inevitably make poor choices because we are liner and are susceptible to emotions and negative feelings. We can’t rewind and do things differently. We need to know what the best thing to do is. We need to see what that looks like to live it. Then we need to make that our culture, our beliefs, attitudes, and tastes. In order to reach for perfection we need to see what it looks like. If left to our own devises we will not end at perfection, we will only die. On the personal level as well as at the humanity level. We need someone who lives outside of time. Someone that is not bound by the linear constricts of life as a mere human. We need someone that knows all of the eternal truths and is able to use them in every instance in the best way possible. Enter Jesus.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment